Any good Indy Subaru repair shops in Vancouver?
 

Hey RSers, is there a decent Subaru indy repair shop in town that you would suggest?

The timing cover gasket is leaking on my wife's Subaru Outback 3.6r. I've pulled the belly pan and can clearly tell what the issue is, I don't want to pay for them to tell me what I already know. She took it to Open Road Subaru on Boundary to get it fixed, they told her they would charge her a $160 diagnostic fee to confirm it's leaking, that would be over and above any repair costs.

https://youtu.be/woAeRTJKk08?si=SsnH23Te8aaXgHEW

Using this video as reference. You think it'll be less than $160 to do 3.5 hours of work at a shop? The YouTuber drained the oil, coolant, AC and disconnected transmission lines before taking out the radiator to have room to work.

Since you went to the dealer on boundary, I assume it was out of convenience, so you can try Azro motors, it's up the street on Canada way. If you want to go to Richmond, then HBL Autosports.

But I thought they usually take the diag fee and put it into the cost of the job

Isn't Kon the man for Subies? Other than the fact that almost no one can understand what he says?

https://fr.yelp.ca/biz/kon-auto-vancouver

I'd say HBL Autosports in Richmond (on No. 5 Road) is a well-respected indy Subaru shop. The owner as well as his crew really knows their Subies.

On the other hand, I am not sure how well it'd fly with any auto repair shop for what you are trying to do. When something is broken, I'd imagine that any reputable shop is going to want to do their own confirmation on what is causing the problem, because if they just did whatever work a customer is asking them to do, then if the problem didn't get fixed, the customer would likely blame the shop for doing something wrong.

I am not saying your assessment of the cause of the problem is wrong, and I am not saying you have no clue of what you are talking about. But repair personnel generally don't do things this way because the average customer has no clue WTF is wrong while thinking that they do lol~

But give HBL a call and see what their boss says.

I can't speak for other shops/dealers but for the ones I've worked at, the technician has to spend the time to perform their diagnosis and they've got to be paid for their time. In addition to the repairs that need to be done.

I'm sorry if I wasn't clear, $160 was what they want to charge to do nothing but look at the engine and tell me something I already know.

- I'm happy to pay for the labour to have the seal replaced and I know the labour to do that job is way more than $160.
- I don't want to pay for them to diagnose that the timing cover seal is leaking when I can clearly see that it is leaking.

Thanks for the recommendation on HBL, I'll call them Azro now only works on cars that people bought from them.

Thanks for the recommendation on HBL.

The shop I dealt with in Pemberton didn't charge a flat rate diagnostic fee for an issue that would take them ~10 minutes to identify IF they were doing the repair work. I would tell them what I had observed (EG "Hey guys, I can see oil weeping from my timing cover seal") They would book the car in and make their own observation before doing the work. The actual time they spent doing the diagnosis was just added to the repair bill, I wouldn't see a separate line item for diagnostic time. The time they booked was always reasonable (I don't think they were padding the repair time to cover diag.) If I took the car in and asked them to diagnose something for me and then took the car away without getting them to do the work, they would charge me for every minute they spent on the diagnostic service and I would expect to pay for every minute of their time.

It's all good, if HBL does the same thing then that is the way it is. I just need to find a shop down here that I can develop a good working relationship with. The shop I worked with knew me and my cars and that when I brought something in, I usually had a pretty good idea of what needed to be done and could point them in the right direction.

nope, over and above the cost to repair was what they stated.

Let us know how it goes with HBL. I go there when I can't or don't feel like DIY.

Will do, I’m in the same boat as you, there is a lot of stuff I can DIY on my cars but there are times when it’s beyond my skill level, I’m too busy or it’s a job I don’t feel like doing while laying on my back with the car up on jack stands.

As it is I’m eyeballs deep in work on a mk6 GTI I bought as my new winter beaterto make life easier on my current winter beater. A winter beater for my winter beater.

I heard Pawlik on Marine Dr, near the Arthur Laing is a reliable Indy Subaru dealer. I don't find their prices particularly much cheaper than dealer though.

https://pawlikautomotive.com/car-mak...ervice/subaru/

I take my sti and rdx to Eric at HBL from day one. Honest and reliable family owned. Can vouch for them.