30,000 mile service question

[Bob24]

I am fast approaching the 30K mark on my 07 M45 and the dealer wants $499.98 for the service. In looking at the list of things they do there seems to be a lot of stuff that I don't really need. I just changed my wipers do I don't need them, I swap out winter and summer tires so that takes care of the rotation. I just had some brake work done as well.

I have a local shop the specializes in imports that I trust. I am leaning towards taking the car there and have only the services I need performed a la carte.

My question is what services should be done now?

[TheRealNap0le0n]

all of them.... it ends up being more expensive a la carte... the main part of the 30k is the coolant service, diff/ trans service etc...

i work at a nissan dealer, trust me its more expensive a la carte

[M45Runner]

If you do not plan to keep the car for more than 3-5 years, I would just do the coolant flush and oil/filter change at the local shop and do the rest (replace air filter and in cabin filter) and inspect everything on the list for schedule 1 (The premium is an over kill).

But, if you want to keep it longer, it might worth doing all specified in the schedule 1, unless you want to get your hands dirty and do them all minus the differential oil.

[M45Caliber]

I beg to differ with the Nissan employee, but ala carte at the Infiniti dealer was cheaper. $649 for the 30 K service -- what I had done ala carte and the costs associated were: (notice I had MORE services performed for LESS total cost).

oil/filter.............................$39.95Air Filter............................$19.00 (installed myself - takes 2 minutes)cabin filter.........................$85.00Coolant flush.....................$120.00Trans fluid drain/fill............$80.00rear diff fluid drain/fill.........$90.00Brake fluid exchange.........$100.00total:................................$535.00

DIscount Tires rotates my tires for freewiper blades come from autozone when needed, dictated by performance not miles.

[TheRealNap0le0n]

I beg to differ with the Nissan employee, but ala carte at the Infiniti dealer was cheaper. $649 for the 30 K service -- what I had done ala carte and the costs associated were: (notice I had MORE services performed for LESS total cost).

oil/filter.............................$39.95Air Filter............................$19.00 (installed myself - takes 2 minutes)cabin filter.........................$85.00Coolant flush.....................$120.00Trans fluid drain/fill............$80.00rear diff fluid drain/fill.........$90.00Brake fluid exchange.........$100.00total:................................$535.00

DIscount Tires rotates my tires for freewiper blades come from autozone when needed, dictated by performance not miles.

a 30k at my dealer comes in around $500 care to rethink your math

[loystock]

30K Service, Schedule 1 mainly involves - engine oil and filter replacement; tire rotation, engine air filter and cabin air filter replacement. The rest are fluid level top off and inspection.

At Beshoff Infiniti in San Jose, CA the 30K Schedule 1 is $299 (+ $159 for optional sear filter) while Premium is $749 (+ $159 for optional sear filter). I let the shop do Schedule 1 (for warranty purposes) then do the rest on my own to match or exceed what's called for in the premium package.

[EcstaSPT]

I would do what loy said, oil change, air filter, tires, inspect fluids and brake pads. As you get closer to 60k then changing those other fluids becomes more important.

[marlin29311]

a 30k at my dealer comes in around $500 care to rethink your math

Did you even read what he posted? He said that at his local Infiniti dealer, the 30k 'package' was $649, compared to the $535 a la carte...Seems cheaper to me...

At lot of stuff can be cut out - $85 for a cabin air filter? BS! You can buy the filter for like $15 online and do it yourself in 15 min...

If you don't want to do the fluid stuff yourself, then have the dealer take care of that, but as for the small stuff, definatly do it yourself - it's the exact same thing, and costs you a ton less!

[palincal]

Frontier Infiniti in San Jose is charging $900 for 30K service. It includes new drive belts. They didn't show any other cheaper option.

Is there any need to change the drive belts at 30K? Seems excessive. If the belts don't have any visible cracks then why change at 30k?

[TheRealNap0le0n]

Frontier Infiniti in San Jose is charging $900 for 30K service. It includes new drive belts. They didn't show any other cheaper option.

Is there any need to change the drive belts at 30K? Seems excessive. If the belts don't have any visible cracks then why change at 30k?

factory replacement is 20k IIRC but really its up to you when you change em...

depends on driving conditions and weather etc

Did you even read what he posted? He said that at his local Infiniti dealer, the 30k 'package' was $649, compared to the $535 a la carte...Seems cheaper to me...

At lot of stuff can be cut out - $85 for a cabin air filter? BS! You can buy the filter for like $15 online and do it yourself in 15 min...

If you don't want to do the fluid stuff yourself, then have the dealer take care of that, but as for the small stuff, definatly do it yourself - it's the exact same thing, and costs you a ton less!

labor included and not all cabin air filters are 15mins tasks.. some ppl arent comfortable taking their dash apart to get to it.

im not defending one point or another, im just saying.

also at 30k my dealer is doing fluid drain and refills. not just top offs

[loystock]

Both Schedules 1 and 2 call for drive belt inspection only at 60K miles and then every 15K miles thereafter. Replace as needed. Since there are times I drive long distances, I'd rather have them replaced at 60K and not to worry about it.

To those in the SFO Bay Area, Beshoff Infiniti, though relatively new, is top rated right now in sales and service. I bought my cars from Peninsula and Niello and the sales process went smoothly but maintenance service at 'Pen' was awful. Frontier is no better. Frontier did the 60K in my Q but a day after the service. the idler pulley failed and my car was stuck with them for almost a month while waiting for parts. By the time they replaced it, my battery was dead and they would like to charge premium to replace it. I said just 'jump' it and I'll replace the battery myself. Two months ago, I needed an ABS relay. Beshoff was willing to sell to me at 15% discount but they don't have it in stock. So they referred me to Frontier. The parts guy at Frontier padded the price by $10 over MSRP. He only lowered the price to MSRP when I showed him the printout of the part cost from IoS.

Sorry for the rant. I just want to give you the reasons why I buy parts from Joe of IoS. At 20% discount, it's very hard to beat. With the additional 5% off extended until mid-July, I'll be buying more parts this week. I just got a shipment from them a week ago.

[jedgington]

The nearest Infiniti dealer to me is 2 hours away. I have a Nissan dealer 5 minutes away where I have taken my car for non-warranty work (oil changes, brakes, etc.) in the past. Today, I had the 30k service performed by them. Here is what I paid, for what it's worth:

(1) 15208-9E000 oil filter, oil, antifreeze, (1) 11810-8J102 valve assy, (1) 49001-OC air filter, labor = $268.80

transmission fluid exchange = $70.44

front differential service & lube = $45.25

rear differential service & lube = $42.00

transfer case service & lube = $57.65

TOTAL (with tax) = $524.72

I did not replace the cabin air filter as I just had it replaced at 20k. Front brake pads were still ok, rears were replaced this past fall. This also included a tire rotation.

[loystock]

Are you sure they did a transmission fluid exchange? I've never heard of an ATF exchange, especially on an M, for $70. The 06 M requires Nissan Matic-S (replacement for Matic-J) and each quart at MSRP is $10.82. The cheapest Matic-S I got was from IoS at $7.99/quart. The M needs at least 11 quarts of ATF for the fluid exchange. Also prior to fluid exchange, ATF flush is normally performed, which is an additional cost. Assuming they used Castrol Transmax J, the price is still unrealistic. IMO, they only did a drain and refill (@ 4 quarts).

[jedgington]

It's labeled as "Transmission Fluid Exchange (Complete)". But, you're probably right, or they only charged me for the drain and refill, b/c the itemized list shows only (4) Matic-S @ 8.11 each.