Well they charged my daughter
$5 for the lug
150 to install
Call the dealer parts dept and they will quote thier price
One of the reasons I never let anyone touch any of my vehicles. Trust me: this far from the most ridiculous stuff I saw in the field. Oh, and donât waste your time on looking for sense. Especialye when a stealer is involved.
Not sure what you mean? $5 for the replacement stud and $150 to replace it seems a pretty fair fee for the job. The OP refers to the stud as the âlugâ, maybe part of the confusion.
True enough, thereâs a lot of advantages to be gained by a car owner doing all the repair and maintenance work themselves as diyâers, but this option is not practical for the majority of car owners. Tools, workspace, access to service data, and training/knowledge required. For 1960s cars, a car-knowledgeable owner could use trial and error based on educated guesses and have a pretty good chance of effecting a correct diagnosis and repair, but w/todayâs computerized cars, that method isnât likely to work.
1 Like
Thatâs not the point - not having it broken in the first place is. Not to mention that it would take me half an hour to replace it myself, and I am not even a mechanic. OK, maybe an hour. With two coffee breaks. As as Senior Software Engineer, I make decent living but not even close to $150/hr. I understand not everybody is in the position (have minimal skills, tools, health) to do it themselves but most do. From my previous incarnation as a Mechanical Breakdown Inspector, I know that relying on âprofessionalsâ is rarely a winning proposition.
Those prices seem off, we would charge $20 for the wheel stud and $135 for labor. Better?
1 Like
Yes stud
Yep use to work on mine, except brakes,
Now they set the engines widged in and everything on top of what you need to get to.
Have to drop or raise the engine
Even changing bulbs in certain places, you have to dismantle the car
Anyway
1 Like
No, itâs not any better for the reasons I already stated. Primarily because it wouldnât need to be replaced if some âprofessionalâ didnât brake it.
As if we âprofessionalsâ intentionally brake(sic) stuff when we start a repair.
Yep! I just smile from ear to ear as I stare at the bolt that just broke flush, thinking how the hell am I going to remove it without causing further damage.
And then having to call the customer to let them know the vehicle isnât going be done when promised because of this little snag.
Tester
3 Likes
In most cases, you absolutely donât. But letâs face it: when I am working on my car, - and I did fairly complex things like a couple of months ago I replaced head gaskets on my sonâs 4Runner you guys wanted $5,000-$6,000 for - I take my time because there is no obvious conflict of interests - if I brake it I fix it. If you brake it - customer pays you to fix it. If I see a questionable bolt, I spray it with liquid wrench and come back to it next day. This approach would drastically affect your bottom line. During the above mentioned head gasket replacement (2004 with 302,000 miles, all of it in the Midwest), one bolt in the timing cover broke. It took me maybe 40 minutes to drill it out and cut the threads. In your professional environment, the customer wouldâve bought the timing cover. My wild guess is itâs $400-500. See the difference?
Just for information, itâs been 11,000 miles, and it runs perfectly with no issues whatsoever. Once (ONCE!!!) 30+ years ago, I let a DEALERSHIP âproâ do a head gasket on my Civic simply because I didnât have a shop at that time. They 1. punctured the radiator hose so that it had to be towed and 2. cross-threaded the main pulley bolt. Of course they denied warranty because it was âover 30 daysâ. Fortunately, the Accord uses the same thread size but longer bolt but I still had to fix damage key groove in the crankshaft and make a new key to use it. I can - and probably will - write a book about amazing stuff done by âprofessionalsâ I saw in the fieldâŠ
Seems unlikely (from my own experience anyway) a shop tech would suggest purchasing a new part for $450 when 40 minutes of labor would guarantee the same result. Unless the customer needed the car immediately, and it would take a day or more before the tech could do the 40 minute job. In which case the tech would offer up the two options and let the customer decide.
This all assumes the shop staff is acting in good faith of course. The way to increase greatly the odds of getting a good-faith shop is to only patronize shops for which you have a personal recommendation. The types of situations your are presenting are what Iâd expect if I patronized shops at random, without a personal recommendation. Sometimes a car owner has to do that, but not usually.
What you are saying makes sense. Except that itâs not practical - armed robbery is well more profitable than honest work so those who are honest donât stay in business long. You know - competition, free market, etc.
I recall doing an inspection of a mitsubishi 3000gt (or its dodge knock-off) with one little problem - plastic pin on the cable tilting rear spoiler broke. The stealer wanted $1,400 for the part alone! Essentially a speedo cable. 30+years ago it was a considerable amount of change. Even today it is. I asked them to give me a file, a bolt, and 20 minutes, and I would make that pin better than original. Guess what? I was not welcome in that outfit anymore. Speaking of âgood faithââŠ
1 Like
