head gasket change, "full service"

[shadowfax]

local garage says £1000 .... reduced cos i am paying cash....service did not include new plugs and dont think clutch fluid has been changed. Went local cos he said he'd done "hundreds" of RV8 engine jobs and wanted local reliable competent mechanic to look after car for reasonable rates.



Feck me, I thought around £650 all in would be reasonable. A grand, ffs. My ex missus did say she hoped karma would get me back for walkin away. Guess this is just a part of it... the P5B's little jaunt in reverse without a driver has cost another £500. Karma's a bitch innit

Edited by shadowfax on Thursday 24th May 09:12

[rev-erend]

Let's see if it's reasonable..



PArts : could be £200 that leaves £800 labour - so at say £40 / hr that would be 20 hours..



So - yes, I would say you paid too much.



You could remove the engine and heads and put it all back in for that (plus a small service).



Ask him what his labour rate is..

[L33]

I would be p155ed paying even £400 for a service.

I thinks you paid too much pal.

[cuneus]

Demand an itemised bill showing all parts and labour

[shadowfax]

He even had the gall to tell me "Chris Neill's charge a gand plus vat just for a head gasket job, without the service". Told him Neill's dont do TVR any more....Oil was low... he'd forgot he dropped some when he had removed oil cooler to remove rad to sort out a leak from a connection... Had to pay him as he had the keys. Told him £700 inc vat would have been reasonable. He reckons he spent over 30 hours on it. Rate is around £35 an hour. Gave it him back as the swan neck cap pi55ed water and steam. He got me another cap which was loose, even after I tweaked it with pliers to make seal tighter. It was JP in Macc c/o ACT who made the new pipe and old cap doesnt mate....but then agin, I had to point out he hadnt taken anything off the new silicon hose to make it possible for the bonnet to close without kinking the pipe in the first place.... I think it needs more engineering. Then after the water had soaked the flapper, it makes a noise not unlike the drunk Barney, from Mo's bar on the Simpsons, after the throttle has blipped and settles again. So it is back with the mech, he must sort it tomorrow. I aint gonna make the Magnum gig in Wulfrun in Wolves tonight as I dont fancy the journey in the ol Jetta. Cant be ar5ed.

My mate just said it aint bad Karma.... just a bad kar

What am I moaning about anyway. Aint stuck in Lebanon.

[Wedg1e]

Christ, I could have done that lot in a leisurely three days, charged you £100 a day plus parts and still felt like I was ripping you off.
And I'd have made more than I do in my current job.

[cuneus]

[GV]

Fleecing garages? They are Conts....

[shadowfax]

cuneus said:

Send in the cavalry indeed! It's all my own fault for believing I could use local competent labour on my TVR rather than the leading lights in the indy world. It was my own selfishness - garage in next road to my flat and idea of basic labour costs to fix what people have told me is a basic RV8 issue - when I should have trusted people who know what they are doing.

It feels rough; the exhaust still needs repairing; and I am off to Nice and back in 3 weeks. Fat chance.

[shadowfax]

Had a run out yesterday.... Mersey tunnel in 2nd & 3rd put a smile back on my gob. My faith is now in Richard at RT (where I should've gone in the first place) to repair exhaust, check the car over properly and let's see if France is still on in 4 weeks time.

After the mech resolved the leaking swan neck cap, there is an overflow of coolant from the overflow tank at times now. The temp gauge also gets to 90 when pushing on to 4000rpm and rises slowly above the white line, then drops quickly to 90 most of the time, falling to around 85 when cruising; at times the needle touches the red zone margin, but always drops quickly to 90 or less. Tickover keeps the temp at 90 or just under. The worry is what will happen in the heat of France.

[shadowfax]

Mechanic who has been servicing my Rover P5B Coupe says he charges £700 for head gasket on a Clio, so £1K for all the stuff on 400SE is ok he reckons... Mind you, same bloke said "Have you seen the crack in the screen (on the P5B)?" Yep, I closed the door on the screen as it lay on the roof when the other bloke over the road was doing the windscreen seal replacements (he'd sat it on the roof) and chewed a tiny bit off the top right corner when i opened the door ... "No, it's on the left, half way up about 4 Inches long, and someone's put the tax disc over it, you cant see it from inside the car.... it'll get worse in the winter... I didnt do it!! "

Guess what? the guy over the road denied all knowledge

Lovely

TMF Now Waynes World Two - the fight with the chinese girl's ol fella LOve It!!

Edited by shadowfax on Thursday 31st May 23:44

[JR]

shadowfax said:

says he charges £700 for head gasket on a Clio

but there's not much metal in modern heads so they warp and need skimming and rebuilding unlike RV8 heads. Hope you get your trip to France OK.

[adam quantrill]

Well, if it's still dumping coolant, I would suspect that the head gaskets weren't done correctly. Get a third party to check the coolant for exhaust gas and diagnose the problem. If it's the head gaskets, get him to do it again - presumably for that price he guarantees his work! I'd also go for composite gaskets, personally.

It should take about 10 hours to do - for an amateur working from a haynes manual - 6 to 8 hours for a competent mechanic.