cost of work on car

nfoody · 23-09-2008 5:34pm #1

I had my car fully serviced last week in Galway for €220. This is my first car and the first time that I have had the car serviced so I would appreciate if anyone could advise if the below quote is far too expensive for parts and work to be carried out as a result of that service. Thanks.

Car type Peugeot 206 1.4 GLX with 35000 miles. 2000 Reg. Bought second hand from garage in Jan 08 with full NCT and 3 month warranty.

Plug · 23-09-2008 5:41pm

will you just right out the thing I cant view it, I'll let ya know.

Darragh29 · 23-09-2008 6:38pm

The price of parts seem about right but some of those tasks are normally only flagged during an NCT. For example brake hoses. I'd be seriously wondering why brake hoses needed to be replaced on a car that from reading your post appears to have just passed it's NCT recently enough???

Hotwheels · 23-09-2008 6:39pm

Plug wrote: »

will you just right out the thing I cant view it, I'll let ya know.

Not got Word, excel etc?

Total Net Amount
1,069.45
Total Tax Amount
144.39
Euro Total
1213.84

nfoody · 23-09-2008 8:14pm

Thanks for that. The car was had its NCT at the end of January. Since this is my first car and I’ve been learning to drive, I've only driven about 2000 miles since January. Just think, apart from the cost and number of jobs which were picked up by this service that it seems a bit unusual for 2000 miles over 8 months to throw up all these problems.

Hotwheels · 23-09-2008 8:34pm

Is that from a main dealer??? If I were you I'd get a second opinion on it..A good local Mechanic if you know one...
Out of the whole lot if anything has to be changed I'd change the T-Belt& Waterpump etc...if the belt breaks its FUBAR for the engine...

Darragh29 · 23-09-2008 8:48pm

That's a hell of a bill. Did you have any problem with your gear selection??? If you didn't have any problem selecting gears, its hard to see why the gearbox linkage rods were replaced??? The timing belt isn't usually replaced until 50,000 Miles, some manufacturers also recommend replacing a timing belt every five years regardless of mileage, but usually the mileage is the basis for a timing belt change and you are clearly nowhere near that.

Two front bottom ball joints and two front shock absorbers, this all sounds a bit severe to be honest. Also, your coolant must have been dangerously low for 3 containers of replacement coolant to be required to top it up. As far as I know, the smallest bottle of coolant available is a 1 litre, so your car needed 3 litres of coolant??? I don't think your car would take much more than 4 or 5 litres to be honest. Three litres of coolant is more than a top up, did you have any overheating problems previous to this coolant being added???

Did you get a call asking you to authorise this work or when you got your car serviced did they give you a list with these tasks that were required on it or did they just go ahead and do this after your service and give you the bill below?

xbox36016 · 23-09-2008 8:52pm

in bmw in cahir co.tipp its 135 euro a hour

Darragh29 · 23-09-2008 8:53pm

Hotwheels wrote: »

Is that from a main dealer??? If I were you I'd get a second opinion on it..A good local Mechanic if you know one...
Out of the whole lot if anything has to be changed I'd change the T-Belt& Waterpump etc...if the belt breaks its FUBAR for the engine...

There is only 35K on the clock??? I know that there is a school of thought that says that the belt should be changed every 60,000 Miles OR 5 years, whichever comes first, that is sometimes back up with a manufacturers recomendation, but typically mileage is the basis for a timing belt change and the OP is nowhere near the replacement interval on a mileage basis...

Sorry OP, I just realised this is a quote, not an invoice... I'd get a second opinion on all of this to be honest...

Darragh29 · 23-09-2008 8:54pm

xbox36016 wrote: »

in bmw in cahir co.tipp its 135 euro a hour

You can see from the invoice that labour is charged at 60 Euro/Hr...

slimjimmc · 23-09-2008 8:56pm

Did the mechanic contact you for approval before doing the work or did you just tell him to give her the works no matter the cost? I would expect shocks, brake hoses and wishbone ball-joints to be still be in reasonable condition at 35k if that is the real mileage.

