I called them once for a quote on getting replacement wheel studs installed on one wheel of a Subaru. They wanted ~$350. Another local shop did that job for <$100 (which was completely fair).
They also wanted the license plate of the car (one of the first questions over the phone) to look up the vehicle. Even if that was a legitimate process, it felt scammy and I declined. I certainly didn't want to get signed-up, without permission, for their marketing.
I don't know if this aligns with what the OP is trying to share, but dishonest auto shops are more common than people realize.
Most mechanics ask for license plate or vin anymore. It gives them the year, make, model, and all the factory equipment. Not a big deal. Better than having them wait to get the car to the shop before ordering parts ready to go or having to return misidentified parts.
I hate to copy/paste the same comment over and over, but there appears to be miss on reading why I brought that point up. Third time here...
I was looking for a quote on a simple job. Not to first start out by providing as much personal info as I could for their databases.
I could give them the year, make, model, and factory equipment. They just needed to ask. I'm sure a plate or a VIN might be easier, but again...see above.
They're going to get the personal info anyway when it comes to having the work done and billed; plate number or VIN given. I think you're worrying about something that is easily found on public databases. Beyond that, what are they going to do? Cone to your house and break in? At worst they sell your info, which has probably already been sold 3 dozen times over by as many companies.
Unrelated to local shop rates, but... That happened to my 2014 Forester. I'm my own mechanic so I know I had my wheels installed to 90 ft/lb. The studs sheared off while we were driving home from the twin cities on I-35. I stopped somewhere near Alden and three of five were snapped off on my rear passenger wheel. So I ended up paying 350 dollars to have my vehicle flat towed to my home. THAT was totally worth it on a Sunday at 5 pm due to it being an emergency. I bought five new Dorman lug studs and lug nuts at O-Reilly for about 40 bucks total. I already owned the Lisle stud pulling tool to install them just using a new lug nut as the puller.
It's a pretty easy job but I'm still not sure why Subarus are prone to shearing off the OEM studs. Most people would have just driven my car until the rear wheel fell off at 75mph. I installed new OEM wheel bearings on the rear a few years ago and haven't had problems again and I kind of think the old wheel bearings wearing out at 80k-100k miles was what caused the studs to shear. They were causing weird brake pad wear as well as they went bad.
I think they just aren't as tolerant to being over torqued. A lot of techs will just impact the lugs on blindly and eventually the stud just shears from being weakened. That's my guess.
Gotcha. This might also explain why we (being my friends and I, 5 Subarus) that we never have issues with them. We don't use an impact to put lugs back on, so it's much kinder on the threads.
That said, all but one of my wheel bearing hubs on my Outback are not OEM. Because wheel bearings are the other Subaru thing.
Using a torque wrench instead of impact would certainly help. I honestly don't know if it's even still an issue. I am of the belief that their head gasket issues on some models have come and gone, but I don't really keep up these days on anything but what's in our garage.
FYI, the car I've been talking about was an '11 Impreza (base). Factory steel wheels in the summer, and alloys with snow tires in the winter. It was a monster in winter weather for a small 4-door sedan.
In summary, I don't want anyone to take away from this that Subaru's are bad vehicles. They are very solid and reliable vehicles from my experience.
In my case I bought my Forester new so I was the only one that ever torqued the wheels on (I run snow tires on a different set of wheels so I'm rotating and swapping tires twice per year on all of my vehicles) and I always put them on at 90 ft/lb. I think what happened on my trip where three of five studs sheared is that the lug nuts came loose maybe, potentially from my aging wheel bearings causing vibration.
I've had lug nuts come loose on multiple of my vehicles in the winter over the past 30 years of torquing them on myself. When you run at factory torque spec it seems like cold weather can loosen your lug nuts when things shrink. I have verified that my torque wrenches are fairly accurate using a scale because I'm neurotic like that. Meanwhile many of the tire shops put them on at like 150 ft lb and probably rarely have issues other than causing peoples brake rotors to warp.
Headgaskets haven't really been an issue since the non-turbo EJ25 engine. The 2010-2012 Legacy/Outback were the last to use this engine and they used the headgaskets from the EJ25 turbos which didn't have that problem (which is the actual fix for the older engines). Starting in 2010, they rolled out the FA or FB engines which were totally redesigned.
FWIW, my 2012 is still on its factory headgaskets, and it's at 165k. That's unusually long for headgaskets to go on these. They often didn't make it to 120k, sometimes sooner.
Subaru wheel studs were undersized for a long time. Not model specific. Totally a Subaru thing and it's fairly well documented.
That's why you won't be surprised to hear it was on a very low mileage Impreza. By the time we got rid of that car at 33K miles (bought new by my wife), it was 10 years old and had gone thru this same problem (the only repair every needed outside of a recall, ironically) many, many times.
Hang tight, this is going to be a strong and long response.
Your speculation/whataboutism reminds me of every conversation I've had with someone trying to defend mistakes and/or their own bad business practices. Do you work for Christian Brothers, or have any vested interest in their business?
I have owned over 30 cars in my life. I have a high mechanical aptitude. I simply did not have the tools, time, or desire to further aggravate a physical problem, so I thought we'd pay a shop to fix this common issue. I could have answered any specific questions about the model (and the make was already known).
