Quote for Work sound alright?

[richardm]

Hi all,

I took my A4 (2001 B5 Avant) for a service a few weeks ago and asked them to do an inspection service. I was presented with a list(!) of things that needed doing. Two need doing before the next MOT, and I asked for a quote for a clutch and flywheel at the same time. Do these prices sound reasonable to you guys?

I don't have the ability (or spannering talent) to do this sort of work myself, but just wondered if anyone has any idea of the going rate for the work.
NSF Outer Gaiter £160
Rear Springs £280
Clutch and Flywheel £870

Cheers!

 

[Chriscooke]

160 for a gaitor seems a lot. It's not a nice job but only an hours labour. Did you take the car to audi by any chance?

 

[Bradderz_1988]

It all depends on what parts there fitting to justify what price they are charging !!

 

[Bradderz_1988]

And the cv boot its around £40 genuine iirc so an hours labour at say £60 works out with VAT at around £120 and they are probably charging you for non genuine parts.

What model do you have ??

 

[foursprungdugtechnique]

Ouch! I'd go to either a self employed ex-Audi mechanic or my mate's garage.
You could save a fair bit of money on the rear springs by stripping out the rear plastic to allow access to the strut tops. Springs are only about £28 each, personally, depending on the miles the car had done id do the shocks too due to the work involved to change http://www.car-bock.de/Coil-spring-AUDI-A4-8D-Avant-heavy-duty-rear
Not sure which engine etc your car is, but www.car-bock.de is worth a look.

 

[jbh]

I had receipts for a clutch kit and flywheel for my old car so at that price I hope there using genuine parts and its a top rate garage... otherwise I would be getting a few other quotes for the work

 

[richardm]

I was hoping it was an expensive quote and not the cheapest price! I'll have an ask around some local garages, the one these quotes are from is reputable but not a dealer. The car is a 1.9 TDI (AJM) non-quattro

 

[mojocvh]

Got stung for £600 for a single PD injector when on the road....also mrs got stung for £500 for replacing the wiper linkage on said pd Polo when I was contracting in EU, big job as they had to take the ECU out....

Nowadays, I'm really only stuck with either big mech jobs-lack of tooling etc or lack of diagnostics, funny how time and experience shape your ethos.

 

[foursprungdugtechnique]

I got a genuine clutch kit for my old Passat at VW, was a Valeo kit. Got it for £75 inc VAT, so wasn't complaining

 

[richardm]

Asked for a quote from another local garage and was quoted £300 non-genuine or £400 genuine, sounds a bit more like it!

 

[richardm]

I'm about to book the car in, but I wanted to ask you knowledgeable lot here another question first! The service sheet lists some faults that will need looking at, some more urgently than others, but I wanted to know if it's worth having the garage doing any of the work while they're working on the front and rear suspension areas;

-Front top suspension arm bushes slight perished, no movement at present
-Play in both rear wheel bearings
-Front drop links perishing
-Rear axle bushes perishing
-NSF outer CV split and rear spring broken (car being booked in for these)

My guess is that if the garage have got to remove any of the other parts to replace the CV boot and springs, they may as well change them - but I don't know enough about the parts listed to know.

Cheers, Richard

 

[Sulli79]

They will be undoing some of the front suspension to do the cv joint so it would make sense to replace all control arms and top mounts, as some of the Labour cost will be covered any way, just make sure it's decent kit, meyle or lemforder, or it will need doing again soon enough, if it's fwd rear bearings shouldn't take long. I'd ask them to quote it first though

 

[Bradderz_1988]

Also if your doing rear wheel bearings and its a fwd id be doing the disc and pads as the bearing are pressed into the discs so would make sense to replace them !!

 

[foursprungdugtechnique]

If you're getting a full set of discs I would recommend car-bock.de, get the full set of discs/pads/rear bearings/abs rings all ready to fit, bearings pressed in, and rings fitted ready to go.
The pads that came with the discs haven't left my wheels totally black either. Others report on the forum that customer care is very efficient too, no hassle replacement if something goes wrong.
If you're doing rear springs, you'd probably be better doing shocks too, axle bushes on the B5 are very easy to do (spent more time removing an axle bush from a Fiesta than it took to remove and refit the B5 (mine) springs, shocks and bushes.
Meyle HD kit is on my car, 4 year warranty too, recommended, and as Sulli says cheap arms won't last

 

[Chriscooke]

They will be undoing some of the front suspension to do the cv joint so it would make sense to replace all control arms and top mounts, as some of the Labour cost will be covered any way, just make sure it's decent kit, meyle or lemforder, or it will need doing again soon enough, if it's fwd rear bearings shouldn't take long. I'd ask them to quote it first though

We just undid the bottom joints on the hub when replacing my gaitor the other day. Tbh unless you have the cash ready I'd leave the top bushes until they actually need replacing.

You may find that your cv joint is worn if yours is a high miler also so in a worst case senario may need a new drive shaft.

 

[richardm]

Ok, cheers all for your input!

 

[Sulli79]

Yeah that's right, but he has deteriorated upper arm and drop link bushes, so they will need replacing in the very near future, and in my experience it's pointless replacing some of the control arms, especially if your going to be paying Labour each time.

 

[Chriscooke]

Fair point. I guess it depends on funding at this time. Ideally I'd get it all done in one go.

 

[richardm]

Fair point. I guess it depends on funding at this time. Ideally I'd get it all done in one go.

Funding = none
Maybe it's time for a 'Keep my B5 on the road' kickstarter!

 

[matt66604]

You know the rear wheel bearings are adjustable if its a FWD... So if the discs and pads are allright just adjust them. If not id defo recomend car-bock.de
Front droplinks are only two 16mm nuts and bolts and are easily changed...
Bare in mind for the top arms that the pinch bolt may be siezed which may involve more work.
I would defo recomend supplying your own parts too.. Makes it quite a bit cheaper.. But do make sure you get the right bits.

 

[tonya4]

I got a bnib pair of Lemforder rear axle bushes for sale

tony