Are quick fixes a thing of the past?

[Dixie68]

The under tray on my Focus ST has come loose on one side; not a major problem but it needs to go on a ramp to get it resecured. I drove to four local garages earlier and none of them would even look at it. "Not worth my while mate", "I'm fully booked until Tuesday" were two of the responses I got.
Maybe it's just London but don't garages take passing trade anymore?
I'm tempted to get an oil change now as I know they'll need to remove and refit the under tray to do it.

[black1]

get the jack out, lie on ya back, job done,

[Pints]

black1 said:

get the jack out, lie on ya back, job done,

Lying under a car that's propped up by the jack... of course nothing could go wrong there.

[andy-xr]

Half parked on kerb, half on road was how I sorted out the one on my 206. I found the same though when trying to book work in, butfound that fairly normal to not do it there and then

[Dixie68]

I'd love to be able to bung it up on stands and do it myself, unfortunately due to me being a knackered old fart I can't

[MysteryLemon]

Like they say, it's not worth their while. Would you want to pay a full hours labour for a little job like that? That's what they will charge and they know you won't want to pay it.

Do it yourself or book it in for an oil change, like you suggest, and ask them to sort the other thing too.

[J4CKO]

Pints said:

black1 said:

get the jack out, lie on ya back, job done,

Lying under a car that's propped up by the jack... of course nothing could go wrong there.

Yep, people do die, every year by being squashed by their motor, axle stands, pallets, old tyres, ramps etc, I was under a car, on my drive that got reversed into by an old lady, it was on stands, on a jack, I suspect I wouldn't be here, basicalliy a car weighs a tonne plus, once it's on your chest you have a few seconds to contemplate, the old lady was unrepentant in this incident, apparently the car was hidden behind a hedge, and how could she possibly have seen it, I should be more carefully she said !

[Camaro]

There is a place somewhere in London that hires you a lift for an amount of time, plus tools in the workshop. The ultimate DIY solution to tricky jobs.

ETA:

Pit Start http://www.pitstartgarage.com/

They've advertised on here... http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=769...

[cobra kid]

Is it different to a normal Focus?

[Camaro]

cobra kid said:

Is it different to a normal Focus?

The ST and RS have different under body panelling to the Zetec and Zetec-s.

[skyrover]

your asking a mechanic to do that?

good grief

[soad]

skyrover said:

your asking a mechanic to do that?

good grief

Dixie68 said:

I'd love to be able to bung it up on stands and do it myself, unfortunately due to me being a knackered old fart I can't

[skyrover]

bung one of the local school kids a fiver

[cobra kid]

Camaro said:

The ST and RS have different under body panelling to the Zetec and Zetec-s.

Is it a harder job then?

[Garvin]

MysteryLemon said:

Like they say, it's not worth their while. Would you want to pay a full hours labour for a little job like that? That's what they will charge and they know you won't want to pay it.

Do it yourself or book it in for an oil change, like you suggest, and ask them to sort the other thing too.

^^^^ This. Maybe not an hour but even half hour at £50 ex VAT an hour will result in a bill of £30 and then if the required fasteners are still present! They will anticipate the outraged "What, £30 for that little job?" response and want to avoid the hassle of another half hour argument they could well do without.

[mighty kitten]

Used to do these bits but had one too many "do I owe you anything ?" So it's a minimum £10 charge even if its 2mins

[Dixie68]

mighty kitten said:

Used to do these bits but had one too many "do I owe you anything ?" So it's a minimum £10 charge even if its 2mins

Now see that doesn't bother me at all, I can't do it myself so I've got no problem paying someone else to do it. I remember the days when if you had a problem when driving you just pulled into the nearest petrol station that usually had a garage attached and got them to fix it. Seems to be a thing of the past now though.

[MG CHRIS]

The problem for garages ( I work at one) is for the time it takes to take a guy of one car put yours on the ramp rescure the under guard take it back of doesn't pay. Plus if the garage is full this delays getting other cars finished.

This week has been busy where I work due to being only open 4 days and not back open till Tuesday, and by Tuesday we where fully booked for mots till the following Wednesday and also close on being full for work and don't forget work needed for the mots booked in, it's a matter of what jobs bring in the best money for time taken.
Case in point say a clutch change on a mondeo is a full day job if it goes without problem, so one mechanic and ramp is tided up for a day cost for the job £600-700
for example discs/pads cost on average 100-120 quid takes an hour so you could do 8 sets in a day and earn 800-950 over that time scale.

That's why a lot of garages wont do the 10 mins jobs as it delays the work booked in.