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dealer only touched mine once and that was for madatory reflash. Asked to take a look at air leak on drivers side. mechanic saw EGT couple and immediatly blamed that. last time at that dealership. Sound wasn't even close to thermocouple.
My experience with dealerships is that they are not created equal. The dealer that I purchased my '03 F250, 6.0L Lariat from had lousy tech(s). They did the 1st reflash at 15K miles and ruined the performance of the truck, 2 reflashes (3 total) later I took it to another dealer in hopes of getting the thing fixed, and lo and behold the truck was back to its old self after the new tech at the other dealer refashed it yet again (4 times). The truck has performed great ever since (64K miles) with no additional reflashes. My advice: Don't assume your dealer has a good tech that works on your vehicle.
Not only does the quality of the technician vary from dealer to dealer, the prices for service can really vary.
I have my local dealer do all my service work, which has only been scheduled maintenance - the truck has been perfect. Yes, I could change the oil myself, but I wouldn't save much on the $58 I pay the dealer for oil/filter plus regular maintenance stuff like pulling the water out of the fuel filter, grease, washer fluid, etc.
However, another dealer I tried was getting over $90 for the same thing.
So shop around if you are going to have the dealer do your work.