Excessive Garage Bill?

Astronomical would be nearer the mark! I've fitted a new master cylinder to my 110 and it wasn't exactly rocket science, taking at most three hours. Stupid charges like this are the reason that I don't let garages near my vehicles unless it's something like the clutch, or major mechanical problems. John

according to the 1985 ICME manual it should take 1.40 hours, supprized he was quicker. I think the only thing i always beat the book the book at was removing/raplacing beetle engines, most jobs took me longer..

-- richard

Yep, that's nuts. The most I've ever charged to R/R a master is about 100 bucks (US). That's if I had to bleed the calipers too. If it was a straight master change without additional hassel, about 65 would do it.

What really annoys me about stupid garage bills is that all to often, especially with things like brakes, you don't get a qualified mechanic, but a trainee who has just left school and they charge you the same rate. I adopted the attitude years ago that for the things that matter, like brakes and steering, nobody gets near my car.

To put this stupid charge into perspective, I was charged what I considered a reasonable charge of £350 for doing my clutch, which involves a fair amount of work. This included all genuine clutch parts. When you compare this with what Rob was charged, it really shows this garage up for the crooks they obviously are.

It's a pity Rob didn't mark the master cylinder before taking it in, as they may have even just fitted a new seal kit and not replaced the original at all.

It would be interesting know whether the garage in question is part of a chain, or just a small local garage. I don't suggest Rob posts the name, as that could leave him open to prosecution, but I would certainly write to the chairman of the company and send a copy of the bill and the letter to BBC's consumer programme, Watchdog, or Rogue Traders.

I bought a Land Rover for two main reasons, partly because I've always wanted one and also because they are basically a big meccano kit, fairly easy to work on with no electrical controls to cause problems. The bits which do tend to go regularly, like propshaft UJ's are simple and cheap to replace and even if a halfshaft goes you can drive home with the difflock engaged and the propshaft removed.

There are minor irritations, like the use of a Torx plug on the gearbox, not the sort of tool a bush mechanic is likely to have, but generally Land Rovers are fairly basic. If you don't want to do the work yourself, there are plenty of good specialist land rover mechanics around who won't charge the earth.

If Rob wants to let us know where in the Country he lives, I'm sure that someone on this site can tell him where a good local guy can be found.

One girl who used to work for me actually went to the length of going to night school to learn basic mechanics, not because she wanted to to the work, bur so that she would know when she was being overcharged. Another took her car to a large local garage recommended by my line manager for a rubbing noise on the wheel. After two visits and two bills later she still hadn't got a result, so I persuaded to let me have a look. Five minutes later the problem was solved, a loose wheel bearing which should have been pciked up by even a trainee on the first visit.

This is full of people from all over the World who work on Land Rovers regularly and we all help each other, what one doesn't know someone else probably will, which is handy when you have your vehicle in pieces on the drive.

Sorry about the length of this post, but overcharging really p***es me off.

Cheers John

My local garage has just fitted a new master brake cylinder to my '84 Rangie, and is asking £545 for the work. The main dealer tells me the part is approx £130 after vat - even allowing for labour and profit, does the garage bill seem excessive?

Any advice much appreciated.

Rob

I usually figure that beating twice the book time is good for me. I'm sure experience will tell. But as the local independent is 45 quid an hour (38+VAT), and I don't earn 20 quid an hour, I'm fairly happy with the equation.

Actually, I think my biggest problem is an inability to put tools down and find them again :-) More practice needed.

Talking of which, anyone know the book time for replacing the crankshaft front oil seal on a 4.0 V8? Mine is being done on Tuesday and is a bit too major if f**ked up for me to attempt myself on my only vehicle.

--

+-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ |Andy Cunningham aka AndyC the WB | andy -at- cunningham.me.uk | +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | - Everything you wanted to know || about the P38A Range Rover but were afraid to ask. |+-------------------------------------------------------------------------+"The world has gone crazy: The best rapper is a white guy, the bestgolfer is a black guy, France is accusing the US of arrogance, andGermany doesn't want to go to war." -- Anon

Discovery developed a serious brake problem. Took it in to the garage where we had been taking our cars for the past 5 years or so. It was nearly a week before we were told that we need a "new"rear brake caliper as ours was broken, pads, and new discs all round. Ordered them as usual as we found that the parts were cheaper this way. Two days they arrived, delivered to the garage. It took me nearly a week of going in or phoning every day before they finally started it, only to be told at 3pm on a Friday that it wouldn't be ready until Monday. Monday comes still not ready, then a phone call on Thursday morning to say that they had some good news. The car would be deliverd to the house within the hour, finished.

Apparently when the mechanic had finally looked at the car properly, the caliper was repairable, the discs weren't in that bad a state, so they had them skimmed, and only the rear brakes had to have pads. They returned the box with the "new"caliper , remaining brake pads and the shiny new discs and charged us £400, which Bruce wasn't at all happy about. He paid for the repair to the caliper and for the skim on the discs as someone else had done these jobs, but refused to pay the labour charge.

To this day he's not set foot inside another garage and done all the work himself. I am sure there will be times when he will need to use a garage, but we will be a little more carefull on who we use.

My Wizard roadster was wicked...the back end including wings unbolted and the engine could be removed and refitted using just a trolley jack with no ned to jack up the car :-)

My fan sheared on one occasion for some bizar reason...anyway 3/4 od an hour after I started to strip it down it was running again welded up nice and tight and sorted. Those were the days!

Theres a few piccys of this very trick wizard at

enjoy

Lee

-- Project Percy - Jaguar 4.2 and Auto in to Series IIa 88 see it @

101Ambi '76 / IIa - Percy '64 / Rangie TD '90

alt.fan.landrover hall of fame -

"Stu." wrote in news:npjSa.1150$ snipped-for-privacy@newsfep4-glfd.server.ntli.net:

Everyone is being very coy about names. If these reports are true, publish the names and addresses of the miscreants. There is no legal action against the truth.

Derry

Haven't you heard of "The Borrowers"? There are also little gremlins that like to move stuff around just for a laugh.