So my local mechanic in town (small shop) told me about this earlier that my engine was leaking oil, but that it wasn't an immediate repair since it wasn't too bad. I just took it now, like 5 months later to check for a power steering leak and they did an oil change today, as well as a curtesy check and told me the engine was "gushing" oil. I trust this guy, I've had him do a good amount of work before, but the price they quoted me for the valve cover replacements today was like....$600 something. Is this too much? I've been googling around, and it appears to cost around (400-500) that much for most other cars, but it just seems like a lot. Crap.

Any opinions?

 

You can get the gasket set for around $50-75, the rest has to be labor which is unbelievably high. If you have a decent amount of mechanical know how you can easily do the job yourself.

 

According to a shop, yeh that's about right, lets say 4-5.5 hours of labor according to whatever book they get there labor times from at anywhere from 70-100 dollars an hour plus parts. Now sure you can find someone to do it for less money or you could do it yourself.

 

Nope, definitely can't do it myself. Don't have the tools nor the time....classes started, and I'm starting to get super busy.

I'll ask around some other shops I suppose about it. Damn.

 

who the hell pays mechanics 70-100 an hour? people who go to 4 year grad school dont make that much. heck a pharmacist makes $60 an hour with 1/4 mill tuition. i paid my mechanic $200 for a clutch job and he had my car for 6 hours !!!

 

70-100 may seem high but i work for a dealership and our hourly rate is 83 an hour and toyota down the street is like 90 thats average

 

dealership is another story, we know they specialize in stealing.

 

The mechanics themselves don't get the 70-100 an hour. That's the hourly charge from the shop. The tech depending on him or her may get 17-30 an hour. The dealership I work for charges 90 an hour. Also the "hourly" rate they make isnt by a clock, lets say for a certain job the book says it pays 5 hours, if you finish it in 2 hours or 12 hours your still getting paid for 5.

 

Yeh I feel you man, **** if you lived by me I would do it for the low. You should be able to find someone to do it for around 300. You will just have to watch them and make sure they do it right.

 

Lol if anyone knows any good shops or people close to Ann Arbor, Michigan, then it would be a great help haha. Ahhh...guess I'll call some other shops. I have a feeling the guy raised his prices because back 5 months ago when I asked him how much the valve cover replacement would cost, he said 500 something. Gah. Not cool that a small shop is doing this.

 

This price would incude rent/lease, cost of tools, hydro, and other overhead costs. Don't be so quick to judge because they definitely don't put all that money in their pockets at the end of the day! Like mentioned, probably anywhere from $20-30/hour goes into their pockets and remember this is hard physical labour.

 

Mechanics charge $70+ per hour, depending on where you are. As Tyutyunnik said, it doesnt all go into their pockets. Shop I just worked at, we charged between $80 and $95/hr, diesel work, and the technicians themselves only made about $20 of that $80.

There is NO markup in parts. You keep the doors open and the lights on with the labor rates.

You guys gotta think about all of the overhead in a shop. Rent, electricity (dont think its much? a/c, lots of compressors, lifts, tons of lights, lots of computers) not to mention scan tools can be several thousand dollars, plus computers, tens of thousands in tools, specialty tools, equipment, shop supplies, whatnot whatnot. Its expensive.

 

 

Find an orger in your area. I was lucky enough that an orger who was 3 hours away said he would do it as long as I helped. Pretty awesome really, Chris saved me a good $300.

Got the Felpro front and rear valve cover kit with spark plug tube seals--$70
Misc. stuff (RTV, a few hoses that were brittle and broke)--$30
and a tank of gas $50.
And got us lunch $30


Check the regional sub-forum's, hopefully you can find a knowledgeable ORGer in your area

 

Disagree with you here..There should be no markup on parts, but there always is...10%-15% markup from my experience and talking with many mechanic friends. Another reason why I've been doing my own work for the past 12 years.

 

Yeh we usually charge 20% above cost but this is at a dealership and they have to make money you know.

 

the place im at is $110/hour labour. 3rd year makes about $30 a hour, and once youre a Journeyman you can make $50 a hour. and this is a independent garage not a dealership

but yeah its best to find someone on here that can help you, or a backyard mechanic

 

I agree. I wasn't referring to dealerships though.....

 

I was not arguing with the fact that mechanics spit out absurd hourly rates, i was just asking who really pays that much? I do most of my work myself. I refuse to give my business to mechanics that fail to give me an exact and set quote upfront. Nobody should entertain "$300-$500 depending on how many hours it takes me to finish". The type of service they provide isnt one that deserves an hourly reward. A lot of shops charge $500 for VQ engine swap, does that mean its a 5 hour job? far from it....

 

mechanics dont acutally see that much i work at a shop and thats just what we charge for labor i dont actually get paid that much and hour but you have to charge the customer for the use of all the equiment you have. or else you would be a shop that would just break even everyday

 

THEIR hourly cost to run their business is another story. but let me ask you this, if a mechanic worked on your car for 1 hour trying to get rid of a code and gave up but in return asked you to pay him $70 for his 1 hour of work, would you?

