Tekforums
Chat => Sports, Hobbies & Motors => Topic started by: Beaker on March 04, 2008, 07:02:19 AM
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This has semi-amused me.
On Friday afternoon I noticed the engine warning light had come on, and wasnt going out. Being me I did some digging aorund and found "The paperclip" test to get the data off the ECU without plugging it into a computer. Turns out the camshaft sensor is on its way out (its a Veccy, im not surprised). So I figure ill find out how much one is at the Vauxhall dealer. The parts dude wasnt in when I rang, so I left my e-mail addy as a contact. Just checked it this morning and there is a *rough* estimate. The dealer recons that the sensor is "About £60", and fitting will be "between £120 and £180 depending on the condition of the engine". At this point im nearly choking with laughter. Ive already checked the price of the part at the local Auto Electrics shop (£34 inc VAT), and had a word with a mate who worked at the dealer for a while (he said it should take me an hour if ive not done one before). Where on Gods Green Earth do these tossers get their prices from?!
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Where on Gods Green Earth do these tossers get their prices from?!
They pluck them out of thin air.. common knowledge i thought
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I wouldnt know the 1st thing about repairing a car, and as such would pay the price.
Why did one of my dads neighbours buy a P2 machine from me for £400 3 years ago? He didnt know any better. :D
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just dropped the car at my local garage to do the sensor, swap the fanbelt, do the emissions and sort out the dodgy abs sensor on the front wheel. Total cost for parts and labour is £160. For that much its easier to just let someone else fix it. Ive got an install job to do Friday and Saturday this week, and thatll more than pay for the jobs on the car, and still leave me with some beer money.
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really do have to love local garages. I overslept and when i saw the clock I cried a little inside because I had missed their closing time. I go downstairs to put the kettle on and I see an envelope by the front door. Its got my keys in it, and a note saying that I acually owe them £130 as they didnt need to replace the ABS Sensor, and could i please nip in tomorrow and pay. The car is sat on my drive. heh, Vauxhall dealer would likely have left the car in the service bay, not contacted me at all, and they would have upped the charge by at least £30.
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Id still call £130 a bit steep - but then I would never pay anyone to work on a car, for any sort of work at all - except maybe some serious bodywork.
Id hate to have to rely on todays mechanics who are little more than fitters and just change the parts the computer tells them might be faulty. They charge ludicrous prices, never do the work right, EVER
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Id still call £130 a bit steep - but then I would never pay anyone to work on a car, for any sort of work at all - except maybe some serious bodywork.
Id hate to have to rely on todays mechanics who are little more than fitters and just change the parts the computer tells them might be faulty. They charge ludicrous prices, never do the work right, EVER
not for what theyve done. New fanbelt and cam sensor, including fitting. Along with sorting out the annoying ABS sensor that would come on if you braked softly. The Fanbelt involves taking an engine mounting off as well, so its easier for me to just let someone else do it.
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really do have to love local garages. I overslept and when i saw the clock I cried a little inside because I had missed their closing time. I go downstairs to put the kettle on and I see an envelope by the front door. Its got my keys in it, and a note saying that I acually owe them £130 as they didnt need to replace the ABS Sensor, and could i please nip in tomorrow and pay. The car is sat on my drive. heh, Vauxhall dealer would likely have left the car in the service bay, not contacted me at all, and they would have upped the charge by at least £30.
Thats pretty good service!
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Id still call £130 a bit steep - but then I would never pay anyone to work on a car, for any sort of work at all - except maybe some serious bodywork.
Id hate to have to rely on todays mechanics who are little more than fitters and just change the parts the computer tells them might be faulty. They charge ludicrous prices, never do the work right, EVER
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quite true.... £20 labour to change a tyre & its done by the YTS kid.
Glad its a company car.
I know sweet FA about Cars, but Id rather try & fail to fix it, than pay the prices they charge these days to hook it up to a computer & change a fuse.
Last time I had a car & it failed the MOT on the Breaks, Bald Tyre, rough body work & some switch didnt work internally.
Done all the work myself except the welding
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it is steep - £30 odd quids worth of parts and maybe 2 hrs time maximum
change a fan belt, clean the muck off an ABS sensor and replace a sensor
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it is steep - £30 odd quids worth of parts and maybe 2 hrs time maximum
change a fan belt, clean the muck off an ABS sensor and replace a sensor
yeah, but that would be 2 hours of of friday, when im suppoded to be doing an install job. Ill cover that in about 2 hours myself because its piece work. £25 per desktop set up and joined to the domain. They are already imaged up. I figure im better off earnign more money than the mechanic charges. Also these days I have no garage, or indeed hardly any decent tools to do work with since my dad has got funny about me borrowing stuff. My main bugbear was the fanbelt, changing it means taking a few bits off, and unbolting one of the engine mountings. Ive no engine hoist, so im somewhat dodgy about doing it.
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Jack under the engine :thumbup:
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Jack under the engine :thumbup:
This is a family forum, theres no need for that.
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Jack under the engine :thumbup:
considered that, but my main issue was that ive nowhere to work at the moment, and Im better off earning money on friday. I rarely use garages to be honest, i think its the 3rd time in 13 years of car ownership ive done it. Last time was for a gearbox, and time before to swap a back axle on one of my old golfs.
