DO NOT PAY ANYTHING TO HAVE THE BATTERY A/C FILTER CHANGEED!

IF YOU CAN OPEN YOUR GLOVE BOX, YOU CAN CHANGE YOUR FILTER!
IT TAKES LESS THAN 2 MINUTES, REQUIRES NO TOOLS AT ALL, AND YOU WILL NOT GET YOUR HANDS DIRTY!

You pry the little access panel open in the side of the car near the driver side rear window vent.

Inside there, you will see a little black cover with two tabs, about 1 inch wide and about 5 inches long. Gently press the tabs and remove the black cover. Inside you will see a white paper (or cotton) filter element. Easily slide this towards you and out.

LOOK AT IT! Chances are, this is not very dirty. Not much air goes through this, so it will NOT be black and grimey like an engine filter. It is mostly there to stop large objects ( leaves and bugs ) from getting to the battery. IN MOST CASES you can shake off any large dirt, leaf particles, or dead bugs, and put it right back in for another 20k.

One guy I know in the desert who lives on a dry, dusty, dirt road takes his out every 5k, washes it with water, lets it dry and then puts it back in.

ZERO cost to you, and you only need to check this 1/yr or every 10k normally.

I am POSITIVE this is something every owner could/should do.

The only "labor" you paid for was for the service guy to dig out his manuals and read up on how to do this. I promise you it took the guy longer to read the directions ( that I just typed ) than to do the actual work.

I'm sorry, but those paying for this are being "taken" for a ride.
-John

P.S. for those who think re-using this filter is foolish, you need to know this is a "bug screen"... it is not a micron type filter where you need to filter out micron size particles... it is not a critical part to the battery. It's just keeping spiders from getting in there. The volume of air is pretty small that goes through here.

 

I'm saying the DEALER was wrong to charge the labor, not your choice to have them do it. If you went in 'only' for the filter change, then there is some labor overhead they need to cover.

If you had the car there for other reasons, there is no reason for the dealer to charge extra labor for this. You allready paid the labor "overhead" for paperwork, and the likely complimentary car wash that comes with service. That is what I am saying.

 

In my experience, it's a good idea to keep track of the maintenance requirements that are published in the owner's manual no matter what vehicle you have. Otherwise, dealers/shops will tend to upcharge you at whatever chance they have with things like 3000 mile oil change intervals, unnecessary fluid changes, spark plugs, transmission services, etc.

 

LOL, I don't get a car wash, but I did dig out the last service form, they didn't charge me for changing the AC Filter but they did change it, just charged me $0.00 for it (Just like their multi-point inspection, tire rotation, etc.) and instead only charged me their normal fees, around $40.

 

Cool.

 

I believe the industry term is "up-sell"....the tactic of suggesting you purchase service items on your vehicle that you didn't come in for originally.