i have a friend who is a shade tree mechanic.
He said he would take a look at it.
If the part goes for say, 20. bucks, then, would it be safe to guess the price a mechanic would charge would be around 60 dollars over this 20? making it around 85.00 ? 1995 Cadillac Sedan Seville SLS 4.6 CID automatic North Star engine. 150,000 miles or better. mechanic detected leak but wants to charge over 100 dollars to fix. Is this too much?
If the “over $100” includes a coolant flush and the cost of the new antifreeze, then it’s probably about right.
I think you should wait until your friend looks at the car and see what he says.
Your method of getting from $20 to $85 is interesting, but it may not be very accurate.
If I think I can fix something myself I do it. Otherwise I pay my friendly independent mechanic to do it for me, and I don’t argue with him about the price.
Shadetree mechanic? How is that better than DIY?
Have your buddy fix it. Its an easy fix and it will cost you less
You’re going to have to wait to see what your friend says. As tardis noted the quote is probably fine if it includes what amounts to cooling system service. But it also might be quite reasonable depending on what one needs to do to change the hose. This is normally not as simple as “open hood, remove old hose, install new hose.” Those things can be really hard to get to and may require quite a bit of labor. I’m talking in general terms as I’ve never been under the hood of one of these.
One word of caution…Where the hose connects to the heater core barb fitting on the firewall…These fittings are just soldered into a rather fragile part…No force should be applied trying to remove the old hose…The hose must be carefully cut off with a sharp blade to avoid damage to the fitting and the heater core…
If you have not changed the coolant in a while, now might be a good time. These engines are VERY fussy about their coolant so just don’t use anything…A coolant change might also require a special GM stop-leak sealer additive available at Caddy parts counters…
Since book time to replace one heater hose on this particular car is 1.4 hours, the price is right on without a flush.
$100+ to repair this is not too much at all. You’re paying for his knowledge and experience as well as just the repair. He found the leak and may have saved your engine from overheating by doing so.
if your Friend ruins something will they take care of it. if for some reason the job is done wrong then the motor could be damaged to the tune of a few thousand dollars. is it worth the risk