IonNight

My car was running lean and I did not know why.

I sent my car in for a compression test and told the mechanic shop try to find out what was wrong and fix the problem.

Compression test was great! So it had to be an injector because the car had a missfire. They found the #4. injector dead. They replaced the injector.
They replaced some dirty spark plugs

The bill ended up being 700 dollars.

Post your opinion

firebirdjosh

iTrader: (1)

Prime example of why to do DIY if you have the time/tools. Compression testers are dirt cheap, although its a time consuming task to measure all 8. $700 is absurdly steep but he may have spent alot of time troubleshooting.

88 350 tpi formula

iTrader: (9)

sounds like an idiot, did you tell him to do the comp. test? did they replace all 8 injectors too.

bru333

How many hours of labor did they bill you for? This may be a case of charging the book rate for each job, like hours for comp. test + hours for spark plug replacment even though they had to take the plugs out to do the comp. test. Happens all the time...That's why I do everything myself...

F-BIRD'88

You can buy a lot of tools for $700.

brutalform

The ONLY time I go to a garage, is to get an inspection sticker. If I knew a way around that, I would never go to one.

Nixon1

Christ that's a lot of money. I'd love to hear them justify where that $700 bill came from. Although parts markup is ridiculous....at our shop, a minimum of 150% and a maximum of 400%. Probably charged for several hours labor, and parts markup on the injector directly from a dealership, and plugs. Btw, bru is right....most shops charge book labor rate.

Our mechanic Johnny did a "2.5 hr" job in 30 minutes yesterday. But we charged them for a 2.5 hr job. Welcome to the universe. Just glad I don't go home at night with that on my conscience...I'm just a lowly general service tech.

kretos

for the most part mechanics are a bunch of scam artists, i never take my car in for anything i can do at house, i don't have a garage, just a gravel driveway and i've done everything from a clutch to timing chain, so its not hard to do work at home and save a ton of money

porkyzilla

iTrader: (1)

to pull the intake manifold labor time is generally 5 hours for a tpi motor, factory injectors run upto 70 each from the factory,

and taking the plugs out is not easy, your forgetting one thing they are there to make money, not fix everyones cars for cost to just stay in business, . flat rate can work for you and against you.

now as far as saying all mechanics are shady is like saying anyone who posts on a message board is retarded. i like to promote my shop i believe that we are very honest.

i am curious how much labor they charged you and cost on a compression test. ill let you know book time if you post your invoice.

if they did rip you off you can complain to the department of consumer affairs.

Nixon1

Don't say that now.

The SHOP is the scammers... In most cases, the mechanics dont decide what they're going to charge you, the front counter guys do, and usually it's based on parts markup from a pre-set list, and the big labor times book. They follow procedure.

The mechanics I work with, both make pretty good money, and they won't sell you on stuff you don't need, but they still make ridiculous money on some jobs due to what the counter guy charges. But they also are willing to do free warranty work, free checks, etc. if the situation mandates it. Both are very stand-up guys.

85z28guy

This pisses me off. The friggin mechanic doesn't just make up a number of hours, they look in a book. If they are not paid flat rate, they have no clue as to what your getting charged. Its the service manager that makes up your bills. Its always the mechancs fault As for your bill, that is steep. Although we charge $90/hour, so its more or less possible that they charged you like 3-4 hours. At the time of payment, you should have complained, at our shop we usually bump off an hour or two if someone argues. Shows yea how much they make on marked up parts

Nixon1

THANK YOU!!!! Comments about mechanics are only made by people who haven't worked in the industry. I know, I used to do it too til my current job.

DENN_SHAH

iTrader: (1)

it seems high to me, but not knowing what their hourly labor rate is & everything they did, its hard to say.
scan your bill & post it up.
i know up north the prices are higher than they are down here.

like the other guys said,... not ALL mechanics are out to rip people off, but unfortunately there are some bad ones out there & give the rest of us a bad name.

working in a shop you can't buy that many tools for $700.00, not if you want them to last & not have to make a run to sears every day.

Scheister

all agree with that, $700 on the MAC truck isnt much

todd200

I think what most of you are forgetting is that the mechanic didn't make 700.00 dollars. Lets say it was 10 hours of labor you were charged for, totally forgetting parts. He probably made roughly 200-250 on your car. The rest went to the shop. I don't do too bad moneywise, but the next time your working on your own car, when its 90* out your car is 200* and your bent over it, think about how much you would want to get paid to do that same thing on someone else's car.

92_ZED

Put an antique tag on it (have a few more years to go for a '92, the first thirdgens start in two years).

Al.

urbanhunter44

iTrader: (3)

Yeah I hate that BS about 'mechanics' ripping you off. As previously stated, 1. The mechanics themselves do NOT choose what to charge you. 2. Most shops charge book time, not actual time. 3. They're out to make money, just like everyone else 4. They fixed your car, which apparently was something you thought you couldn't do, even though it turned out easy.

It's your own fault you didn't want to take the time to diagnose it yourself, complaining that you got "ripped off" (even though you probably didn't, but post the invoice anyway and we'll try to help) is just ridiculous.

They fixed your car and charged you book + retail. Car work is expensive - DIY next time if you can't deal with a steep bill for quality work, imho.