Anyone have any butt lube? I just got hosed by mech

-
Viper21700

Viper21700

Well-Known Member
Joined
Dec 23, 2013
Messages
197
Reaction score
10
Location
Aiken SC
Yeah, I got violated in a not so pleasant manner by a mechanic shop today... 1200 to rebuild the braking system on the car.... ouch....... 536 for parts (wtf????) and the rest was labor... full rebuild, plus dual cylinder master cylinder installed.... man my butt feels sore right now.....
Is it me or does that price sound a bit ridiculous? I know I could have done the job myself, but lack of a garage, and time at the moment made me do the unusual task of taking it to a "highly rated" shop....
 
Without knowing what he did, hard to say. Get on some place like Rock Auto and look up everything you can think of. Did he not give you a detailed parts list? If he did NOT then you helped hose yourself. Did you not ask for the old parts?

"Rebuild"

I know some guys who's idea of an "engine rebuild" is a can of spray paint and a can of bon ami
 
If it took him 10 hours then you paid him $53 an hour... So you decide how long it took him compared to the price...
 
If the rebuild was what I consider a full rebuild with a dual master cylinder modification, I wouldn't consider $1200 too expensive for a professional shop.
 
I haven't went and picked the car up yet. he called me this afternoon.... my wife is livid...... thank god shes got 18 days to calm down before I get back home... british pissed off wife.... not a fun experience....
Heres what he told me over the phone-
New front drums, new wheel bearings, new shoes, new lines, new front steel lines, new hardware for front, new 1971 master cylinder (went with a dual plumb system) new rear hose, new rear line plus junction (old hose was rusted through) rear shoes, 4 new wheel cylinders, hardware kits, adjusters...
for that price I should have upgraded and just got the disc brake conversion!!!!!
 
Too late for the lube, try sitting on a butt donut for a day or two till the pain subsides.
 
Ok if you guys think that's a fair price, then Im good with it.. just hit me hard in the wallet and wasn't expecting that much... been a long time since Ive taken anything to a shop and had to pay (wifes car is under warranty, everything else I worked on myself)
 
Price is probably about right for all that IMO... DIY is your friend...
 
I always suggest to people if you are not doing alot of your own work,get in with your local mopar club.There is always someone who is a pretty good wrench and likes to make some money on the side.Then that guy usually knows some orther guys with parts and thats a good way to get stuff done resonable and make some new mopar buddy's!
 
I plan on it when I get back to SC, but have been on a time constraint up here with my PCS transfer. oh well, had to get done anyways. Easy come, easy go right?
 
Sounds like you had to ok the work at some point.
 
Viper21700 said:
I haven't went and picked the car up yet. he called me this afternoon.... my wife is livid...... thank god shes got 18 days to calm down before I get back home... british pissed off wife.... not a fun experience....
Heres what he told me over the phone-
New front drums, new wheel bearings, new shoes, new lines, new front steel lines, new hardware for front, new 1971 master cylinder (went with a dual plumb system) new rear hose, new rear line plus junction (old hose was rusted through) rear shoes, 4 new wheel cylinders, hardware kits, adjusters...
for that price I should have upgraded and just got the disc brake conversion!!!!!
Click to expand...


You can always tell her that it was cheaper than paying for your hospital bills and/or funeral if you had a wreck caused by not getting the brakes fixed.
 
price sounds right for all they did... remember, you can go to a parts store and get it a lot less than what the shop charges you (they exist to make money, not be nice to us!) so, if you look up all the parts, and double it (maybe not quite that much markup) that is what they wold charge you for parts... then as was said above, labor... then there may be some hazmat fee they have to charge for dirty shop rags and old brake fluid....

then there is tax on it all....
 
Im kinda surprised he converted the master cylinder to a dual resevoir , that fact he modified it from the original production unit opens him up to liability if something were to go wrong .
 
Rusty- I ok'd the work originally, but even the brake shop didn't expect the labor to be that bad.. they started tearing into it and sent pictures.. most of the brake system was shot (explains the fact that I either had straight lockup, or no stop at all)
It just caught me with my pants down, and surprised the heck out of me. like I said, its been ten years since Ive dealt with a mechanics shop at all... I usually do all my own work, as Im a cheap *** miser most of the time. Just puts some projects I had planned a bit further back than I anticipated. I actually feel kinda bad, guess I didn't get hosed and jumped the gun a bit. Damn a dollar doesn't go as far as it used to...
 
