Auto repair · Des Moines, IA · ASE Master Technician A1–A8 · L1 Advanced Engine Performance
One car. Every entry. Including the ones we got wrong.
An independent shop in Des Moines. Instead of a services list, this page publishes one customer car in full — 148,300 miles of work, what we recommended, what was declined, and which of those declines we turned out to be wrong about.
The ledger
2016 Subaru Outback 2.5i Premium
One owner, second-hand at 61,040 miles, still driving it. We have had it from 61,040 miles to 148,300 — 87,260 miles and 16 entries, $4,089 of work in total.
61,040 2 consequences, marked 148,300
-
61,040 mi Mar 2019
DoneIntake inspection
Baseline before we touched anything. Photographed and filed.
$120
-
64,500 mi Aug 2019
DoneOil and filter, tyre rotation
Routine. Rear pads measured at 6mm.
$89
-
71,200 mi Jun 2020
DoneFront brake pads and rotors
Pads at 2mm. Rotors below minimum thickness, so they went with them.
$486
-
71,200 mi Jun 2020
DeclinedRear differential fluid
We recommended it at the same visit. Customer declined. Fair call — the factory interval is severe-service only.
not billed
-
78,900 mi Apr 2021
DoneBattery
Failed a load test. Replaced before it stranded anyone.
$214
-
84,100 mi Nov 2021
DeclinedValve cover gasket, small seep
A damp seam, no drips, nothing on the driveway. We flagged it and said it could wait.
not billed
-
92,600 mi Sep 2022
DoneCVT fluid service
On the factory schedule at 90,000. Not a flush — a drain and fill, which is what Subaru specifies.
$328
-
96,300 mi Feb 2023
DeclinedRear wheel bearing, early noise
A faint hum on left-hand curves. We recommended replacement. Customer wanted to wait and hear it develop.
not billed
-
103,800 mi Oct 2023
Came backRear wheel bearing and hub
It developed. By the time it came back the hub had scored, so the repair was larger than the one declined at 96,300.
Follows the recommendation at 96,300 miles, which was declined.
$612
-
109,400 mi May 2024
DoneSpark plugs, all four
Factory interval. Two were at the wear limit, two had a season left.
$268
-
112,000 mi Jul 2024
DeclinedFront sway bar end links
A light knock over expansion joints. Customer declined. Still quiet three years on — we were early.
not billed
-
121,500 mi Mar 2025
DoneTiming belt, water pump, tensioner
The big one. Done as a set because the labour overlaps almost entirely.
$1,284
-
121,500 mi Mar 2025
DeclinedSerpentine belt
We had it apart and recommended doing it while we were in there. Declined. It is still fine.
not billed
-
130,200 mi Nov 2025
Came backValve cover gasket
The seep from 84,100 became a drip onto the exhaust. Same gasket, plus cleaning what it had cooked onto.
Follows the recommendation at 84,100 miles, which was declined.
$397
-
141,700 mi Apr 2026
DoneRear brake pads
Rotors measured in spec, so pads only. Seventy thousand miles on the rears.
$291
-
148,300 mi Aug 2026
OpenFront struts, both sides
Bounce test fails at the front. Not a safety defect yet. Our recommendation is this winter.
not billed
How often we were right
5 recommendations declined. 2 of them came back.
We are not calibrated perfectly and this is the evidence. Where we were early, the customer saved the money. Where we were right, waiting cost more than doing it would have. Both columns are on this page because a shop that only publishes the second one is selling, not reporting.
- 3
- Declines that were fine. We were early, and the customer kept the money.
- 2
- Came back worse, for $1,009 between them. Both would have been cheaper done when we first said so.
- 1
- Still open. The struts. We have said this winter, and it is not a safety defect yet.
What we charge and how
Book time, and which book.
Labour is billed from published book time, not from a stopwatch. If the guide says an operation is 2.4 hours, that is what the invoice says whether it took us 1.8 or 3.1. That is normal across the trade and almost never explained, so here it is in writing along with which guide we use.
| Item | Figure |
|---|---|
| Labour rate | $139 / hour |
| Labour guide | Mitchell 1 |
| Diagnostic, first hour | $120 |
| Diagnostic applied to repair | Yes, in full |
| Shop supplies | 3% capped at $25 |
| Parts markup | Listed on the invoice |
Free code reads
A code is a symptom, not a part.
A scan tool reads a code in about ninety seconds and plenty of places will do it for nothing. That is worth exactly what it costs, because a code names a symptom or a circuit — never a part.
| Code | What it states | What gets replaced | What it also is |
|---|---|---|---|
| P0420 | Catalyst efficiency below threshold, bank 1 | Catalytic converter, $1,100–$1,900 | A lazy upstream oxygen sensor, an exhaust leak before the sensor, or a misfire cooking the converter |
| P0171 | System too lean, bank 1 | Mass airflow sensor, $290–$480 | An intake leak, a weak fuel pump, or a dirty MAF that only needed cleaning |
| P0300 | Random or multiple cylinder misfire | Coils and plugs, $400–$700 | A vacuum leak, low fuel pressure, or one injector — the code will not tell you which |
| P0442 | Small evaporative emission leak | Purge valve, $180–$320 | The fuel cap, roughly a third of the time, at no cost at all |
Reading the code is free here too. Finding which of those it actually is takes a technician and a couple of hours, and that is what the diagnostic fee buys.
Who drives to us
Des Moines and the metro.
South side
Indianola Hills, Gray’s Lake, Southwestern Hills
East
East Village, Capitol Park, Pleasant Hill
North
Beaverdale, Merle Hay, Highland Park
Metro
West Des Moines, Ankeny, Urbandale, Altoona
Customers
What the metro says.
“They talked me out of a repair twice. The third time they said do it now, so I did it now, and I did not argue.”
“The invoice listed the book hours next to the parts. First shop I have used where I could check the arithmetic myself.”
“Chain place told me catalytic converter, eighteen hundred dollars. Grainline found an exhaust leak ahead of the sensor. Three hundred and change.”
“They keep the whole history. I asked what the car had had done in 2021 and got an answer in about four seconds.”
Common questions
Before you book.
Why publish a car where you were wrong?
Because a shop that only shows the times it was right is showing you an advert. Four of the seven things this customer declined were fine to decline. If we hid that, the two that were not fine would mean nothing.
Is book time fair?
It is the trade standard and it cuts both ways — you pay the same when a bolt shears and the job takes us an extra hour. What is not fair is not being told which guide is being used, so ours is on this page.
Why charge for a diagnosis when the code is free?
The code is not the diagnosis. P0420 is caused by the converter often enough that people replace it, and by three cheaper things often enough that replacing it first is how you spend the money twice. The fee buys the hours that tell those apart, and it comes off the repair.
Do you work on cars you did not sell parts for?
Yes. Bring your own parts if you want to — we will fit them, and we will say plainly that the warranty then covers our labour and not the part.
Will you tell me if something can wait?
Every recommendation we make comes with what happens if it does not get done, in words. Sixteen entries on this page and four of them are things we said could wait.
Do you do state inspections?
Iowa does not require periodic safety inspections for passenger vehicles, so there is nothing to sell you there. If you want a pre-purchase inspection on a car you are buying, that is $145 and takes about ninety minutes.
Book the shop
What is it doing?
Symptoms are more useful to us than a code. Fields marked with an asterisk are required.