Hello everyone. Hope your having a great Labor Day weekend. My car is at the shop for some repairs. They went ahead and did a repair without my authorization which was to replace the oil pan gasket. Obviously I had a few words with the owner and he's willing to work with me on the quote. The work was done and eventually it had to be done, so I have no problem paying for it but want to keep it honest and real by the book. Looking to see if anyone has a shop manual that would say how many hours to do such job? It is a Poston oil pan that is in there right now. Any info greatly appreciated. Thanks
Assuming a 70-72. Depends on how much care they used. If they just unbolted, pulled down and reinstalled it is about a 1 hour job. But of they popped the pan, cleaned the surfaces, cleaned the pan and pickup, it is a little longer of a job, maybe 2 hours or so. Took me that much time to take mine off with the engine in place a few years ago. But i know shops estimate jobs differently.
67 GS400. Supposedly they removed it, cleaned area, put new gasket and silicon gasket maker like RYV, bolted it all up and left overnight to dry. Then started car up next morning while in lift to be sure no leaks. So 2-3 hrs I’m guessing would be a good meet in the middle spot.
That’s what I’m looking for as what the book says. This way I can pay them for their work based on the book.
Book time is a suggestion,...it doesn't always apply especially when it's with different parts than what the time was written for,..IE your Poston pan. You will more than likely be at a disagreement with them over book time and the time it took.
Hope they did a good job, and didn't have the youngest, greenest kid in the shop do it because its an older car
We used to have customers come in and ask for a estimate . When the shop owner gave them the quote they used to say " Well the BOOK says its only 1 hour . " The shop owner would tell them , " Well let the BOOK do the job then " Every shop has their own method of calculating a job . The BOOK is only a suggestion and it is based on No broken or stripped bolts and a lot of other variables . The BOOK assumes everything goes PERFECT . And whose BOOK are they using ??? Factory ???
I've run an auto shop for 20 years now. I don't gave any book showing labor time on that old an car. Even some of the first ones I've gotten only go back to early 80s. And it's not a set in stone time it's a guide. Look at different books get different times. There has even been sometimes where I have had changes to the book time. After doing the same job a few times and if calling for 2hrs and no way in he'll to do it an anywhere close to that time. I've seen it go the other way too where the book has too much time and I have curved it back down to be fair to the customer. The postons pan is harder to get out than a stk pan due to its depth. How much are they charging you.
That's one part of the collision industry that sucks, a bumper pays .5 to RandI and it takes close to 2 because the pushpins are all chewed up, someone been there before and have 6 different size bolts and two 5in long wood screws, that damn Gorilla glue everywhere ha etc etc,..when dealing with the insurance you are out that time, a supplement for anything under $200 is a waste of time so you just eat it and move on. One example of a mechanical time injustice I had was the Alternator on a Caddy, got hit hard enough to push the rail over and hit the pulley, couldn't buy just a pulley, so had to get a $700 alternator which was ridiculous. Then had to drop the cradle all but out, and all attached to it, including a steering shaft bolt that they built the car around. Paid .3 to change the alternator, that was BS hell it took 20min to change once I got access to it. Took 3.5 hrs I had to raise hell to get it wasn't much money, but was principal at that point ha
It would be a lot easier if you just stated how much you were charged . You said it had to be done and although the shop owner did it without your approval he is willing to work with you on the price . Pay the bill and chalk it up to a Life Learning experience .
If you didn’t authorize it, then it’s on them. The “book” has a lot of disclaimers. Once in a while, we run into a situation that it states, for example, 10 hours labor and in actuality it takes only an hour. Now what?
Originally on his quote he said $2000 which I declined for such repairs to be done. I agreed for them to do the oil leak behind the block which required for the tranny to come down. In speaking with him on Friday he said "how about $600". I told him we would speak on Tuesday when I got back home.
Very Vague . We are only hearing the parts of the story you want us to hear. What was the original complaint ?? What did you originally agree to ?? What did they additionally find . Too many variables here . When you started this thread there was no mention of pulling the trans .
All, I had another thread with details of such quote and didn’t want to bore you guys with it again. I took it in for oil leak. They said it was coming from behind the block coming from the turn that runs oils from one side to another. They said the pan was leaking some oil but main leak was from behind the engine requiring to bring down tranny. The oil pan gasket was one line item on the quote where they suggested to swap out this poston oil pan to a one piece pan where such quote for just this swap was $2000. I declined such swap and they said they would just tighten up the oil pan screws. When I went to pickup car since it was completed, I left shop and car was leaking more oil then before. I took it back and they said they would check it to see why. This is when they went ahead and did the gasket swap without my approval especially that I had declined such repair. Per shop owner it was coming from the half moon area on oil pan as it’s warped. Hope this helps explain what was going on. Two separate total repairs in the end. Took it in for one fix which was supposedly done, then leaking worse after pickup from another area that was never identified as having issues when they inspected the for the leak and provided such quote.
Those Poston pans can be a pita, if some knuckle head tried to use the rubber seal, that's the issue. On those pans you just use rtv, there and then smear it in tight on the outside.
Dude, you are wanting a shop to fix oil leaks on a 40 plus year old car that leaked oil 2 years after it left the factory. hope you got deep pockets cause a 10k motor rebuild is the other option. Every gasket in that motor is leaking, and it all runs to the back of the motor, looking like its coming from the back. cork/rubber gaskets suck, but they are the only option, so no guarantees... I've been working on these junks since the early eighties, oil leaks are the very worst problem you could give a modern day shop. Sure, guys here will tell you its a piece of cake and they've done it in 2 hours, and so have I, but it was a rush hack job....