No shizzle a pack o smokes is 6 bucks, beer is almost a buck a can and a crappy steak at the grocer is 10 bucks.

You got a fair deal for as much dirty crappy work as they did to get you back to driving.

I guarantee its way less than paying for the physical stress and anger you would have endured trying to chase all those gremlins yourself and it gets done a whole lot quicker...plus its warrantied. BONUS!

Pay the man and pat yourself on the back for being sensible and saving yourself the pain and suffering.

Good investment.

Mop
 
Three months ago I paid $1,200 to replace the rusted out brake lines in a 2003 GMC Denali. My neighbor paid $1,500 for the same job on his 2003 GMCpickup. Apparently this is a common problem on most GM and Ford trucks for the late 1990s thru around 2010, but the facTories aren't recalling them.

I too normally do all my own work because I feel hosed by "certified" mechanics, but after looking at the factory routing of these lines (pinched between the body and the frame rail and in the front, routed thru a maze of crap), I said frig it, let someone else do it. I actually became a mechanical engineer because I hated designs like that when I worked at a gas station and thought I could do better designs. Forget that I also wanted to join the USAF and also didn't want to live in Detroit (both negated my education goal reason!).

Oh well. Most of you guys are way better mechanics than the "technicians" out there now. Most of the new guys can't troubleshoot anything that doesn't set a code in the computer! I'm not saying all of them are like that, but only the ones it seems that get to work on my vehicles.
 
Steel brake lines are cheap, but bending and installing them eats up time.....
 
65cuda360 said:
Steel brake lines are cheap, but bending and installing them eats up time.....
Click to expand...

My $1,200 included premade, pre-bent lines. The routing did suck for sure, so the mechanic abandoned the old lines and found easier ways to route the new lines. He probably even cut them and flared new ends.
 
Viper21700 said:
Yeah, I got violated in a not so pleasant manner by a mechanic shop today... 1200 to rebuild the braking system on the car.... ouch....... 536 for parts (wtf????) and the rest was labor... full rebuild, plus dual cylinder master cylinder installed.... man my butt feels sore right now.....
Is it me or does that price sound a bit ridiculous? I know I could have done the job myself, but lack of a garage, and time at the moment made me do the unusual task of taking it to a "highly rated" shop....
Click to expand...

Sometimes those "highly rated" shops come with a high price. I usually deal with a smaller "home town" shop. They want to make a few bucks but want you to come back so they don't bend you over. I am the same, I will do my own even if it is outside. The car is in the garage, so do the work outside. It sucks but worth the savings. Is that your daily driver?
 
Sounds about right, considering all that was done. Around here, the labor rate is $95.00 per hour.
 
no way in hell would I ever take my car to a shop to get a brake job. its one of the most basic systems in an old car. its a racket
 

Attachments

  • vaseline.jpg
    40.7 KB · Views: 266
68gtxman said:
Three months ago I paid $1,200 to replace the rusted out brake lines in a 2003 GMC Denali. My neighbor paid $1,500 for the same job on his 2003 GMCpickup. Apparently this is a common problem on most GM and Ford trucks for the late 1990s thru around 2010, but the facTories aren't recalling them.

I too normally do all my own work because I feel hosed by "certified" mechanics, but after looking at the factory routing of these lines (pinched between the body and the frame rail and in the front, routed thru a maze of crap), I said frig it, let someone else do it. I actually became a mechanical engineer because I hated designs like that when I worked at a gas station and thought I could do better designs. Forget that I also wanted to join the USAF and also didn't want to live in Detroit (both negated my education goal reason!).

Oh well. Most of you guys are way better mechanics than the "technicians" out there now. Most of the new guys can't troubleshoot anything that doesn't set a code in the computer! I'm not saying all of them are like that, but only the ones it seems that get to work on my vehicles.
Click to expand...



I have probably done 20 of those trucks here in new york... It is a crap job. I make all my own lines and uses rolls of brake line.. They run all the lines to the abs block under the driver door.. no room to get to it, Have seen the abs strip the holes.. then still have all the other lines plus rubber hoses with rotted ends. Then last turns into getting all the bleeders open. 1500 truck is alot harder then 2500 since the cab sits closer to the frame. My customers complain when I charge them 600-700. Wish people knew
 
Although it sucks, and is more expensive than you had hoped for, you did get a lot of work for your money. The fact that they installed the dual master cylinder is great because most shops wont make a change like that from a factory setup. You could have saved a ton if you did it yourself, but you knew that going in. No harm done IMO.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
-

Back
Top