I agree with Terry. They think they found someone with a fat chequebook and want to maximize their profit margin at your expense.
Love how this video starts: "
Your tires are old. Recommend 4 tires and alignment, that will be $2000 please." I had to look hard to find the cracks they were referring to, and 5/32 is still about 30-35% tread depth remaining. If you don't spend a lot of time cruising above 100mph, I'd have no issues driving on these until they are closer to the wear bars.
Anyway:
1) on the LCA bushings, these are the RDM LCAs. Can I tell the dealer just to press in new bushings (and if so anyone know the spec?). I don’t want to revert back to OEM as the car is lowered on the #1 spring pads.
I didn't notice any mention of bushings in the video. They pointed out the damaged ball joint boot, and recommended replacing the entire control arm, which is unnecessary, and also unpossible because the control arms are NLA! You can get cheap junk aftermarket offshore LCA's but OE/Genuine, nope. Only replace the ball joints, these are still available new. The control arm DOES NOT have to be removed from the car to do this. They will recommend an alignment afterwards which is not required but won't hurt (other than the $300 cost). Also, the RDM TEK LCA's are in the rear only, there was no mention of rear control arms in the video. If they say the LCA has to come off the car to replace ball joints, this just confirms they don't know what they're doing on these "old" cars.
2) on the differential leak, tech mentions replace the diff but hoping maybe there are seals or something that have dried out and can be replaced. But if it is a diff replacement, probably worth getting LSD? Anyone selling one? I saw a group buy thread started in June but didnt look like it went ahead.
I'm becoming less and less impressed with this tech. You do not "replace the diff". Maybe ESL is a barrier here and he meant "repair" the diff. Looks like the side seals need replacement, along with re-sealing the rear cover... probably 5 hours labor and $50 in new seals.
Installing LSD is a totally different discussion, far more complicated and expensive. Wavetrac is OOS as TimL mentioned, but you can get a Quaife for about $1500 plus another $1500 or so installation cost - installed by a competent rear-end shop, NOT THIS DEALERSHIP.
Keep us posted...
3) what else sticks out from the inspection video?
"Replace steering box" was another knee slapper. At MOST, you need output shaft seals. A few hours labor plus <$50 in seals. Steering box does not need to be removed from the car. I just did this job on 2 cars earlier this year. Details
here. The steering box is NLA and cannot be replaced with an OE box, although they would probably charge you $1500 for a rebuilt box while paying C&M Hydraulics $500 for a reman box and conveniently neglecting to mention this on the invoice.
The ball joints are the only item which is of serious concern and should be replaced (<$100 list price for 2 new OE ball joints, $35/ea from discount dealerships). The differential leak is very minor. Many differentials have minor weeping like this and can go for YEARS without developing a serious leak. If it isn't dripping and you don't smell gear oil, I'd ignore it. The steering box - same thing, that leak is TINY, there's just a slight coat of grime. If it isn't dripping you could delay repair until it actually starts to drip. Also, need to verify the steering box isn't damp from a different leak elsewhere dripping down to the box. Ditto for the transmission, dealers will rarely diagnose and replace the leaking seal(s), they'll generally want to rebuild the transmission ($$$$) instead of $50 in seals.
All the above items would be like $300 in parts and a few weekends in DIY labor if you can turn a wrench. I'd love to see the estimate from the service advisor, I wouldn't be surprised if it's somewhere in the $5k-$7k ballpark.
Spark plugs, filters, etc is all pure profit margin for them. Spark plugs get replaced based on mileage (about 30kmi is time to replace). Similar for the filters.
