Holy Crud! Thermostat

So the check engine light came on. P0128 Thermostat.
It appears that my thermostat is stuck open
Get this, the dealership wants $790 to replace it.

My god - 4 hours of labor.

Drain the coolant, disconnect the hoses, three bolts to replace the housing. Connect hoses, add coolant. It's sitting right there on the front of the engine plain as day. It's a 2021 so it's a plastic housing with integrated stat. Replaced one of those things on a Chrysler which was not nearly accessible and it took me about an hour.

4 hours...what the hell?

They don't even have the part, they have to order it and I'd have to take it back.


Just squeezed for time otherwise I'd do it myself.

any real issues driving this truck if it's not over heating?

 

Wild considering the thermostat is like $27 from Toyota

 

That's alright. My daughter who is 1,500mi away got screwed out of $135 to change two brake light bulbs in our old Subaru. I would have told her to do it, but it was a struggle for me when I swapped a turn signal on that PoS.

It's highway robbery these days.

 

I wouldn't drive it until it's fixed.

 

The service industry is completely batshit crazy now. I guarantee you that dealer will not allow more than 30 min for the tech to change that thermostat. We have a little 25 gal hot water heater at work. It is accessible in a washroom closet with plenty of space to get to everything. I was busy so figured I would call a local plumber we have used in the past. Dude quotes me $1,930. I ask how much the water heater was and he said they don't provide that. They just charge a flat rate. I told him to pound sand. Ran down to Home Depot. Paid $550 for a better hot water heater with a new hookup kit, keep in mind it's electric so not even having to deal with gas and installed it in 20 min.

 

So your time is worth more than $790/hr ? (since you feel it's a 1 hr job)

For that money I'd blow a Friday afternoon of vacation time.

 

Driving it with it stuck open will not hurt anything for a short period of time. If you do it for thousands of miles it will foul the plugs and gum up the intake so you don't want to do it forever. Also, pay attention to your temp as one that is stuck open might decide to be stuck closed. That is a no go. If the temp gets anything above normal pull over and shut it off. 75% of GM 5.3/6.2 vehicles are running around with thermostats stuck halfway open right now! LOL...
I got in my wife's Tahoe a while back and it never got up to temp. Drove all over town and it never got above 180. I asked her if it had been running like shit and she said no. Asked if her heater worked and she said "well, sometimes I'm cold when the heat is on hi". It takes 20 min to change so I did it the next morning and didn't tell her. I got home from work and she was like the heater in my car is so much better now. I was like yeah, no shit. Then a couple of months later I had to do the same to my Denali with a 6.2. I would rather they stick open than closed though. Another buddy that lives in TX called me because his daughter's Tahoe was running like shit and fouled the plugs. I was like change your thermostat. Sure enough...
My Tahoe and Sierra are 2018's. My dad has a 2017 Sierra and my father in law has a 2018 Silverado. When I picked up the thermostat for my truck I said you might as well give me two. Now I have one sitting on the shelf with a couple gallons of coolant just waiting for the next one to fail. Now that I am prepared they will last forever though.

 

Stuck open is much better than stuck shut! Drive it until winter.

 

If they want to charge you 4 hours of labor put a go pro on the dash and see how long they actually spend on it. When you find it is less than 30 min tell them you will drop that film off at your local news station and see if they realize the mistake they made. Any dealer will have a min of a 1 hour charge but 4 is robbery considering the rate is probably $130-$150 an hour. The dealer should do that for $200-$250 including parts and coolant and be happy to do it as it is as simple as an oil change but hell, most want $200 to do that now.
They quoted you $600 for labor. $120ish for parts and coolant and the remainder is shop/environmental fees.

 

As the correct people stated.....
P0128 is nothing to worry about in regards to the sticking tstat possibly doing any damage...
When you remove it, you will see that it not actually stuck open...
Its just not staying closed as long as it should to get the engine to proper temp, causing light to come on.,,,

Not sure if this is you just venting or youre actually going to pull it out of the dealer & do it yourself.
My guess is the 4.0 includes the tech diagnosing the check engine light, replacing the stat, flushing the cooling system, & retest....
Theyre about making money...
But I truly have no idea if its as easy as you state or what book time actually is.

 

Back in my youth, a stuck open thermostat when out on the road was considered a gift from God! Minimize the driving until you can get it fixed, but this is not an $800 fix it right now crisis.

 

Drove a beater Honda without one for couple years.

 

Why does it have to get done at a dealer? Call around and get another estimate. It's a truck not a Ferrari

My alldata is showing 1.5 hours book time. If they bumped it up to 2 hours and added a diagnostic fee it could be around 3 hours total

Maybe they know something I don't know

 

We just took them out and threw them in the trash...

 

1 hr to change the thermostat and 3 hours to laugh about how much the dealership made off of the work

 

throw a flush on top of that for 1.0 & a .5 "retest" after clearing the light....
These guys can get creative....

 

The issue is they will claim they are doing all those things but in reality they are going to clamp the top hose. Lose .25-.5 gal of coolant max and top it off when they are done. They will do a flush if doing a water pump but never for a thermostat.

 

Nothing wrong with trying to upsell a flush. He has every right to say no..

Sometimes I wonder if customers are listening to everything that's included in the quote. Or maybe the service writer isn't being clear when explaining

Does it include diag fee?
Extra work like a flush?
Tax?

Guys post every week about some outrageous price from a dealer. It would be better if they just posted a screenshot of the estimate so we can see exactly what's on there. Stuff gets lost in translation..

 

Keep in mind that most mechanics perform the work quoted in about half the book time and that is what is expected by the dealer or they don't work for them long. On something like this. I doubt the hood would be up for more than 20 min.

 

For sure, service writers are salesmen for service. In a lot of cases from what I see these days most service writers have no idea what is actually required and could not turn a screwdriver. I think the dealers want them that way so they don't know how full of shit they are. They relay to you what the computer says along with every upcharge or service they can recommend with it. And if they are ignorant you can't really argue with them that they are trying to rip you off.