Cost of fixing wire issue

segaBOY

I dropped in my 10 Skoda Octavia 1.6 diesel to a main dealer because the glow plug and exhaust light was flashing. Always got it serviced on time in a main dealer. The fan was coming on when I stopped the car draining the battery. I thought it might have been the Diesel Particulate filter but it turned out to be a glow plug wiring issue. The garage rang today, told me it took 6.5 hours to solve (had to get out wiring diagrams etc.) and are charging €503. I personally think this is a bit steep because there are no parts required, what is the general view on the price? Working out at just shy of €78 per hour...

It is just outside the warranty.

Edit: Also want to mention they gave me a car for when mine was in the garage.

Gumbo

ask Skoda Ireland for some goodwill?

segaBOY

kceire wrote: »

ask Skoda Ireland for some goodwill?

Have you heard of anyone doing this in the past-does it work? It really annoys me because I always get full dealer service. It is only 2-3 months outside of warranty.

Gumbo

segaBOY wrote: »

Have you heard of anyone doing this in the past-does it work? It really annoys me because I always get full dealer service. It is only 2-3 months outside of warranty.

ive got 3 goodwills from BMW, havent heard of Skoda but then again, ive never applied. You have nothing to lose imho.

segaBOY

kceire wrote: »

ive got 3 goodwills from BMW, havent heard of Skoda but then again, ive never applied. You have nothing to lose imho.

Did you call head office or how did you go about it?

segaBOY

Just spoke to Skoda Ireland, goodwill only covers parts...ok will just talk to main dealer. I understand wiring can be a labour intensive job, is €78 per hr the standard rate for main dealer mechanic?

Del2005

segaBOY wrote: »

Just spoke to Skoda Ireland, goodwill only covers parts...ok will just talk to main dealer. I understand wiring can be a labour intensive job, is €78 per hr the standard rate for main dealer mechanic?

There could have been more than one mechanic working on it. Wiring issues and intermittent faults are also going to be expensive to fix, you need to spend a lot of time fault finding.

Nissan doctor

€78 per hour wouldn't be expensive as main dealers go TBH.

The problem with wiring issues is not the repairing of the problem, its finding the problem. There is literally miles of wiring in modern cars.

The fact that the car is only a couple of months out of warranty is a different issue, I'd be pushing someone(skoda IRL or the dealer) for something off that bill.

dgt

Nissan doctor wrote: »

€78 per hour wouldn't be expensive as main dealers go TBH.

The problem with wiring issues is not the repairing of the problem, its finding the problem. There is literally miles of wiring in modern cars.

The fact that the car is only a couple of months out of warranty is a different issue, I'd be pushing someone(skoda IRL or the dealer) for something off that bill.

I couldn't agree more, electrical gremlins, I hate them. Can take hours to find one frayed wire or remove half the engine bay to find the problem. Just look at any of the electrical problems I've encountered with my 406 for example.

The one and only time I've ever sent a car of mine to a garage was to sort a non starting issue on my E34 back in 2006... Cost 250 but was damn well worth it for a days work!

demanufactured

The lesson here is not to go to a main dealer for servicing.
Go to a good mechanic.

Del2005

demanufactured wrote: »

The lesson here is not to go to a main dealer for servicing.
Go to a good mechanic.

What has servicing got to do with the cost, both time and money, of fixing an electrical issue in a car? An indy could have cost more as they may not know the car as well as a main dealer.

A friend had an old bike with an intermittent fault. He checked it out a bit himself and couldn't see anything so tried to get a few places to look at it, none would as it would have cost too much. He eventually sorted it out himself after taking apart the wiring loom. It was a wire broken inside the insulation around the swing arm pivot, it took a few weekends to find it.

price seems fine to me. Any work that involves tracing a wiring fault can run into huge money due to the labour times involved