Evening all,
I wonder if anyone would be willing to help me out. Without saying to much on a open forum I’m looking for some advise as my cars currently having work done and the price has just jumped massively from the estimate because the service person forgot to quote me essential parts in doing said job.
Would anyone be willing to drop me a message to explain or perhaps spare 10 minutes on the phone so I can see if I’m being reasonable with my reply tomorrow.
Thanks
Kieran
What are the parts in question?
Pm’d Muu, hope it makes sense.
A little frustrated at present.
At the risk of having a secret thread, I think your concerns are legitimate to air here if you keep the name out of the thread.
Cheers Muu,
I’m yet to speak to the garage but basically I was quoted a set amount of hours (3.5) to swap a rad and fit 4 braided brake hoses and a stainless tow post whilst the oil coolers are replaced under the recall and the clam is off.
It now turns out that I now need to pay an additional 2 hours labour on fitting the hoses, half an hour for bleeding and an additional half an hour for changing of brake fluid for better fluid? Also the fluids themselves have not been quoted ( brake and coolant) in the original price so there on top.
Total price 2.4 times the original quote.
Well I don’t have a breakdown of the time taken, but I had the rad changed on my car whilst the clam was off for the recall work, and I don’t think it was anymore than 2hours for that element based on what I paid after discount. I didn’t get charged for any coolant.
The original 3.5hrs you were quoted seems maybe a shade light, but I’d only say +1hr on that.
Cheers Bomber,
A little disappointed tonight. Brake fluid and coolant is coming out at just shy of £70.
Total for the work with the rad supplied by me, hoses supplied by me and not included in the price is.
£660!! With 10% discount and clam removed.
Do it yourself 
Am I reading this right, the new quote is 6.5 hours labour or 5.5 hours? To be honest changing a rad and brake lines while the clam is already off is easy and won’t take 2 hours. Changing the brake fluid can’t take any more than 10 minutes longer than bleeding them. But I always think dealers rip you off with the hourly rate. It can’t be almost a days labour with the clam already off.
On the original quote it was 3.5 hours to fit tge proalloy rad, braided hoses and stainless tow eye.
Whilst the clams off as both oil coolers need replacing on mine.
The new quote has an additional 4.1 hours labour to do the above work work, taking it to 7.6 hours to swap a rad and brake pipes.
It wouldn’t be so bad but I’m already spending 1700 having the 260 upgrade.
Once the clam is off the rad swap took me about 4 hours to do including all filling and testing. But I am a ham fisted novice.
It takes some working out of the crash structure but once done, you’d know what you were up against.
I’d expect the pros would take 2 hrs for that task.
I thought there 3.5 hours to do the rad and brake hoses was a little on the tight side but seeing as there pros i went with it.
Another 4 hours to do the job seems a little much to me.
I suppose you have two choices. Stop them and diy or pay the price whilst it’s in parts.
I’d always start with determining what a ‘reasonable’ outcome looks like for you.
Discuss this calmly and rationally with the garage in question. They know from experience that if you leave feeling angry and short-changed then you won’t be back and will never have a good word to say about them. Most reputable places care about that kind of thing and will at least try to meet you in the middle.
Voice of reason from uncle Ben (he does more than rice you know) there.
It’s your car so your responsibility, similarly they’re the professionals and you selected them for the smooth ride and trusted in their estimation skills. 50/50 split is only fair I’d say.
The original quote sounds about right having done these myself and a decent Lotus trained guy will do them in less time than that.
I think they are trying to recover money they can’t get Lotus to replace all the oil lines and coolers, I bet Lotus are giving them a very low amount of hours even if they have to change everything.
As for coolant and brake fluid, unless they carefully save your on drain down (I do this) they will have to charge you for anti freeze, and decent brake fluid Motul RBF600 will cost you £30 -40 to do a complete fluid upgrade if done correctly
My car is also going in for the recall work in a week or so. I asked if the clam would be coming off as too would have considered additional work while it was in bits. Was told that it didn’t need to come off, which surprised me a little.
Is it ‘just pipes’, clam on ‘pipes and coolers’ clam off?
Either way I’ll be sure to get the quote set it stone after reading this!
The clam has to come off to access the unions at the on and off side. If they are doing this recall, the clam is coming off.