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Message: [QUOTE="Watchdog, post: 3806094, member: 10325"] My comments are based on you thinking you'll trade the car in the Summer. In general, if the car is running well and you're thinking of replacing it that soon, why do all this work? But if you do decide to do some or all I agree with all the others that you should ask around for a trusted independent shop to do it if you don't or can't do some of it yourself. Dealers' main source of profits is maintenance charged at the "book" rate no matter how much faster the mechanics do the work than the "book" claims it should take. Are the pads so worn the brakes are squealing? Are the rotors so warped the car "shudders" when you apply the brakes? Is the brake fluid cloudy? Is the car running rough or lacking power or getting materially poorer gas mileage so the plugs (or coil packs) need replacing? Brake fluid flush? For what? Open the cap and see if the fluid is clear or cloudy. If it's clear you don't need to flush and change it. Brake fluid is hygroscopic and can be damaged by the water it absorbs so if it's cloudy you should change it. Whether it's worth $130 for a dealer to do it is up to you. There must be some YouTube videos on how to do it on a Subaru but on most cars it only involves opening and closing the bleed screws in the proper sequence and draining the old fluid into a container (using a clear plastic hose) while you or your assistant keep adding new fluid to the reservoir. . Brakes are not hard to replace. Watch a few YouTube videos and go to it. All you do is jack up and remove one wheel at a time, loosen a few bolts to remove the caliper, and then the rotor, and then putting the new rotor on and replacing the pads. You may need a tool to compress the piston(s) in the calipers but for the money you'll save it's worth buying one. The headlights on my Escalade fogged up inside because the butyl seal between the outer clear acrylic lens and the inner black plastic body failed. Within a few months there was an half inch of water in the bottom of one headlight and an inch in the bottom of the other one and on the way home from dinner one night the lights shut off a couple miles from home and stayed off. Exciting. Glad it wasn't on the Jersey TPKE near the Meadowlands. I consulted the Cadillac forum and found it was happening a lot on one model and some on other models but GM wouldn't do a recall. All they would do for the the one model was reimburse those who had paid to have their lights replaced. So I went to my local dealer and was told the lights were about $1100 EACH and with tax and $400 labor it would cost nearly $2800 to replace them. Eight YouTube videos later I decided to buy a PAIR for a little over $900 on eBay. Made in the Phillipines but look and fit like the originals. It took me 3 to 4 hours to do what the mechanics at GM would do in an hour but well worth the effort. Not hard, but had to remove 15 to 20 push pins and bolts that hold the whole front fascia on so I could move it forward about an inch, then remove 5 or 6 bolts and push pins to open up the fender liner on each side and then 2 bolts on each side to remove a bracket inside the front nose. All that to be able to get to the third bolt that holds the headlights in place. Seemed worth it to save about $1800. [/QUOTE]

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