 

they actually don't pay for tools tho. Every tech i know had to bring his own complete set of tools. That's the part that's ridiculous, because most dealerships won't allow the techs to do side work, yet they keep their tools locked away after business hours so they can't work anywhere else.

 

You would be surprised, some dealers and shops actually do supply tools or either cut the guys a check for whatever they need. Not allot of them do but they are out there. Mainly the big corporate dealers, when I worked at Toyota they provided us a big tool box and a roll around, no tools though lol.

 

Mechanics dont make up the price. As mentioned before, shops use different books (Mitchell, All-Data, etc.) for labor rates. These labor rates come from organizations that were put in place to protect the consumer, such as MAP (Motorist Assurance Program). The shop I work in even knocks off an hour or two of labor charge to help the customer with the bill.

OP, although the cost up front might seem a lot now, I would advise you to go to a shop that warranties or guarantees their work. You might save a couple hundred now going to a Joe Shmo, but you'll be **** outta luck 6 months down the line when his shoddy gasket job is leaking again.

 

thats weird, we get a key incase we want to do work on weekends. the other guys work weekends on sidejobs and its pretty much trust since nothing gets locked up, all of our tools are in the open. i leave all of my stuff most weekends. and we buy all of our own tools besides OBD scanners etc. but i guess a small garage is different in that way

we dont do the "depending" things though, its the labour charge by Mitchell so theres a direct price before any work is started

 

I'm not sure what shop gave you a quote like that but thats not what we are trying to say. Its called flat rate for a reason, if it takes you any longer than what the book says guess what your **** out of luck because there wont be anymore time added to the ticket for THAT specific job or without customer approval if something else is found that needs replacing.

I'm not sure what you mean by the type of service they provide doesn't deserve an hourly reward, but if your referring to mechanics in general then I would have to absolutely disagree.

$500 for an engine swap, Including the motor? If so that is a damn good deal considering book time for allot of VQ R&R non warranty is anywhere from 10 to 20 hours depending on the model and who gives your labor times.

 

 

Well, I guess I should've rephrase that. What I was trying to imply to these people is that the money is made in labor, not parts. All shops charge some parts markup, you have to, but thats not where the money is made. We usually charged anywhere from 10%-40% depending on the price of the product, availability, customer, job, etc etc.

 

http://repairpal.com/estimator

If you can't do it yourself, shop around, use the above link to get an average estimate for the repair job in your area. If you find shops quoting you higher, they are probably marking up parts and labor too much.

 

I'm sure this has been said, but find a experienced local org member to help you do the work. I did the same, paid a quarter of the price. And, learned a ton about my car.

 

That sucks. I understand the whole going by the books etc etc, but we all know damn well that changing both gaskets doesnt take more than 2 hours, 2.5 tops. And 80% of that is the rear bank.

 

Its almost always cheaper to do the work yourself. For me going to the shop to have my car is repaired are only in cases where I do not have the tools or if I feel that paying someone a few hundred in return for the time that I would have otherwise spent doing the repair was worth it.

Also for the valve cover gaskets you should try to do it yourself, $50 bucks for a few gaskets, a few hours looking up how-tos from people who have done it before, and a few hours during a sunny weekend to do it yourself. And save $550 for a future G35.

But if you feel that you will most likely somehow blow the engine and screw up on a level that would cause your name to be used as a reference to all major failures for future generations then its better to go to a shop and spend $600 to get it done rather than a few thousand for a new engine.

Good luck!

 

 

lol i personally cant say taht as those hidden bolts and my ginormous hands pwnt me, but yea...if the OP was local and allowed me to work on the car for one weekend (saturday) id do it all for $200, you provide the gaskets

heads up there is a write up on here if you search and you can do it yourself

 

Hahah solid post. And it's really ironic you mention G35 because the first car I actually wanna buy with my own money is an Infiniti G(this maxima was basically given to my by my parents, its the car I got senior year of high school).

As for pricing, I just called another store in town, and they quoted me around $400, and from reading reviews online, it seems like a pretty good store, so maybe I'm just in luck ha.

 

Gotcha. I agree.

 

Please do it yourself. Find some buddies and knock it out. $600 is way too much. !

 

DAmn this tread is LOOOOOONNNNNNGGG for suchs a simple subject lol

My mech swaps engines for 300!!!!! thats all labor and Takes him a day.

Dealership is the only place u shd pay dealership prices or 100/hr.

500 is wayyyy too much for a VC job. I wd jus do it myself if that the case.

My mech prolly charge me 200 or 300 for everything.

I wd at lease negotiate that price down to 400. See what the guy says. Chances are he do it for 400, fo real

 

So your mechanic would charge 200-300 for the VC job but only charges 300 for engine swaps??.. Seems as though he is selling himself a bit short dont ya think.

 

your job cannot dictate what side work you do on your own time and they cant stop you from taking your own tools home. anything else is bull****.