Cost to Replace Car Battery?

15 years ago

DH took our 2005 Jaguar X-Type into the dealer for annual service. It has 20K miles on it. We've never replaced the battery, so I wasn't surprised that it tested weak. I was surprised that they quoted $300 to replace it. Is that nuts?

They also wanted to do reallignment; said the front tires are wearing unevenly. My thought is to wait until we need to replace the tires. Does that make sense? When might that be? How many miles/how much age for tires?

Third thing they wanted has something to do with replacing the fuel injection. HUH?

The car is running fine; went out of extended warranty last year. Obviously we don't drive much -- farthest/fastest is 25 mins. on the expressway to see DS and family.

Any help, please?

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Comments (11)

don_1_2006
15 years ago
The price of batteries have gone out of sight but not quite what that dealer quotes. If it is not warranty work or a factory recall I wouldn't deal with the dealer. You can get a quote over the phone for battery replacement.
chisue
Original Author
15 years ago
Thanks, Don.

I have figured out that a lot of this cost has to be the Jaguar dealer's labor rates. They probably also have to pay to dump the old battery and the fluids. I don't know who is responsible for re-setting everything electrical when the power is interrupted.

One thing that they say MUST be done (and I agree) is to replace the power steering fluid.
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A batteries total stored energy is rated in "Reserve Power", and is typically on the order of one hundred amp/hours. In other-words, if your vehicle demand is twenty amps of current, the battery will be depleted in five hours. The facts are most of today's cars demand forty to one hundred amps continuously, so depending on how many options are turned on, it could be as little as one hours time. Obviously you have made it further than that already which suggests your alternator is at least producing some power, and could in fact be charging normally but the ability to report the charging level to the instrument panel may actually be what is lost. That in many cases still requires an alternator circuit repair or repair or replacement of the alternator but explains how you have operated the car for this amount of time. The only problem here though is your expectation that AZ as a viable source for solving this problem. I do not use them as a parts supplier at any level for my business. With them using a strategy where people with little, to no formal training are blindly relying on some type of automated testing in order to circumvent the real skills used by professional technicians, they place us in a position where if we were to try and compete, we would have to not get more training for our technicians, and not invest in the tools and equipment required to completely service our customers cars. There is a cost to the public when we lose the easier work like this, and it goes way beyond the price side of the equation. Yes, one CAN deal with a number of the easier problems by using the AZ's of the world. But what do you do when the problem is more than the AZ routine can handle, and the net result of the "unfair to us (me)" competition they created is that you don't have access to a professional technician and the car ends up stranded for an extended period of time? (This is a REAL problem BTW) There are quite a number of things that can cause your alternator to not charge correctly, that are all external of the alternator. In a perfect world, losing the alternator jobs wouldn't have an impact on our doing business, so when one of these other problems occur it wouldn't be a big deal. But the world isn't perfect so when we lose the alternators (or whatever) to unlicensed activities and only see the nightmares, our CODB rises substantially. This price pressure has made it more difficult for you to have repairs done as affordably as you would like them to be. It's also made it so complete repairs can only be performed by a handful of shops that have purchased the factory scan tool to support your car, or the dealer that sells the make that you have. (This applies to each and every manufacturer)
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chisue
Original Author
15 years ago
I think we will try an independent garage that services Jaguars, now that the car is out of waranty. We can take the car in and ask for a check-up. The dealer changed oil and filters, said the brakes were OK, only noted the four problems: Power steering fluid; 'Service' fuel injection; Weak battery; Uneven tire wear.

I was surprised about the power steering fluid supposedly being contaminated, but if it is, it is. Maybe we should be looking for a leak?

I'm sure we can get the battery replaced for less.

Jemdandy has suggested on "Kitchen Table" forum that we should get the tires inspected and have the alighment done. (I'd think a few curb bumps and pot holes could have caused a problem.) We'll do the alignment.

I wasn't clear about the fuel injection problem. It is to be 'serviced'. Whatever that means. That seems reasonable to do on a six year old car.
mike_kaiser_gw
15 years ago
Around here the chain auto parts stores will change the battery for free when you purchase one of their batteries. Just a quick look but AutoZone gets about $150 for that type of battery. Pricey for a battery but it's Jaguar, sorry, Ford. ;-)

Tires should be rotated every 5,000 miles or so. Alignments are a fairly normal component of regular maintenance.

I'd ask for details about the injector servicing. In some cases it's little more than an cleaner poured into the gas tank.
joe_mn
15 years ago
What did dealer charge for annual service? A 6 yr old battery is due for replacement. A fee for jump start is not cheap. Piece of mind.
chisue
Original Author
15 years ago
Thanks, Mike and Joe. Have an appointment to take the car to a local garage that serviced a previous Jaguar for us once it was out of waranty. They can check the power steering fluid and perhaps see a reason it would have become contaminated; replace if necessary.

The 'servicing' for the fuel injection seems to be a vacuuming operation. I think we'll let this garage do the battery replacement (and re-set all the electrical gizmos).

I think we should go to a tire center for rotation and realignment.

Joe -- The dealership did the checklist (brakes, etc.) and changed the oil and replaced filters. I thought the charge was really low: $56. The four things they cited were all about $100 over what I thought was reasonable -- which I put down to the high labor rates for their mechanics. If this dealership were 'right around the corner', we'd might not be questioning this. The one that IS nearby has refused to service this car because we didn't buy it there. (You'd have to know the owner!)
bonebloodyidle
14 years ago
Main dealers have one priority. Ripping people off. I was quoted over Ã¯Â¿Â½150 for a fresh battery for my Opel Vectra (badged as Saturn Aura in US) but I got it for Ã¯Â¿Â½80 from an independant motorfactors.
bonebloodyidle
14 years ago
THS doesn't seem to recognise the Euro symbol. Ã¯Â¿Â½ means EUR
joe_mn
14 years ago
Very odd for a jag dealer to charge $56 for a annual service and 300 for battery. Seems upside down. An annual should be 3-400 or so. Even an oil change for 56 is low.
mike_kaiser_gw
11 years ago
Well, thanks John Wayne for the big ole can of...
sushipup1
11 years ago
Mike, there's a little gray flag at top right side of post, same line as your name. Click that to report spam. It gets removed pretty quickly.

Yeah. good ol' John Wayne has spread spam all over the place! We picked up about 4 or 5 prolific new spammers with the changeover.

Cost to Replace Car Battery?

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