Elare

I had clanking in the rear, and the dealer said that axle nuts needed to be changed, which set me back a bit over $100 (I'm in MD). Just wonderin' - did they screw me over in price, and did the axle nuts need to be changed (I thought they can be just tightened? I don't really know what I'm talking about, though) ? Thx!

ScrapeApe

Axle nuts are $4/ea from Honda. Dial 911. You have been robbed.

jeggy

labor is free?

iam7head

most of the dealer will do a "courtesy" job on the nuts, if you purchase the car there, or a repeating customer there.

74 dollar per hour is what normal price and torquing the nut takes no time if you have a lift and air compressor.

labor and overhead are high but not that high

SenderGreen

I agree labor has a $ value. I do think $100.00 is kind of steep though. I think an hour of dealership labor is around $86.00. It has been a while so that may be off, but I seem to recall this what they like to charge to "hook a car up to the computers" for diagnosis, the equivalent to one labor hour.
Even with parts and labor being paid fully by the customer I don't see how this could possibly cost a $100 unless they did more than just remove, grease, and re-torque the nut. I think there are actually two versions of the service news with regard to the axle/spindle nuts on the S2000. One (the more recent I believe) is more involved and requires more disassembly than the other, but does not state the revised 220 ft-lb torque spec.
Assuming they did the easier one, it should have taken a dealership about 15 min or less even to perform. Also although it is not the same as a Recall or warranty repair many dealerships choose to perform TSB (I guess this one is technically just Service News Bulletin) work gratis. I'm sure some consideration goes into it depending on the complexity/time of the work and parts required. This one I would think would be a no brainer for a dealership to perform for free. It would cost the dealership next to nothing in labor or parts and the end result would likely be very happy customer.
I don't think the axle/spindle nuts even cost $4.00, closer to $2.00 a piece (90305-SD4-003). I did mine myself and the Honda parts actually just gave the parts for free.

EDIT: No lift used, car would be on the ground. No air tools really required either (they would probably help though ). This one would be super easy for a dealership. It was pretty easy for me except for the brute force aspect of breaking one of the axle nuts free.
I think all you need:
36mm Socket
Breaker Bar
Grease
New Spindle nuts
Torque Wrench that measures up to 220ft lbs. (or 181 ft-lbs. if you're going that route)

iam7head

i took my wheels off when i did mine, the cap was so snugged fit i cant get it off without scratching my wheel(as it today they are scratch free, MY00 btw )

not sure it's a good idea to do it on the ground, since you take off the nut the axle could move a tad.

just get a new nut, you can't stack those over and over again without breaking the "crown"

SenderGreen

I just went by how Billman250 said how to do it. Plus if it's in the air you are essentially using the drivetrain to hold the wheel in place. So you would be applying however much torque required to break the nut free to your diff and tranny also.

I agree. EDIT: nevermind I get it now.

I thought about how long it should take a dealership to do this some more, isn't this one of the things any pit crew could do in seconds?

I agree with that too. They are much easier push off from behind. To pry them I used a thin plastic card, kind of like a credit card in size, shape, and material. It is pain though, and the center caps get damaged if you so much as throw them a dirty look.

I just realized you are in Pasadena, we are neighbors

hyper

The problem is most dealerships have a minimum one hour charge for non-packaged services (i.e. oil changes, your type 2, 3 and 4 services) - so even if it's a 15 min. job, they'd still bill you the full hour (and if it's a one hr. job they'd pad the time and bill you for more!).

Afterall, they gotta find ways to pay for the overhead like the fancy dealership renovation and the free coffee in the waiting room. (too bad not much of it trickles down to the people that actually do the work).

I did the axle nut fix on my own w/ a friend's help (only did one side, the other side was not clicking) and it took about 1/2 an hr. -- the bulk of the time was spent on finding the right tool to unstake the nut and trying to get the damn thing off the car (yes I had the car on the ground) -- we soaked it w/ wd-40, tried to heat it up and it took a lot of energy just to get it off.

Since I didn't have a replacement nut, I just reused the old one (and I was lucky enough cuz the new stake point was about 1/4 turn past the old one so I was able to stake it w/o breaking the crown [or the thread of the nut] ) but next time, I'll definitely buy the nuts ahead of time before retightening it.

Should I wait until the other side clicks before doing it or do you think I should just go back and do it now?

SpitfireS

Elare Posted on Aug 20 2007, 01:19 AM
Equally important: is the clanking gone?

Elare

Clanking's gone, but now I'm pissed more than before, on account of the $$

But earlier, they'd lifted & cleaned the car for small change after I ran over a dead deer though (don't ask) (it was very small), so I guess we're even.

Thank you all!