nobber said:

They wont struggle to get LR parts, they arnt hard to get, and calling you up to find out which way the prop goes on? I would have thought the other prop was a bit of a giveaway! Dont usually do LR's? Where do you live, the middle of London?

I do know the motor trade is pretty ****ed at the moment, good mechanics are hard to find and there are a lot of people working in garages who dont know even the basic of basics, if there isnt a walk through on Autodata they are lost, perhaps you were just unlucky enough to get the mechanic who doesnt know what he is doing, there are quite a few of them around. 80 quid an hour though, thats specialist money.

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DecayingRat said:

Yea London though certainly not Westminster!

I totally get paying £80 an hr for someone to say rebuild a gearbox or mess around with ECUs and electronics, welding etc. But not for an oil change, and not two hours of labour. Perhaps they did charge the book price?

I think I'll speak to them Monday because it does seem very steep for what was done. Unless the UJ was an arsehole to remove/refit.

I'm kicking myself because I'm "reasonably" competent with spanners. I've rebuilt two stroke engines, checked and adjusted valve clearances on bikes and cars, timing belts, brakes etc. I was just being lazy thinking it would add 30-60 mins but an easy job while it's up on the ramp.

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DecayingRat said:

But it's like you said, £80 an hr is specialist money. If a specialist takes two hours to do an oil change which a DIYer can do in less something does not add up.

The reason you're paying £80 an hr is because they can do some you can't or they can do it a lot faster.

You're a mechanic, do you think two hours is reasonable for transfer and gearbox oil change?

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DecayingRat said:

Found an old receipt from Jan 2019, garage in Kensington did gearbox and transfer box oils. £85 labour and £37 for oil/parts... Kinds tells me everything I need to know really.

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nobber said:

Perhaps they mullered the drain plugs? Ive seen a few cars in my time where the last service included mullering the drain plugs! Call them, dont be shooting from the hip, be polite, find out what happened. It could be simply that the tech screwed up the work sheet or something, a simple mistake easily sorted. Going in all guns blazing wont get you anywhere and will probably negatively effect things for you.

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DecayingRat said:

Oh no I'm not gonna go in screaming, that doesn't get anyone anywhere. Like you said they may have had an issue somewhere so will see what they say. Tbh even if they say tough **** take us to court it ain't ever gonna happen so I'd just have to suck it up. We'll see how it goes!

Cheers though!

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nobber said:

You took the prop out, then drove it to the garage? In fairness, if someone did that to me, Id question their motives, no offence to you, but mechanics dont like working on something someone else has started, nor do garages like fitting customer bought parts, I point blank refuse to fit customer bought parts nowadays..

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DecayingRat said:

Found an old receipt from Jan 2019, garage in Kensington did gearbox and transfer box oils. £85 labour and £37 for oil/parts... Kinds tells me everything I need to know really.

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