IS MY MECHANIC ROBBING ME?

[Mustang5L5]

ran good with the exception of the top end had a loud tick,i turns out the rocker arms were the factory stamped steel stock ones,

How did this go from a $200 set of rockers and a couple hours to install to a $9200 pork job?

 

[wtjames06]

not sure,well yeah im sure,he called and called,the heads i figured would be a good upgrade,and i was supposed to be saving a ton of money,because the intake would be off as well as the headers...etc....i just wanted to do all the things i could now to save time on labor later.....looks as if it didnt work

 

[Mustang928]

That is waaaaaay too much... I was charged $1250 for labor for a head, cam, intake swap, but I did provide everything needed. Minus the gaskets, pushrods and misc bolts, but that was included in the price.


*** Just saw the invoices... that looks like an estimate for a pait job. What I did was ask upfront for an estimate and told them anything else needed, they would need authorization by me before it was ordered. Looks like your out of luck!

 

[wtjames06]

yeah,i took it in the backdoor pretty hard,thing is this man knows i have a ton of friends in the local mustang community,so why it would be worth it to him is beyond me,and between my wife and myself have 3 mustangs...i guess this was one hellava hard and expensive lesson

 

[emagdnim]

You got screwed but at least try to enjoy the new engine it should run much better now.

 

[Mustang5L5]

Geez, thumbing through that parts list, he definitely screwed you. He replaced stuff that didn't even need replacing. There's a lot of unneccesary parts on that list.


And $120 to paint the power steering bracket????

 

[8950HO]

5 pages...wow .

 

[just4bob50]

Not to plant the seed of doubt, but a lot of the items that were replaced are hard to verify that the work was actually done. I would take some time to go over the list and make sure that every thing that you were charged for is actually on the car.

 

[Mustang5L5]

Holy crap!

$4 each for a motorcraft 32C spark plug??
$1700 for AFR's!
$108 for a cowl grill? (what does this need to do with an engine tick?)
$8 for a washer fluid spout (did you really need this?)
$9 for a PCV valve?
$50 for a distributor cap??
$500 for a Cobra Intake???


Dude, you got raped on the cost of parts. You should have bought all this stuff yourself and just given it to him to install. His labor is only $2500, which is somewhat reasonable considering what he did, but that is noway $5500 in parts.

Did you give him permission to replace some of those little items? I don't see your signature authorizing him to do this work on that last page.

 

[Aliate X]

this is what happens when you let a mechanic go to town on your car.

 

[Don Fiveolio]

Damn, I could tell you were getting raped when I saw the FL1A for $8. Damn, talk about no vasaline.

 

[wtjames06]

the cowl grill i did need,although i could have gotten it alot cheaper than what he charged,its all bs,but be assured he will lose alot of buisness i grew up here,and im only 3 miles or so from his shop,and i think most people trust me being im not the type to screw folks over,but like i said before hes an idiot,i have several other mustangs and i had planned on him to plenty of work to all of them,seems like he would have tried to screw me a little at a time,instead of all at once....but hey its on me i guess...live and learnmaybe some other sucker will read this before they go dropping there car off and not being 100% clear on what they want done...but thanks for all the replys

 

[Threeo2]

man, that dude must LOVE his job. Im sure your not the first customers wallet he takes a dive into. what if most of these parts were leftovers from other customers cars, now that would just be effed up. HARD lesson learned. Aside from all the crap, how does it drive? is the ticking noise gone? do you have gears installed? I can give you a good low price on a gear change, lets say around....3 grand not including the $500 gear set and $1,000 posi unit j/k, peace!

 

[Roland69]

just go start it up hold it to the floor and blow it up.....take it back and tell him he ****ed your engine...or take your oil filter off put another filter gasket on so you have 2 than start it up and rev it up a bit the gaskets will seperate and puke all your oil out. blow it up and call him tell him to come pick up your car and he will think he F***ed up on the oil filter change..........

dirty dirty thing to do but maby he will order you a brand new engine

 

[cobradvm]

Looks like his markup on parts is about 25%, and his labor is $75/hr. He nickel and dimed you for every nut and bolt. But can't really fault him for that. How's that TF HCI looking right now - what is it - bout $2000 for heads, cam, intake, pushrods, rockers, all your gaskets and bolts, and timing chain set. I didn't add up what he charged you, but I bet his total came to well over twice the TF kit. Yikes - that is one expensive lesson!

 

[Roland69]

the shop I work at charges for every nut, bolt cotter pin, bulb ect...hey he had to pay for that stuff too.

 

[mob]

I agree, the labor is resonable, but the parts he put in and the price for them is outrageous.

AFR 185 heads complete. $1,369.99 (and thats the one with the bigger cc.
http://www.jegs.com/webapp/wcs/stor...atalogId=10002&storeId=10001&categoryId=26553

Looks like he was nice enough to get you the $500 version of the polished cobra intake.

part# A302 timing chain set, same one he got you for 85 bucks, is 65 at summit
http://store.summitracing.com/partd...4294908331+4294840126+400070+115&autoview=sku

The $195 B303 camshaft he got you...169 on summit
http://store.summitracing.com/partd...4294924497+4294887637+400070+115&autoview=sku

Why did you need a new $20 radiator hose?

Your $50 distributor cap? $25 is the most expensive one on summit
http://store.summitracing.com/egnse...94908282+4294924761+4294925143+115+4294849507


FRPP high volume water pump is 50 bucks, i guess you should feel lucky you got a $95 one?

your $56 FRPP red spark plug wire set, 40 bucks on summit.
http://store.summitracing.com/partd...R301&N=700+4294864973+400070+115&autoview=sku

Same exact ceramic coated shorty headers he charged you $400, are 315 on summit
http://store.summitracing.com/partd...4294918680+4294880275+400070+115&autoview=sku



This is only page one, and their are 5 pages. Im guessing the prices being alittle bit higher can be for shipping? But shouldnt shops get discount on parts? And even if you ordered all these parts yourself, summit has free shipping with a 9 dollar handling fee..

I learned the hard way when I took my car in to jake lamotta to install a clutch quadrant and cable and firewall adjust. Came out paying $900 for that and a new clutch, instal of new clutch and new upper control arms. And the upper control arms on the invoice said FRPP upper control arms $69, they crossed that out, and wrote aluminum upper control arms $99. Had to go back a year later becuase they didnt even instal the uca correctly. I know its not your fault, but lesson learned, if you try to confront him youll just get excuses and he'll be right.

 

[8950HO]

If you want to modify cars,it`s best to learn how to do,(most) of the work yourself unless your maybe rich and the high cost of paying a mechanic/shop is not a concern.

 

[Strype]

I'd be taking out about $3,000 worth of a mechanic's shop tonight at 2 am

 

[RsStanG1987]

I'd be taking out about $3,000 worth of a mechanic's shop tonight at 2 am

Im up for that what time do we ryde out?