(Ooops, just saw D's posts above, he types faster than me

)

nfoody · 23-09-2008 8:56pm

Darragh29 wrote: »

That's a hell of a bill. Did you have any problem with your gear selection??? If you didn't have any problem selecting gears, its hard to see why the gearbox linkage rods were replaced??? The timing belt isn't usually replaced until 50,000 Miles, some manufacturers also recommend replacing a timing belt every five years regardless of mileage, but usually the mileage is the basis for a timing belt change and you are clearly nowhere near that.

Two front bottom ball joints and two front shock absorbers, this all sounds a bit severe to be honest. Also, your coolant must have been dangerously low for 3 containers of replacement coolant to be required to top it up. As far as I know, the smallest bottle of coolant available is a 1 litre, so your car needed 3 litres of coolant??? I don't think your car would take much more than 4 or 5 litres to be honest. Three litres of coolant is more than a top up, did you have any overheating problems previous to this coolant being added???

Did you get a call asking you to authorise this work or when you got your car serviced did they give you a list with these tasks that were required on it or did they just go ahead and do this after your service and give you the bill below?

That listing is a quote from the garage that carried out the full service. The work has not been carried out yet. The full service was carried out last week at a cost of €210. The list is all the jobs the garage highlighted which need doing.

I went into the garage originally with a problem with the gearbox and decided to get the full service done at that time. I know very little about cars so I though the service would fix some small issues if there were any but I wasn't expecting this.

galwaytt · 23-09-2008 9:05pm

First of all, that's not a service. Your service cost, as you say Eur 220. That's reasonable. I'm sure people from Dublin etc, would only be delighted to get a service for that price......

What you've got there is a quote for ongoing repairs/maintenance. This is a fact of motoring life, for good or ill. It is not related to the service you had, and if ever anyone wanted one, this is an example of how completely useless an NCT is, as measure of the quality of any vehicle.

If, for example, you find the gearchange perfectly o.k., and if you can compare it to another one (try a Peugeot garage to test drive another one...;) ), and find it acceptable, then you don't need to do that.

If the timing belt has reached the 5 year mark, irrespective of mileage - change it. A new engine will cost you a lot more....again, this is a normal motoring expense in having a used car. You will get another 5 years, or 60k miles out of it - effectively, as long as you're likely to keep the car...

However, that may be Galway City hourly rates - hourly rates in my local Athenry garage is 2/3rd's of that - Eur 40/hr - and a lot of people travel out from Galway for that reason - and it's on the rail line, so easy to get to.

A 2nd opinion wouldn't hurt.

Darragh29 · 23-09-2008 9:19pm

There are two ways of looking at this:

(1) You paid 220 Euro for a service and this included a series of inspections that resulted in the list of tasks you were given, so you can be sure that your mechanic has been attentive!

(2) Having said that, its hard to see why gearbox linkages are being replaced in the absence of a problem selecting gears.

To be honest, I'd be getting a second opinion on that list of tasks.

Jonny303 · 23-09-2008 9:20pm

Darragh not to be disrespecting, but generally, its pretty hard to change a waterpump and not change the coolant....

Darragh29 · 23-09-2008 9:21pm

Jonny303 wrote: »

Darragh not to be disrespecting, but generally, its pretty hard to change a waterpump and not change the coolant....

Sorry, I'll grant you that one!

Jonny303 · 23-09-2008 9:21pm

Darragh29 wrote: »

There are two ways of looking at this:

(1) You paid 220 Euro for a service and this included a series of inspections that resulted in the list of tasks you were given, so you can be sure that your mechanic has been attentive!

(2) Having said that, its hard to see why gearbox linkages are being replaced in the absence of a problem selecting gears.

To be honest, I'd be getting a second opinion on that list of tasks.

