Cars and workshop charges

Just had our car into the local garage (not the one who has been doing the recent work on it) to do a bit of investigating as to the latest "funny" happenings. As suspected, it only needed new spark plugs and an air filter for good measure. But this particular car happens to take the expensive platinum spark plugs [] so it was not a cheap exercise.

Anyway, whilst dicussing the car with the mechanic/garage owner, he mentioned the CV joints in the front will need replacing shortly as they are making that clicking noise. I said that both front joints have been done - the right one about 3 years ago and the left about 2 years ago - he just laughed. No way have they been replaced in the past few years. He suspects they may have replaced them with second-hand joints, rather than new joints. Also at issue was the following: I was told the rubber boot that covers the CV joint was cracked. They didn't replace it as I didn't tell them to. They told me the squeaky noise was this cracked boot rubbing. Today, I was told these joints come complete with a new boot, so I had been told an absolute load of bollocks.

Then I mentioned how much I had just spent on the car for a wheel bearing and 2 new tyres with a wheel alignment thrown in. He just about choked. Seems we should have only been charged about half of what we were charged.
Now, how do I know this guy isn't telling me stories just to get the work. I know car repairs are an expensive business, but this car always seems to have something needing doing. New guy assures me the engine is "sweet" and running very well and should not need any work doing on it, except these CV joints. Also seems the last VTNZ warrant check (last month) should have mentioned these front CV joints. They are not affecting steering in any way, so would not have been failed on a WOF, but should have been mentioned.

Just what I DON"T need at this time of year - more expense.....

Isn't it great - have a BIL who is a mechanic (and always far too busy for us) and getting ripped off by the same garage who services MIL's car in town.

Ah... the joy of being able to do it all yourself

CV joints aren't all that hard to change if you're just swapping in a new complete unit.

Yup...not that bad. Ronnie, tell us how much you paid for all that work, and im sure you will get either a negative or positive response from the crowd (forum members)

It cost me just short of $600 for the wheel bearing and just on $400 for 2 new tyres and a wheel allignment. The local guy seems to think I was well overcharged - particularly for the wheel bearing.

What kind of car is it Ronnie?

$600 for a wheel bearing! I would say you were grossly overcharged no matter what make of car you drive. Replacing a wheel bearing is a very straight forward exercise taking 1 hr max unless the bearing had completed collapsed and fused to stub axle.

ronnie;294311 wrote: ...just on $400 for 2 new tyres and a wheel allignment.

Ordinary Road Tyres for your average small or mid-sized car (nothing special) are around $80 to $100 each, depending on the brand, and whether or not they are running a special at the time. This includes fitting and balancing.

Wheel Alignment cost about $70 or $80 last time we had it done if I remember correctly.

So, you should have paid a max. of $280 for that part of the job. It sounds like this garage in town that you have been using is ripping you off at every opportunity. I would phone up first and get an estimate from several different places the next time you need something done. Then choose one that is near the bottom of the pack price-wise, even if it means driving a bit further to get there. The extra travel cost will be covered many times over by what you save on the cost of the job.

Oh, and once you have given the go ahead to your chosen mechanic, get them to phone you if the final price is going to be more expensive than the previous estimate by anything over say $50. Sometimes there are unexpected complications which can arise during the course of a job. But if they phone you before committing to significant expenditure above the estimate, you can run it by a different mechanic to see if the details stack up.

Generally, I find that the mechanics we use are pretty spot-on with their estimates, and it isn't often that they have to phone me to authorise anything extra.

The Kats Place;294313 wrote: What kind of car is it Ronnie?

Its a 1996 Nissan Bluebird, so I would have thought cheap as chips to get parts for.

Sounds like I won't be going back to them then [}]

Don't know if I would have any recourse over these CV joints???? Perhaps it has been too long to do anything about them??
Still fuming over having to get them done again, on the same car, same joints after such a relatively short time.

As for your mechanic BIL who is too busy for you, perhaps he prefers not to do free or cheap mechanical work for friends and family. My father was a qualified mechanic by trade and often had people turning up wanting him to look at a squeak here or give a free appraisal of a car some neighbour's cousin's brother wanted to buy. Sometimes you just have to say no to everybody or you end up being taken advantage of.

If you have the workshop invoice for the CV work still, take the invoice and the car to the AA garage in town and ask for a check to see if the condition of the parts matches what is installed...

If the invoice says new parts installed, and the AA guys say they are second hand, go see a lawyer (the free CAB ones will do fine for this). 3 yr old and 2 Yr old should NOT need re-replacement if they were new at the time.

Also if the garage is a MTA affiliated shop, CC everything to the MTA officer who deals with complaints.

Bluebirds are cheap as chips, for typical little runabout like that, $120 dunlop enduro or similar would be plenty of tyre (I would never buy Kelly tyres, they are slippery as a cat on greased glass when it rains). and Beaurepairs charged me $77 for an alignment 2 years ago, should still be less than $100 with inflation.

Googling wheel bearing prices, for a single bluebird front wheel bearing, 4 pounds Sterling. Complete kits for all 4 wheels for a Nissan Altima, which shares parts witht he bluebird, US $42. I wouldn't want to pay more than $25 for the nearing itself in NZ, and figure 2 hours max at $80 an hour labour to get in to change the bearing. so the bearing repair ought to be under $300 as a max price including new seals and grease.

You're being ripped off.

I agree with Kiwi on this as the Consumer Act covers all these issues and it doesn't matter how long ago they were fitted. Expert advise and I'd back on their doorstep in a heatbeat asking for a replacement with new parts at their cost!

I am a little different on the prices being quoted for car tyres as there are three things, in my opinion, that need to be considered. They are safety, value and longevity. Oh and one other thing if you like listening to music in your car - road noise. Very rarely mentioned when you go to get new ones!

I went over the top price wise when replacing all four on my Nissan Primera and bought Mitchelin Energy MX1+. Absolutely love them. Originally they had put on Yakahama's and they lasted as long as it took me to drive home, into and back from the city on smooth motorway finish, as opposed to rough chip rural, and I took them back. SO noisy!

I also went back to get the tyres rotated having gone well over the 10,000 (nearer 20,000) recommendation and the guys in the shop all came over to have a look as there was no sign of wear of them at all! Buying cheaper tyres is not necessarily cheaper in the long run but it also comes down to what you can afford at the time.

Some of them do try to rip you off. In the 70's I bought a brand new Holden, it was only about 3-4 years old when I took it in for a WOF and the mechanic said it will need a new tire rod and something else by next WOF well I did nothing about it and at the next check up he must have forgotten what he had said last time because he said again "you will need a new tire rod and ? by the next WOF". Well 6 months after that I took it to the testing station for the next WOF and asked them to double check the tire rod and he said it was fine, nothing wrong with it.

I had that car for 25 years and don't think I ever did it, however I believe a lot of mechanics are getting a bit paranoid nowadays and a bit scared of repercussions and don't want to be the garage which issues a WOF when there may be a come back if something goes wrong so any little mole hill of a problem they turn into a mountain so they can fix it just in case to cover their backsides.