Hyundai Tucson 30,000 mile service (joint, spark plugs, fuel, brakes)

[chilaili]

My Hyundai dealership that sold me the Tucson 2 years ago is insisting that I have to check it in for a full service at just 30,000 miles at the bargain price of nearly $500! Which I don't have.

A colleague who knows a great deal about cars says this is ridiculous and a waste of money and I can wait till the car gets close to 60,000 miles. My concern is that in May I have to take the car on a long-distance drive of nearly 8 hours in both directions and don't want to risk it dying on me in the middle of the Rocky Mountains. Any thoughts?

[tstone]

30k mile service is pretty basic - oil change, air filter, PCV valve (if there even is one), a fuel system & combustion chamber cleaning (gas tank additive + Seafoam type stuff), maybe trans fluid & filter change. Wiper blades usually need changing by this time. At $500 I'd expect them to also check/adjust the alignment, top off other fluids where necessary, check belt tension & adjust if necessary or even possible, check tire tread, and check the brake pads.

[M3 Mitch]

You have options beyond going to the dealer or blowing it off. A good independent shop should be able to do the service that needs doing for less than the dealer.

Check your warrenty paperwork, but in general you don't have to have dealer service to keep the warrenty in force.

How valuable is your business relationship to this dealer to you? They will *probably* be more willing to help you out on warrenty issues if you have them do your service.

What exactly are they proposing to do, beyond maybe an oil change, transmission and diff fluid changes?

[DDevil]

If you have been doing regular maintenance then there should not be a problem.
Look in your owner's manual or search online on what is really done at 30,000 miles.
If it mentions a few engine related parts, then do the service.
If it only mentions things like "change air filter RECOMMENDED" then you can skip this one.

[chilaili]

Apparently this covers:

• Replace engine oil/filter/drain plug gasket
• Check and fill all fluids
• Replace air filter
• Rotate tires
• Replace engine coolant
• Inspect the following: spark plugs, fuel lines, hoses, fuel filler cap, vapor hose, drive belts, transaxle fluid, brake fluid/lines/pads/rotors, lights, exhaust, suspension, steering rack/pump/hoses, ball joints, driveshaft/boots, AC.

I doubt this is needed, but it's the "this is really essential" and it's "only $449" that bugs me. $449 PLUS TAX! Oh, and the eye-rolling and hinting that if I don't do it my car will most likely explode the next time I drive it. I take my car in for an oil change every 3000 miles and I wash it all over (underneath too), wax it, check my tire pressures, garage it every night, etc. I take very good care of this vehicle!

[M3 Mitch]

Wing of bat, and eye of newt,
Time to give these bums the boot!

This is a glorified $500 oil change. BTW you are probably wasting money changing the oil every 3000 - unless you do a lot of short trips etc. you can easily double that. I'd suggest a Pure1 fileter and Mobil 1 oil, probably both are better than you are currently getting.

The check and fill fluids is BS, for $20 you can buy a bottle of brake fluid, PS fluid, etc. and do this yourself for a long time.

Tire rotation - buy a floor jack with part of your saved $500, DIY. You can torque your own lug nuts to spec, instead of having a mouth-breathing high school drop out overtorque them with an air wrench.

Air filter - you may or may not need an air filter, ususally they are not that hard to get at, check it, if it's dirty put in a new Pure 1 again.

Coolant - yeah, actually after 2 years it should be replaced, typically this is not that hard, get the correct factory antifreeze and a gallon of distilled water, and you should be set.

In any case you should be able to find a good indy shop that can do all the above for way less than $449.

So roll your eyes at these jokers and give them your best impression of "The Donald" : "You're Fired!" (TM)...

[golfgod]

I'm with M3Mitch, pretty much. I tend to keep my daily drivers for a long time, and my "work" cars for 250,000-300,000 miles. For the last 30 years I've been an oil and filter at 5,000 miles, NEVER USED SYNTHETIC OIL, a transmission and differential fluid every 60,000 and a coolant, thermostat, spark plugs, brake fluid, belts and batteries at 4 years to 5 years. I usually just wait until the rear disc brakes need changing and do the brake fluid then.

These are perfectly acceptable service intervals for modern cars.

Forget the floor jack, Discount Tire (and some others) will rotate your tires for free.

golfgod

[texdav]

Look at your ownwer manual to see what maintainance is required;it should list the items by mileage and time.

[M3 Mitch]

Originally Posted by golfgod

I'm with M3Mitch, pretty much. I tend to keep my daily drivers for a long time, and my "work" cars for 250,000-300,000 miles. For the last 30 years I've been an oil and filter at 5,000 miles, NEVER USED SYNTHETIC OIL, a transmission and differential fluid every 60,000 and a coolant, thermostat, spark plugs, brake fluid, belts and batteries at 4 years to 5 years. I usually just wait until the rear disc brakes need changing and do the brake fluid then.

These are perfectly acceptable service intervals for modern cars.

Forget the floor jack, Discount Tire (and some others) will rotate your tires for free.

golfgod

True all that, the 87 Camry has 220K miles and as far as I know it has had nothing but dino oil. I just personally think the synthetic is worth the relatively small additional cost, typically if you keep mileage records you will see enough MPG increase to pay for the *differential* cost of the synthetic anyway, if not more. That and lube oil is not a place I really want to cut corners. But, it's perfectly correct to say that you don't need to use a synthetic to go 6 to 7 K miles between changes.

Various tire stores will rotate your tires for free but then you are back to the guy with too much air pressure on his air wrench and too little brain pressure between his ears. That and we live out in the sticks, there are lights and compressed air in "Garage Mahal", so I can do my own tire rotation (and I'll take a very detailed look at my brakes while the wheel is off too...) faster and less effort than going into town. That and the tire shops are always trying to sell me something...

Brake fluid, really it depends on the climate, I think the OP is in the Southwest so it may be good for 4 or even 5 years. When it starts to get dark, change it though, this is not hard to DIY nor expensive to have done, much less work than dealing with a brake fluid leak (which can get dangerous anyway..)

But anyway we agree that your dealer is trying to rip you off.

[studedude]

Check wording on warranty. If you have the 5 yr 100,000 mi drive train warranty there is some "required" service. While it does not have to be done by a Hyundai dealer, to insure no future warranty problems, it has to be done. As others have said "recommended" items are If needed.