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[longdog]

Relates to my post on march 3rd re Major Oil Leak...Took car to garage for MOT and asked them to find and fix engine oil and gearbox oil leak and put in new cambelt kit and alternator belt. I suggested engine oil may be rocker cover gaskets leaking. So I was billed for the following - Steam clean engine compartment twice, strip down engine to fit new cambelt kit and alternator belt, replace water pump (leaking), rocker cover gaskets, inlet gaskets, new spark plugs, remove / refit sump and replace split sump gasket, strip & clean rear brakes and adjust handbrake, fit 2 rear tyres, issue new MOT and do road test.
They had the car from Wednesday 10am till the following Tuesday 5pm. No argument over the cost of parts, but I was billed for 30 hours labour. Seemed a bit excessive. Anyone care to comment.

Oh - almost forgot, I drove the car home (6 miles) and it was still leaking engine oil- worse than before.

[jonathanh]

Sounds high to me.  that's 4 day's work for a mechanic.  Excluding the sump it feels like it should have been no more than a day to day and a half for someone who knows what they are doing.  Not sure on the sump however.

The biggest issue is that you still have a leak:  possibly they have fitted  pattern cam cover gaskets (they will not last) or they have not fitted something else properly.  eitherway, you've handed over good money to fix a problem and they have not done it.

Re the cambelt kit, you should confirm that they replaced the belt and tensioners AND that they installed it with the correct timing tools.  Some people will just replace the belt which is a waste of time because the tensioners fail taking a good belt out with them.  Also you cannot replace the belt accurately without the correct timing tool, again if they did not use it then it is substandard work.

[Marie]

sound like it. did they work constantly on you car for 5 days? and not work on anybody elses..........some how i dont think so. i might be wrong.

as for the leak i would be taking it straight back, and telling them to sort it at their cost now!!!

[waspy]

sound like it. did they work constantly on you car for 5 days? and not work on anybody elses..........some how i dont think so. i might be wrong.

as for the leak i would be taking it straight back, and telling them to sort it at their cost now!!!

To bloody right  

[Big_Al]

With that standard of workmanship they probably had no other cars to work on and spent best part of the week on yours.

You've paid to have it done  professionally, so get it back and get em to do it PROPERLY !  this time and at their expense .   GRRRRR!     These garages make me SO ANGRY

Make em have it mate.

[Vmax]

With that standard of workmanship they probably had no other cars to work on and spent best part of the week on yours.

You've paid to have it done  professionally, so get it back and get em to do it PROPERLY !  this time and at their expense .   GRRRRR!     These garages make me SO ANGRY
Make em have it mate.[/quote]
AGREED  

[achoo81]

If they actually changed the cam cover gaskets then they should have cleaned the breather system as well if they didn't then it's going to leak just as bad.

[M16]

Just to give you a rough Idea. I was charged £140 to have my rocker gaskets done and engine cleaned. I was told this was a decent price

[JasonH]

If you took your time and it was the first time doing all those things then I could imagine it taking 30 hours. For an experienced garage I say 10 hours tops.