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I love living so close to Alan, hes great with mechanical stuff!! hes helped me more times than I can remember from body work (not my personal body) to loads of other issues.
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it is steep - £30 odd quids worth of parts and maybe 2 hrs time maximum
change a fan belt, clean the muck off an ABS sensor and replace a sensor
I dont know your job, but what do people get charged for your time, and if you supply parts do you give them at cost?
And any mechanic will know its not just "change a fan belt, clean the muck off an ABS sensor and replace a sensor"
I take it youve never done one of these belts?
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I love living so close to Alan, hes great with mechanical stuff!! hes helped me more times than I can remember from body work (not my personal body) to loads of other issues.
damn why did you add the disclamer ?
I didnt even need to click the "recent topics" button.... my spider sence went crqy and dragged me here knowing there was a body work joke with me in it !
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it is steep - £30 odd quids worth of parts and maybe 2 hrs time maximum
change a fan belt, clean the muck off an ABS sensor and replace a sensor
I dont know your job, but what do people get charged for your time, and if you supply parts do you give them at cost?
And any mechanic will know its not just "change a fan belt, clean the muck off an ABS sensor and replace a sensor"
I take it youve never done one of these belts?
Im saying for me it would have been cheaper to do it myself, and Im quite confident that 95% of commercial garages do a sh*t job, because theyre staffed with fitters and technicians nowadays.
Im not sure what engine he has but Ive replaced belts in quite a few vectras and cavaliers.
The faulty sensor was probably just dirty - they usually are - and a cam position sensor is normally quite handy changed.
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Im saying for me it would have been cheaper to do it myself, and Im quite confident that 95% of commercial garages do a sh*t job, because theyre staffed with fitters and technicians nowadays.
Im not sure what engine he has but Ive replaced belts in quite a few vectras and cavaliers.
The faulty sensor was probably just dirty - they usually are - and a cam position sensor is normally quite handy changed.
Belt = £32 inc VAT
Sensor = £34 inc VAT
So £66 for the parts, and about 2 hours labour. Harldy getting skinned am i, and i trust the place because its the garage all the old fart veteran car owners round here go to. Been using them for my MOTs for years as well, they will pull things up on anything at all.
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Your garage sounds legendary to me with service like that. Im sure everyone here by now knows my hatred of the places, finding a good one is rare as rocking horse sh*te. Id certainly never in a million years expect a garage the drop my car off and post me my keys if I couldnt pick it up.
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Your garage sounds legendary to me with service like that. Im sure everyone here by now knows my hatred of the places, finding a good one is rare as rocking horse sh*te. Id certainly never in a million years expect a garage the drop my car off and post me my keys if I couldnt pick it up.
i think part of it is that my sister uses them for her company fleet as well. I think Im getting the same service she does because they recognise me (Im usually called when she needs to book a car in and doesnt have anyone free). That said, I trust them partially because of the cars the owner has scattered around. The e-type and the A35 are owned by the garage boss, there is a Scimitar GTE that belongs to the workshop foreman, and there is a really old Rover 100 (not the rebadged metro) sat outside all the time. They also use a couple of Moggy thousand vans as their day-to-day vans. The owner can usually be seen wandering around in overalls working on stuff as well, which to my mind says hes a mechanic more than a business man. Ive had some experience of other garages round here when I had company cars, and to be fair they are almost all like Mark says. Crap service, and an over reliance on computers and swapping parts. The only other exception I can think of is a one man band that specialises on Alpha Romeo and Lancia. After seeing him in actionon my mates Integrale I can see why he is highly regarded. Mate drove the car in, told him what the problem was and he zoomed straight in on it (electircal fault). It was fixed and on its way about 30 mins later.
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Should try the local vx dealer near me they charge £79.90 + vat for an hours labour lol
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its sommit like £96 ph for work on the range rover at the dealer here.
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Its mad how much they charge especially when there is a local garage 2 mins away charging £35 ph labour and only charges £90 for a full service and the bloke is spot on. Thing is the dealers wont drop the prices as they know people will pay it regardless :/
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the lexis main dealer wanted £96 for a bettery and £120 to fit it from my uncle :o
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Complete joke aint it Knighty
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its sommit like £96 ph for work on the range rover at the dealer here.
Thats crazy money - and it will be £5.50 an hour trainee fitters doing the work
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Im saying for me it would have been cheaper to do it myself, and Im quite confident that 95% of commercial garages do a sh*t job, because theyre staffed with fitters and technicians nowadays.
Im not sure what engine he has but Ive replaced belts in quite a few vectras and cavaliers.
The faulty sensor was probably just dirty - they usually are - and a cam position sensor is normally quite handy changed.
Belt = £32 inc VAT
Sensor = £34 inc VAT
So £66 for the parts, and about 2 hours labour. Harldy getting skinned am i, and i trust the place because its the garage all the old fart veteran car owners round here go to. Been using them for my MOTs for years as well, they will pull things up on anything at all.
Good service, agreed, and I suppose they did make up for slightly cheaper (5er or so) on the sensor than the belt would be elsewhere (17 inc VAT)