Ok, so I take my car in for an oil change at the stealership. I do this to protect my 100,000 warranty so if I ever have any issues they don't have ammo to give me a hard time.

I usually deal with the service manager but he went home for the day. The service advisor comes running out with this paperwork while the car is up on the lift. He says I need a power steering flush soon and if I don't get one the fluid will become acidic and damage my seals. I've never heard of this. I've never flushed power steering fluid on any vehicle I've owned and I've never had any problems. Anyone ever hear of this?

He also said I need an induction/injection service to clean the carbon out of the engine. This I've heard of but not at 48k miles.

Sounds like Stealership shenanigans. This dealership is usually pretty good.

Anyone want to throw in their .02?

 

Well, the power steering fluid can break down over time, but I wouldn't change it yet... Plus, there is no way that not changing PS fluid will result in your drivetrain/engine warranty being voided, completely unrelated IMO...

As for the carbon cleaning, if you hit higher RPM's occasionally you are probably burning most of the carbon off, especially if you have a well functioning ignition system, which you should have. A cheaper alternative if you're interested is SeaFoam. Costs about 6 bucks for a can, and in my experince it works. I have an old jeep that runs rich due to carb settings. It was starting to diesel (continue to run after shutting it off) from carbon buildup. I used the Sea Foam and it stopped.

 

definately sounds like a "stealership shenanigans". although, i got mine totally flushed (not just drain/fill) at 47k at my discretion since i track the car 5-6 times a year.

it's not a bad thing to do obviously, just make sure you are not getting raped.

 

Man this sounds like typical dealer "upsell" bullshti. I was in the nissan service area waiting room for about 2 hours once, and I got to overhear the service advisors scare these poor old folks into paying them several hundred dollars more for a bunch of crap they didn't need.

There has to be someone who has worked (or works) at some dealership who can step up and tell us the truth -- do they train the service advisors to be sales people and sell people extra crap service that they don't really need?

Do car manufacturers have to do this to stay profitable? It's really sad.