What repairs/servicing won't you tackle?

[Mikey360 68]

Been under the Mrs's Cmax for most of this morning replacing the lower wishbone bushes, thankfully it all when well and the lower ball joints actually came off with a little encouragement from my trusty hammer. I've always been reasonably handy with car work (learned from the old man, first car was a MK3 GT6 that we restored years ago, and had done plenty with my brother on his MK1 Capri 2000GT)

I'm looking at changing the cambelt and water pump on an Audi TT I picked up yesterday from Birmingham, and the engine bay just looks too tight! Been quoted £390 to get it done this Thursday and it'll be the first time I've had a garage do something like that.

What jobs do you guys outsource?

[Arfur Dealy 823]

Everything. I’ve changed a flat tyre and the occasional wiper... nothing else

[tradegirl 112]

Mostly everything. Have changed window mechanisms a couple of times, etc, but everything else is mechanics.

[EPV 631]

I clean em. Someone else fixes em 

£390 for a CB on a TT sounds a bit trumpy. Not massively but nearer £300 than £400 in my world. 

[justlooking 48]

My man would do that for £150 I’m sure, most fiesta belts he charges me £120.

could be worth asking the question of a few others in your area or posting the job on ‘who can fix my car’. 

In response to your question, I’m the same as EPV! I’ll clean he fixes.

Edited June 1, 2018 by justlooking

[BHM 994]

Most things. I’ll do the odd bulb, battery, coil pack & fault diagnosis etc. but as for getting my hands properly dirty those days are behind me.

I can get discs & pads changed for between £10-20 labour depending upon their mood and the other week had a secondhand gearbox in a petrol Zafira both supplied AND fitted for £150 so at these prices there’s no chance of me getting oil behind my fingernails.

[Mikey360 68]

7 hours ago, EPV said:

I clean em. Someone else fixes em 

£390 for a CB on a TT sounds a bit trumpy. Not massively but nearer £300 than £400 in my world. 

It does include a water pump aswell, but I do agree, should be closer to £300

6 hours ago, justlooking said:

My man would do that for £150 I’m sure, most fiesta belts he charges me £120.

could be worth asking the question of a few others in your area or posting the job on ‘who can fix my car’. 

In response to your question, I’m the same as EPV! I’ll clean he fixes.

Great shout, just posted now, hopefully someone comes up cheaper! 

[grant8064 219]

Like the rest of you we don't get our hands dirty. Don't have time or the skills set. I change the odd broken wing mirror, bit of interior trim etc but that's my lot.

[Rory RSC 596]

I think in this job we can make a lot of money by working smart and working to our strengths. Can make far more money in buying and selling than I can spending time fixing cars or cleaning them.

 

[EPV 631]

8 minutes ago, Rory RSC said:

I think in this job we can make a lot of money by working smart and working to our strengths. Can make far more money in buying and selling than I can spending time fixing cars or cleaning them.

 

Spot on. No point in changing a set of brake pads when you need to be sourcing cars or working on ways to sell what you have. If I had a decent valeter that would do a car to my standard for £75 i’d happily pay that. As it stands, my local place does an ok job for £75 but if I want shampooed carpets and air vents cleaned and door shuts degreased I have to pay £125 and book him 3 days in advance. So I spend 6 hours myself doing it all and getting it done to my standard when I want. 

But yeah, changing brake pads and oil to save £50, not for me. 

[Mark101 536]

Just done Audi A4 TDI (2009) - timing belt, tensioners, water pump, oil and filter - £300 all in

[EPV 631]

That’s a good price Mark. I’d expect to pay £350 for that and those are favourable rates as I push everything his way. 

[MattR 177]

I'd only get a cambelt changed by someone I know and trust - it does help that he doesnt cost a fortune (£35 per hour) but I once had someone else do one and ended up buying the car back because he didnt fit the tension bolt properly. To my mind, some jobs are worth 'shopping around' for, and others arent.

[trade vet 697]

If you are doing 3 or 4 per week outsourcing work makes sense.( at the moment).However,if you have a reasonably priced repairer,look after them,they are hard to replace.If you can do some of the work yourself,the savings now are considerable.I used to outsource everything and when weekly repair bills reached 4 grand,my time was up.Our guys run a proper workshop now and without that they might struggle.The next step.....a paint booth because £150-£200 for a small local is too much.

[justina3 518]

We do everything in house one mechanic employed full time, but we do not advertise to the retail market we only work for the trade, lots of reasons but in the end this route worked out to save us a fortune we zero headaches.

quick example, Phone rings hello Mr Jones how can i help you, hi you fitted new brake pads for me last months and now i have an eml light on, aw ok bring it down and we will have a look, Mr Jones your 02 sensor has failed, well no way i am paying for that it was fine until you touched my brakes !!!!.......good bye retail customers.  

The work he does on the trade cars doesnt bring in a fortune but pays his wage and then all the work completed on our stock is labor free with enough left over to buy a few pizza's.