OP said that they had a problem with the gearbox, so im presuming they ment selecting gears....

galwaytt · 23-09-2008 11:05pm

Sorry, just re-read - so you do have a gearbox problem then ?

nfoody · 23-09-2008 11:19pm

Have a small one where the gear slips into neutral occasionally and I have to almost force it back in. that was the original issue. The service brought up all the other ones which since I have such limited driving experience, hadn't noticed.

itarumaa · 24-09-2008 7:29am

Just to point out,

00 car, 35K miles.

There is every possibility that it has a timing belf from the factory, so basically it has never been changed.

Timing belt has a month interval as well, and car is eight years old now, I would start to consider changing the belt.

Mr.Diagnostic · 24-09-2008 8:01am

As I see it the OP has two questions. Does the car really need that work and is the estimated price ok.

As regards the work being needed. There is nobody here that can answer that one. It is quite possible that it does need it, regardless of the recent NCT. A second opinion is called for here.

As regards price. The amount of time estimated is possibly a little on the high side, but only a little. The garage charges €60PH so the only way to get the work done cheaper would be to find a cheaper garage. Cheaper is not always as good.

Seth Brundle · 24-09-2008 8:31am

Plug wrote: »

will you just right out the thing I cant view it, I'll let ya know.

www.openoffice.org

tom1979 · 24-09-2008 9:42am

more to the point
you bought a car in jan 08 and only did 2000 miles and it needs all that work done
should you not return to the garage you bought it in asking why they sold you a defective car ???

nfoody · 24-09-2008 5:51pm

tom1979 wrote: »

more to the point
you bought a car in jan 08 and only did 2000 miles and it needs all that work done
should you not return to the garage you bought it in asking why they sold you a defective car ???

Good point. I have just emailed the garage where I bought it listing what was found to be wrong with it. I was assured by the garage when I bought it that it would be fully serviced and NCTd. Its amazing how their full service missed all of the work this other garage found.

Darragh29 · 24-09-2008 6:31pm

nfoody wrote: »

Good point. I have just emailed the garage where I bought it listing what was found to be wrong with it. I was assured by the garage when I bought it that it would be fully serviced and NCTd. Its amazing how their full service missed all of the work this other garage found.

Well you'd have to accept that the NCT also missed all these items which would be highly unusual. I'd be more inclined to think that the garage that generated that whopper quote for you are the problem... In a way they are just being thoughre I suppose. timing belt is due as is water pump assembly, you have gear selection issues, brake hoses, whatever, shocks, if they need to be done they need to be done...

You could argue that the timing belt was due last January on the basis of the age of the car and not the mileage. I've very rarely seen timing belts needing to be changed due to age and not mileage.

snowman707 · 24-09-2008 6:41pm

nfoody wrote: »

Have a small one where the gear slips into neutral occasionally and I have to almost force it back in. that was the original issue. The service brought up all the other ones which since I have such limited driving experience, hadn't noticed.

I remember a puegot service mechanic saying that a change of gear oil may solve problems with car slipping out of gear. May be worth a shot although if you have difficulty getting back in looks like a different matter

any way you check the mileage of the car? as if seems to have a lot of issues for such a low mileage irrespective of age.

Anan1 · 24-09-2008 6:48pm

Jonny303 wrote: »

Darragh not to be disrespecting, but generally, its pretty hard to change a waterpump and not change the coolant....

That said, I had the belt & water pump done on a Megane last week and it only needed one litre of coolant.

Jonny303 · 24-09-2008 7:00pm

Anan1 wrote: »

That said, I had the belt & water pump done on a Megane last week and it only needed one litre of coolant.

1 Litre of coolant + 3 Litres of water = 4 Litres...pay for what you get

Anan1 · 24-09-2008 7:11pm

Jonny303 wrote: »

1 Litre of coolant + 3 Litres of water = 4 Litres...pay for what you get

Is it not possible to change a water pump without losing all the coolant?

Darragh29 · 24-09-2008 7:16pm

Anan1 wrote: »

Is it not possible to change a water pump without losing all the coolant?

It usually all comes out or most of it. Some mechanics let it out at the radiator because it is easier to collect up in a can of some sort. When you let it run out at the pump, it usually pisses all over the place...

cost of work on car

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