Help - Steep Mechanic's Bill

[RedLine]

Yeah it was the rocker cover gasket that drove the bill up... turns out he discovered it was badly leaking and he replaced it ($258.18) and spent just over 4 hours on it ($363.40). He's "pretty sure" he would have called, but it "needed to be done anyway." I made it clear I wasn't happy about finding out about a $600 piece of work on my invoice, and they agreed to deduct 2 hours labour... Lesson learned - ask for a quote, always tell them to call if something unexpected needs to be done that is more than $100, and don't go back to that garage!

Parts were apparently all OEM from what they said, but they don't have the packaging anymore since it was done a few weeks ago and they only just billed me now.

My main confusion was about the need to replace the rocker covers... he said that they begin to leak onto the exhaust and burn off, hence no sign of oil on the driveway after parking. He did say it would (obviously) cause smoke though, which I have never seen or smelled from my engine... odd.

In the end, I think its a fair result... I wasn't going to refuse to pay the full amount, as it is nice to have it replaced preventatively (even if the severity of the leak was embellished) while the engine out, but also nice of them to acknowledge their stuff-up.

Still not going to take my car back there. I'm not going to publish their name on here either... PM me if you're local to the Hutt and you desperately want to know.

Thanks again guys. You know your stuff!

[Joker]

awesome (well not really) but thanks for the feedback & letting us know the result =P

[Guest]

Hang on the engine was taken out?

[SpeedySub]

Sounds like everyones learned a good lesson, sometimes it takes these situations to learn from and hopefully will have informed people to get written quotes and get them to call before any additional work is done (or nominate an amount). In saying that I have been known to forget to ask for written quote.

[SpeedySub]

This page should be useful

http://www.consumeraffairs.govt.nz/for-consumers/services/repair-services

Excerpt below

Your rights with repairs

Repairs are a service and are covered by the Consumer Guarantees Act. You only have to pay for the work you agreed to.

Find out how the Consumer Guarantees Act applies to services.

You don’t have to pay for work that you didn’t agree to

If you are specific about what work you want done then anything else is unauthorised and you don’t have to pay for it.

For example if you ask a mechanic to just replace the brake pads on your car but the mechanic also replaces the rotors without asking you then you don’t have to pay for the extra work.

If the repairer can undo the extra work without damaging your property then they can do that.

For example if the mechanic filled your car up with petrol but you didn’t ask for that then the mechanic can siphon the same amount of petrol out

If you weren’t specific

If you have only given a general request like “please fix my car” then the mechanic could do a lot of work without you realising what the cost will be. It is better to be specific or ask the mechanic to tell you what work needs to be done and how much it will cost before the work starts.

[GorGasmSpecB]

I think the overall price is a little on the high side but not too crazy.

I had my cambelt/waterpump done and fixed a couple of little things and that cost $1800. You got rocker seals, sparks, oil, wof and about 5 hours more labour over what I paid.

[Joker]

maybe the did each job separate from start to finish & took the donk out each time?

[Guest]

11 hours makes sense if they pulled engine but why the **** would you. Quicker to pull rad and do timing in place. Granted makes rockers harder but meh.

[RedLine]

Yeah from what they said yesterday, they took it out.

[Zenki]

 evowrx said:

11 hours makes sense if they pulled engine but why the **** would you. Quicker to pull rad and do timing in place.

Only justifiable reason I can think of: if crank pulley bolt is sufficiently stubborn as to require application of a 3/4" drive impact wrench (have seen this once).

Seeing as most workshops don't have the ability to evacuate A/C systems legally, I imagine they'd much prefer to pull motor instead.

[Guest]

Why does the aircon need removing?