That seems consistent with my recollection of about $130 to $140 for the total cost, including an hour’s labor or some fraction thereof. Again, not wanting to cast undue aspersions on the OP’s mechanic, as there may well be a reason for the high cost in this instance. But if it were me, I’d be getting a second opinion on that $600, or at least asking about the details.
Ha! Just coming in to post that. Got a progress call from the mechanic’s shop when they were working on mine, plus doing a bunch of other things at the same time, and saying that the main issue right now was that even for them – and this was a truly competent shop that’s worked miracles for me – getting the O2 sensor off was proving to be a challenge due to extreme corrosion. They eventually did replace it, and the charge for the O2 sensor fix was as described above – whatever they had to do, they charged about an hour’s labor, or less.
Yeah, so much of this depends on where the OP is located. I’m in the south (Atlanta) and O2 sensors here come out pretty easily with just a little grunt. I’ve never rounded one off. I imagine up in the rust belt, it’s a little different story.
Regardless, a $600 quote for this means the mechanic has a boat payment coming due.
The auto shop I work for had a little cartoon panel taped to a wall in the waiting room. It showed a car stopped on the shoulder, with flames and smoke coming out from under the hood, and the owner talking on a cell phone, obviously to a repair shop. The owner is saying, “Yes, now that you mention it, the check engine light is on.”
From our experience, this is actually not too very far from reality.
Yep, when car maintenance is difficult to afford, you learn to do it yourself.
My teenagers check fluids (both cars leak - which can cause check engine light to go on), change oil, change out headlamps. I could afford to pay for it to be done, but they’ll move out of my house and won’t have the money to pay someone for a damn headlamp.
An adult and YouTube should be able to change an O2 sensor - you might be investing in some tools - but the tools and part won’t come to $600. And an O2 sensor does not need to be done now - if you live in a place where its cold right now, you could wait until April.
And little ole’ me cleaned out the carburetor on the lawn mower this Summer using YouTube. It would have been a pain in the back end to bring it in for service, and the lawn was long and needed to be cut.
Sometimes it’s just a problem with the internal Control Module ROM error (p0605 on my Nissan Altima, at least).
You may need to complete a drive cycle first, which is basically a carefully planned drive following detailed instructions as to what speed to drive when, when to stop, and so on.
Yeah, sounds like I overpaid. This is the first time the check engine light had ever come on for me, so I guess I was in a bit of a panic and a hurry with the circumstances. Worse, I think this issue was noted during my last maintenance, and I just forgot about it, because I was planning to address it at the next maintenance. Then again, I had no idea about the connection to the check engine light.
I guess I’ll just take this as a learning experience, although I’m not sure what I’ll do next time; no one I really know lives in the general area, so finding a local mechanic would be pretty difficult. I’ll figure it out eventually, I guess.
Also note that loaner tools are often available at places like Advance Auto Parts and Auto Zone, so you might not even have to buy any tools if you really don’t foresee using them again.
Here in Colorado, Advance Auto Parts and Auto Zone check for free, although, if they are busy, there might be a bit of a wait. Pepboys, however, IME, like to charge for the service.
Buying a code reader is a pretty simple and inexpensive thing to do and as mentioned, try to get one that pairs with your smart phone. Makes everything very easy. Just plug the code reader in and leave it there.