I have a '98 Legacy-Outback Wagon with 191,000 miles. The check engine light came on and so we took it to our favorite shop. They said the light was on because of a broken knock sensor. The final cost came in @ $370. That was about $100 more than I was expecting.

 

Any thoughts? Thanks.

Knock sensor at subarupartsforyou.com - $79.00

 

Maybe 15 minutes to remove the old one, and 15 minutes to install the new one.

 

Even at $85.00/hr labor rate, $370.00 sounds high. Did they do anything else ?

That's insane!!! You can easily pick up a knock sensor for less than 100, and then at most it's 30 minutes to change. Sounds like something is going on!!

You got ripped off big time if they didn't do anything else than read the code and replace the knock sensor.

Reading a code should be: FREE (Some shops will charge you 1 hour for this!!!: $75

Knock Sensor from autozone: $75.99

One hour Minimum Labor: $75

 

75

75

+76

$226

 

Really should be about $150 to have a shop do this job. (Even some shops will do a half hour minimum labor and that would save you another 30 or 40 dollars.) I'm sorry my friend, you've been had. For future reference Autozone will read codes for free. For $100 I would have come up there from Tucson and done it for you. Even then you would have been under $200 (with tax.) Take a look at your invoice and see what they charged you for. Was this a dealership? They charge around $180 for the Genuine Subaru Knock Sensor at the dealer. Then $95 to read the code and $95 for an hour of labor = $370... ohhhh.

Edited July 22, 201015 yr by SuBrat84

I just changed mine out myself. Had the code read at Advance Auto came up Knock Sensor Failure. They wanted $78 for the part, Auto Zone wanted $45.

 

Took about 15 mins to change out.