PEM failure after annual service

[glight2000]

Within 3w of getting the car serviced, I had some error messages. I took the car to the service center and got the bad news that it was a PEM failure. I thought I read here somewhere that it's possible that it's a PEM fuse and not the entire PEM so I pushed back and asked the foreman to doublecheck the fuses. It turns out it was a fuse. $400 instead of $8900. Thank you forum!

 

[MileHighMotoring]

Yep, glad you figured that out! That was me last year.

 

[wiztecy]

What fuse costs $400? Must be gold plated.....

 

[AB4EJ]

What fuse costs $400? Must be gold plated.....

Maybe this is one of those $1 for the part, $399 for the labor....

 

[ML Auto]

$1 for the fuse, bill three hours while they scratch their heads trying for figure out what is wrong, and 15 minutes to replace the fuse.

 

[wiztecy]

^ Exactly ^

Its insane and sad how shops can charge their incompetence to the customer's wallet when the customer was the one who suggested the solution. These are professionally trained experts so they say...

 

[dpeilow]

Company owned places were supposed to put a stop to this kind of rip off.

 

[MileHighMotoring]

It could be worse. They charged me $840 for this @#$ repair. You paid half that..

 

[hcsharp]

The most expensive fuses in the PEM are about $100 each the last time I checked. You can order them from Digi-key. So if they mark that up 50% you are now at $300 for both fuses. It takes about 15 min to replace them. Another 15 min to discuss it with the customer. At $200/hr you are now at $400 total for the job.

Seems excessive. Especially given Wiztecy's point that the customer diagnosed the problem.

 

[nsxpert]

Since a few people mentioned it's a 15 min job, Is replacing these fuses a DIY... or a not to be attempted at home kind of thing? (i.e. dangerous)
This sounds like a part I'd have spares of on any other car.

 

[wiztecy]

If you shut power down from the PEM and well informed you can do the change yourself. Don't do it live, ever. As for carrying spare fuses, I would if and only if they've blown on me before snce there was an obvious current spike that occurred and never resolved nor the source identified. It may possibly never occur again, however, odds are that it will. Otherwise I wouldn't worry about carrying spares if you never blew them in my opinion.

 

[glight2000]

They also charged me to replace a hook that holds the floormat in place. I'm sure that was part of the repair cost.