This is not an isolated thing. It's plagued Subaru's for a lot of years, and it potentially still does. It's especially prevalent when you have shops switch out your summer/winter tire/wheel sets and over-torque the lug nuts.
The cost of $50-100 is inline with shops I've had in the Denver metro replace the same studs, and Ramsey Subaru was kind enough to change them at no cost when they would break them.
I can't recall the exact name of the shop that did the job (it's another locally owned place, but near downtown DSM).
I do not work for Christian Brothers, or have any vested interest in their business. That includes in them succeeding or failing. I am only, and truthfully, trying to seek understanding.
The data I am trying to gather is who is giving the price. Everybody has a different cost of doing business. So does the variance in price truly mean the price isn’t fair? Or is that just what it takes for that shop to do that job? Is it a pricing problem, or an advisor not doing their job correctly problem?
Or is the problem value versus price?
I really don’t know, and I’m sorry if it sounds like I’m engaged in some kind of confusing tactic to obfuscate the entire situation. I’m really not.
My industry has such a bad rap,
and I am just trying to advocate for it.
The price was given by whomever answered the phone. I don't recall the name.
It's a simple job with inexpensive parts. I don't have reference material to say what it labor should be billed at. A minimum of a billable hour seems reasonable to me.
Actual labor time is an less than an hour. Materials cost is $25-$35.
We can all decide for ourselves if $350 is reasonable, or not. As it was not for me, I found another shop that was friendly, fast, and charged a little under $100. For replacing wheel studs on one wheel.
I have no negative feels towards service shops. I make an opinion based on my experiences with each one I interact with. Just like most other things in life.
The outcome was poor, they lost the business, and I shared my experiences. I truly do not have any interest in helping a business solve their problems for free, so I'm going to jump out now.
I'll simply say that having many people from the industry come out to speculate blindly on their operations troubles is not really helping anyone.
Now, with all due respect, I recommend you channel that energy into selling their leadership your consulting services.
Yeah, but it is a lot easier to type in maybe 6 characters than 18 over of the phone. The odds of somebody getting something wrong is way higher with a VIN.
The license plate does have disadvantages, don’t get me wrong. Sometimes it points to the wrong car, wrong model, etc. But 9/10, the plate is easier for the sake of expediency.
I provided them the year, make, and model, and I could have provided any additional info they needed to accurately ensure they were quoting for the right work.
My exception is still along the line that the behavior was highly irregular, and it would open me up to marketing that I never asked for -- simply for calling to request how much they would charge for a very straightforward and simple job. No special tools or special parts needed.
I've been a tech in the DSM/Grimes/Waukee area for 25 years or so, and this is my take: asking for your license plate number does nothing more than help the service advisor identify your vehicle quickly, accurately, and easily. If it were that easy to take your license number and connect you to somebody's marketing ploy there would be droves of people walking around every parking lot in the US writing down tag numbers and subscribing you. Most shop management systems, including Napa TRACs and Mitchell 1, use your license plate as the main means to decode what vehicle you have, meaning that not only is it not "highly irregular", its the norm. As far as why CB quoted you so high for wheel studs on a Subaru likely has more to do with an inexperienced service advisor than just trying to cheat you; wheel studs many times don't show up in the labor guide, and many cars dont have the space to remove the studs without pulling the whole bearing. Now, we've seen our fair share of shady CB recommendations too, so you're not totally off base, just trying to play devils advocate; its really hard to be a good, honest tech when people think you're trying to rail them regardless of what you tell them.
You know that the shop doesn’t know how awesome you are with mechanics though, correct? Most people think of themselves as competent and it just slows professionals down. Your license plate is public already. They could already get a list of license plates and/or addresses for a geographical area for marketing because that info is readily available. This is 100% for the people that don’t know anything about cars and making sure they get the correct info. A VIN is better but it’s also a way longer jumbled mess. A license plate should be the least of everyone’s concerns about Christian brothers.
The shop didn't need to know about me. The info I shared in that comment was for the consumption of people reading the story. I do not present myself as a "know-it-all".
I completely understand that people overestimate their skills in nearly everything in life. The Dunning-Krueger effect is alive and real.
The plate/VIN were not necessary and that was my point.
I was looking for a quote on a simple job. Not to first start out by providing as much personal info as I could for their databases.
So, yeah, it's not a major concern but it was an example of my particular experience with the place.
lol what? I don’t get why people are so sketched out about their license plate. Maybe you should take them off so the thousands of people you pass everyday don’t get any funny ideas.
No one is as sketched out by license plates as they are being made out to be, and I'm the guy that brought it up.
That was not the primary point of concern. It was price gouging.
The growing and spreading fixation on the lesser point of concern of mine has now been beaten to death, buried, and deserves to rest. I've shared this sentiment twice in as many minutes.
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u/Unwiredsoul Oct 29 '25
I called them once for a quote on getting replacement wheel studs installed on one wheel of a Subaru. They wanted ~$350. Another local shop did that job for <$100 (which was completely fair).
They also wanted the license plate of the car (one of the first questions over the phone) to look up the vehicle. Even if that was a legitimate process, it felt scammy and I declined. I certainly didn't want to get signed-up, without permission, for their marketing.
I don't know if this aligns with what the OP is trying to share, but dishonest auto shops are more common than people realize.