Most expensive simple part ever?

[Slow]

Having found the problem with the Range Rover I had sold to my mum (I had agreed to fix for free) with a grumbling noise.

Turns out it was this plate attached to the torque converter



2 corners had snapped off, not sure why.

Phoned the local land rover parts place (not main dealer) and he couldnt get hold of one from anywhere but land rover. Ok fair enough its a uncommon thing to break I imagine, so how much do they want? £2100 inc VAT.

WHAT THE fk?

Got hold of a used one for £25 on ebay...

[Wacky Racer]

That's disgusting.

I would imagine you would be able to get one of them made fairly easily, if you had the sample to go off.

[briang9]

Wacky Racer said:

That's disgusting.

I would imagine you would be able to get one of them made fairly easily, if you had the sample to go off.

Audi wanted £250 + VAT for the front windscreen trim that goes around the top and down both sides...

[Slow]

briang9 said:

Audi wanted £250 + VAT for the front windscreen trim that goes around the top and down both sides...

Thats a bargain compared to my 3mm thick plate haha

[williamp]

That's amazing. I thought the worst was wheel spacers. Doughnut shaped metal with holes drilled in them, but mega money...

[RB Will]

I think the Lexus LFA was good at this. In sure I remember it being about £4k for the badge on the front wings and about £20k for a windscreen among other daftness

[Mothersruin]

There was a rubber grommet that used to fail on the FV432 (Army Tracked Vehicle) that was a 20p item, however, you needed to strip out half the vehicle to get at it. I was told that it was the most expensive replacement to do on any of the Army's vehicles as far as man hours went.

Also, you had to tie your spanners to your wrists if you were working on the gearbox. If you dropped one into the gearbox...

[KungFuPanda]

OP, you sold your mum a shagged car? Bravo!

[Bibbs]

RB Will said:

I think the Lexus LFA was good at this. In sure I remember it being about £4k for the badge on the front wings and about £20k for a windscreen among other daftness

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=1474372

Had the link, but the shop has closed.

[10penceparalyzed]

KungFuPanda said:

OP, you sold your mum a shagged car? Bravo!

well she only has herself to blame for the OP's moral fibre after all he is only a refelction of his upbringing.

[TooMany2cvs]

Slow said:

Having found the problem with the Range Rover I had sold to my mum (I had agreed to fix for free) with a grumbling noise.

Turns out it was this plate attached to the torque converter



2 corners had snapped off, not sure why.

Phoned the local land rover parts place (not main dealer) and he couldnt get hold of one from anywhere but land rover. Ok fair enough its a uncommon thing to break I imagine, so how much do they want? £2100 inc VAT.

WHAT THE fk?

Got hold of a used one for £25 on ebay...

Is it just pretty flat, maybe with a bend or two for the tips? Should be cheap and easy to get laser-cut locally.

If yours has lost two of the three corners, presumably due to some kind of fatigue, I'm not sure I'd be trusting a used one, given the work to replace it.

Edit: Oh, wait... Not that simple...

http://www.roverparts.com.au/inc/sdetail/18738/187...
http://www.ashcroft-transmissions.co.uk/ftc-4713-h...

So £65 for a new HD one from a very respected supplier - no way would I put a used one in...

Edited by TooMany2cvs on Friday 6th May 08:47

[thatguy11]

Last year I had to replace the secondary air pump on my Celica, cost of the part from Toyota was £1,650. I found one on ebay for £80. Dealer prices are just outrageous, biggest load of ste in the car industry

[Krikkit]

TooMany2cvs said:

Is it just pretty flat, maybe with a bend or two for the tips? Should be cheap and easy to get laser-cut locally.

If yours has lost two of the three corners, presumably due to some kind of fatigue, I'm not sure I'd be trusting a used one, given the work to replace it.

Edit: Oh, wait... Not that simple...

http://www.roverparts.com.au/inc/sdetail/18738/187...
http://www.ashcroft-transmissions.co.uk/ftc-4713-h...

So £65 for a new HD one from a very respected supplier - no way would I put a used one in...

Edited by TooMany2cvs on Friday 6th May 08:47

Agreed completely, that one from Ashcroft would be my choice without a doubt.

[Sheepshanks]

Slow said:

£2100 inc VAT.

That's surely for the whole gearbox - or just a typo / random price that's been put in.

TooMany2cvs said:

http://www.roverparts.com.au/inc/sdetail/18738/187...

Never seen anything like that before! You'd think they'd buy in a few of the Ashcroft ones and sell those.

[Dodsy]

There are two issues that I can see with modern car parts - how to get to the part and then the integrated nature of parts (although not in the Ops case as its just a plate)

For example - my old cars from my teenage years if you need to change the thermostat it was 3 bolts out, pull out old one drop in new one , new gasket and bolt back up. Total parts cost about £5 and about 10 minutes of effort.

Roll ahead now to my Wifes Merc SLK, the thermostat is embedded in a housing with some electronics. So the part is now about £200. But it takes about 2 hours of labour to get to the thermostat, replace it then put the car back together again. SO the total job cost has gone up from being a £5 job I can do myself to about a £350 job that needs a garage.

[IanCress]

I was quite surprised at the price of the thermostat housing for the Mk1 Focus. It's a common part to fail as the rubber seals start to fail at 10 years old, but even though it's just a piece of moulded plastic it still costs about £120.

[mwstewart]

Wow! That even tops Ferrari.

[Theophany]

thatguy11 said:

Last year I had to replace the secondary air pump on my Celica, cost of the part from Toyota was £1,650. I found one on ebay for £80. Dealer prices are just outrageous, biggest load of ste in the car industry

Even BMW only charged me £600 for a secondary air pump and that was inclusive of labour and VAT!

[lostkiwi]

Slow said:

Having found the problem with the Range Rover I had sold to my mum (I had agreed to fix for free) with a grumbling noise.

Turns out it was this plate attached to the torque converter



2 corners had snapped off, not sure why.

Phoned the local land rover parts place (not main dealer) and he couldnt get hold of one from anywhere but land rover. Ok fair enough its a uncommon thing to break I imagine, so how much do they want? £2100 inc VAT.

WHAT THE fk?

Got hold of a used one for £25 on ebay...

Did it come with the gearbox?

Might explain the price.....

There's a similar unit on Smarts - The HD one from the dealer is £36. Hard to see how LR can justify that price.

[The Moose]

Sheepshanks said:

Never seen anything like that before! You'd think they'd buy in a few of the Ashcroft ones and sell those.

Love the warning