Overcharged for cambelt change? Labour on water pump?

[kpm197]

i booked my car in for a cambelt change with seat dealer for £299 (national fixed price deal they have on). i asked about having the water pump done too and they said £95 which includes coolant, and labour won't cost anything extra. i picked it up this evening and paid £394, but now i've got home i've had a look at the invoice and it seems i've been overcharged and the labour artificially increased to make £394...

invoice shows:

belt 35.20
roller 55.23
coolant 21.16
pump 44.75
--------------
parts 156.34

labour 171.99

sub 328.33
vat 65.67
total 394.00

by my reckoning it should be the fixed £299 for cambelt + roller + labour;
then pump 44.75 + coolant 21.16 + vat 13.18 = £79.09
total £378.09

thoughts?
is water pump usually done labour-free with cambelt?

 

[Slimy]

I would expect this is due to a failure in their computer system that they have to 'workaround'. It seems most places now work off a menu, you ask for work and they give you a fixed price. There is nothing in the system to cover combinations where a saving can be made. So what they tend to do is apply an overall discount to get it down to the proper price, which means that individual parts then end up being cheaper than they are.

For example, I went into the SEAT dealer asking for some wheel nuts. They sold me some second hand ones that had come off cars that got locking wheel nuts. But they had to sell them to me as 'coolant refill' because it was the closest menu item they could find. So in the end I had 8 'coolant refills'!!

 

[LCR 225]

Had my cambelt and water pump done last week.

Cambelt kit £88
Water pump £25
Antifreeze £5

Parts total £123
Labour and parts £298.50
VAT 59.70

Total £358.20

Works was done at a local VAG specialist.

 

[towcester vag]

the book time for cambelt 1.8t 2.20hrs
1.9tdi 2.90
1.9 pd 3.30
they list 0.2 hrs extra for water pump
depends on labour rates in your area

 

[kpm197]

camberley, surrey

£172+vat for 2.4hrs would put the labour rate at £85/hr
that sound about right?

or working it out another way, the £16 i'm querying equates to £80/hr

 

[air121005]

rate at £85/hr

.....i'm in the wrong proffession!

 

[James_R]

.....i'm in the wrong proffession!

Bolton Audi - £156 per hour, I'm working for the wrong company!!!

 

[Wiggy20]

Me and mate did his following a guide of a 225 Audi tt, pump was £30 odd + £10 for g12 an took us about 3.5 hours, saved him alot of money

 

[offitmassive]

book time on a pd is a bit generous at 3.30 hours. I can do it in under 2 on a pd. Found the 1.8t harder to do. Around 3 hours took me on mine

 

[James_R]

The pd is by far the easiest yet gives you the most time!?

2.5 for the 20vt
3 for the tdi
3.3 for the pd!

Takes me 1.5 for the pd's and 2 on the others but the 20vt is bar far the trickiest to line up.

Done what must be 100's of these belts and they all vary on difficulty, strange eh?

 

[mickeyp88]

.....i'm in the wrong proffession!

I wish we got paid as much of that as you think!

 

[offitmassive]

The pd is by far the easiest yet gives you the most time!?

2.5 for the 20vt
3 for the tdi
3.3 for the pd!

Takes me 1.5 for the pd's and 2 on the others but the 20vt is bar far the trickiest to line up.

Done what must be 100's of these belts and they all vary on difficulty, strange eh?

yeh my 20vt the belt wouldnt sit properly on the crank sprocket, and trying to get it timed up perfect raged me!! so much to take off to get access to the belt... and dont get me started on the engine mount....

 

[towcester vag]

20 valve is the most difficult due to space the actual job is easy
most of the time you cant get the engine mount out due to air con pipes
2.0 ltr pds are a little more awkward due to engine mount

 

[Wiggy20]

I found it hard getting the plastic cover off the cam sprocket

 

[Dale_tem]

Kpm - I live in sandhurst and have had a few expensive unnecessary trips to that garage as a doors driver. Other dealers I have talked to and had work done with insist on changing the water pump at the same time as it will generally fail shortly after. Sadly the camberly garage did my cambelt change and didn't mention the water pump.

On my first journey after leaving the garage the water pump failed. I limped it back from Swindon and dropped it back in and charged £300 or so to change the water pump and was informed it had nothing to do with the work done and was a coincidence. I phoned a number of dealers for advice and haven't been back since.

I will personally make a 30 min journey to another seat dealer.

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