Reply to Is it normal to need $6900 of maintenance on a 2015 Jeep Grand Cherokee?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]We recently took our Jeep Grand Cherokee (2015) to the dealership for routine maintenance, and to have the check engine light looked at.  I bought the maintenance plan at the time that I purchased the vehicle in 2017.  The vehicle cost $40,000 in 2017 (when it was 2 years old).  The current KBB value of the vehicle is $24,000.

The dealership recommended $6900 in maintenance.  This is the first Jeep I have owned. In the past, I've owned Toyotas and Hondas, and it did not seem like they ever needed such costly maintenance.  The things that stood out to me were "both motor mounts" ($1759) and power steering rack ($2889).

Any advice?

Immediate needs -

PURGE SOLENOID AND RETEST
$334.95

BOTH MOTOR MOUNTS
$1,759.45

Recommended to do now or sometime soon --

*Brake Fluid Exchange
$194.97

POWER STEERING RACK AND RED POWER STEERING FLUID
$2,889.31

*Coolant System Fluid Exchange (10 Year)
$224.04

*4x4 Service (Front & Rear Differentials + Transfer Case)
$422.51

*FUEL INDUCTION
$194.99

SPARK PLUGS, AIR FILTER, PCV
$922.03[/quote]

Son of a mechanic here, not a mechanic, so take my advice with a grain of salt. You said your car has 90k miles? First, I'd check with Jeep forums/gearhead how to determine if any of those service are needed or not, next, if needed, if those prices are within plus/minus 15% of what they'd expect it would be, correcting for location (high cost area vs low cost area). Also, for the higher priced items ($1000 plus), figure out how to diagnose those things. E.g. the motor mounts are so far deep down that if they never replaced them and charged you $1700 you'd never know the difference.

For the check engine light, ask them what the error code is, google it up and its possible it relates to the solenoid, if so that one is valid.

Motor mount, see text above

Brake fluid exchange, maybe, does your brake pedal almost hit the floor when fully pressed? If fully pressed at half way until it hits the floor, its probably fine as-is. I have 2007 model car (aka high maintenance car) which still has the same brake fluid)

Power steering fluid exchange costing nearly $3k??? that must be wrong, should be in the vicinity of $300. Youtube on how to do it, takes about 30 minutes, you need a turkey baster and a few bottles of power steering fluid (approx $15 each....and make sure its the OEM fluid for your car, don't go with third party OEM-like fluid on this one), its easier to replace than you think.

4x4 front/rear diff service may be valid. Front/rear diffs contain oils which should be changes at certain intervals (don't know for Jeep,  google that), and if not done for a while, its prudent to get it done, not super urgent, it could wait, but should be done eventually.

Fuel induction service. Are you noticing hesitation when you accelerate? I think you should be fine without, but get into the habit of filling fuel tank once is 3/4ths empty. Reason is that fuel/gas contains microscopical contaminants  that form at the bottom of the fuel tank, if you drive until nearly empty, it will start sucking those things up and you'll eventually need a fuel induction service. If your gas tank is always 1/4th at a minimum you shouldn't need that service

Coolant service, we've had car in our family run nearly 20 year without coolant service, although at its advisable at 10 year mark. You say its a 2015 model, and 10 yrs for coolant service, why are they recommending it now?

Spark plugs, air filter, pcv. Air filter cost $15 and take less than 5 minutes to replace. PCV valve is about $25-35 (I think) and should take less than 5-10 mins to replace, so for those two items, with labor cost of say $120 per hour, do your math to determine what is should cost, most workshop charge for 30 mins minimum. As for spark plug, presuming its a V6 so your need 6 of them? Each spark plug is about $10 so $60 for parts, replacement should take 30 mins or less (takes me 10 mins on a 4 cyl engine). Only exception is if your exhaust manifoil runs over once of the cylinder banks (some Chrysler/Dodge/Mitsubishi engines used to have that design) in which case it will take 3 hours, but that is rare. All in all, replacing these three items should cost you approx $300 and not $900

Hope that helps, best of luck. [/quote]

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