 

[BHM 994]

 

18 minutes ago, justina3 said:

We do everything in house one mechanic employed full time, but we do not advertise to the retail market we only work for the trade, lots of reasons but in the end this route worked out to save us a fortune we zero headaches.

quick example, Phone rings hello Mr Jones how can i help you, hi you fitted new brake pads for me last months and now i have an eml light on, aw ok bring it down and we will have a look, Mr Jones your 02 sensor has failed, well no way i am paying for that it was fine until you touched my brakes !!!!.......good bye retail customers.  

The work he does on the trade cars doesnt bring in a fortune but pays his wage and then all the work completed on our stock is labor free with enough left over to buy a few pizza's.

 

Funnily enough the main MOT garage I use has finally cottoned on to the fact they’ll be better off being selective about work rather than doing ‘everything’ and agreeing to all MOT repairs. They’ve had a string of bother with punters’ pieces of shit after repairing one thing & then something else going wrong. Punters start screaming & half of them haven’t a pot to piss in. That’s not to also mention those cars with a plethora of parts options so a £60 job ends up taking up a day’s worth of ramp space. Trade money won’t pay so well but it should be zero comeback, understanding of the potential problems working on older cars and often is in cash.

[metcars 395]

The problem is that however enthusiastic/competent you are, if you're a one man band you can't be halfway through pulling a gearbox and the phone rings? And it is NOT a good thing to greet customers looking like you work in a scrapyard!

A case can be made if/when you need something sorting quickly and you're confident of your diagnosis. My mechanic is efficient and cheap 'but' if I'm waiting for something simple like pads/disc and he's called out on a breakdown it quite frustrating. Or, as recently happened, I'm booked in for a 'belt' and he's still stuck on a BMW with stripped head bolts?

Recently, in the last few years I've backed right off of DIY. It's not ability that stops me from working on cars, but my reluctance to spend any more money on specialist tools, which seem to be required for every job.

 

Edited June 5, 2018 by met

[Mistermuttley 19]

I trade as a second job and only sell 2 or 3 a month. As my margin is around £400 per car i do most of the work on the car myself.

Will do some small paint/touch ups myself but leave bigger jobs to my paint guy.

Nearly everything mechanical/electrical though i will do myself as if I pay someone else i might make 50p per car! Jobs i do are exhaust /brake changes. oil & filter changes. suspension ball joints/shocks. timing belts/chains. I have done a corsa head gasket and timing chain ,but would not like to do that again! Youtube or google for how to's from various car clubs shows you nearly everything you need to know. I have a few Haynes manuals for the cars I regularly do, and it pays to stick mostly to a few car types as its a lot easier maintenance wise as doing something a second/third time is twice as fast as the first time.

As for saving between a garage and doing it myself i can get a belt and tensioner for a fiat 500 for £30 or pay someone £300 to do it, its around a 3 hour job after the third time so its relatively quick and easy IF you have all the tools neccesary!

[XFS 70]

I'm not keen on tackling anything oily or dirty or safety related, but anything challenging or interesting I will sometimes have a go at.

Like this. http://cardealermagazine.co.uk/forum/topic/6938-another-my-first-bca-tale-of-woe/

Other than that I like to to a lot of the prep myself, then I know its done right and it gets me familiar with the car.

[David Horgan 564]

Were lucky then .

We only outsource the dent man ,any day except Mon and Friday Mon hes getting over being drunk , Friday he's to excited about being drunk . Tue/Thursday hes very good .

Everything else is in house from pumping tyres up to gearbox rebuilds .

Nothing challenges my lad at all , its freaky easy when you see him work . 

He's just done my XRF timing chains & tensioners and water pump WOW pure genius to watch , TT belts one and half . 

[beenaroundtheblock 21]

4 hours ago, David Horgan said:

 

We only outsource the dent man ,any day except Mon and Friday Mon hes getting over being drunk , Friday he's to excited about being drunk .

Brilliant 

[JA Trader 58]

We do everything mechanical in house ourselves. Only a part time trader so sometimes its easier logistically to do it ourselves due to timing with full time work and not being able to get to garages when open.  We have a good relationship with our paint chap normally rotate a car every Saturday morning leave it with him for a week to make right.

However i don't do f***ing electrics. Had a mini convertible in with an intermittent roof drove it to mot and pack parked up on driver then wouldn't start ended up being some control module under the seat had corroded but we use a local chap for that very reliable and very cheap.

[David Horgan 564]

18 hours ago, beenaroundtheblock said:

Brilliant 

This is a good one , Dent man came yesterday telling us he had spent the weekend in YORK celebrating his sons uni exam pass . Heavy drinking he said , " i turned round to hug my son and say well done , we went back to the hotel and it wasn't till then he found out it wasn't his son  

The mans not here for long 

[justina3 518]

My dent guy has gone to london to do a roof on a new Bently a full week all expenses paid, havent you london folk got anyone any good you have to steal ours...very odd. 

 

[Mark101 536]

18 minutes ago, justina3 said:

My dent guy has gone to london to do a roof on a new Bently a full week all expenses paid, havent you london folk got anyone any good you have to steal ours...very odd. 

 

Is it a convertible