Repair costs shop rate lookup

What's a good reliable reasonably accurate way to look up car repairs?

It's as easy as "shop rate times flat rate time" but you have to know both.
Parts are very easy though as you just add the dealer's inflated prices.

I've never been to a mechanic in my life but I've asked plenty how much
large repairs cost and rarely do they give you a price for repairs which I
understand because they will tell you that they have to look first for the
bigger jobs.

That makes sense but I just want a price assuming all goes to plan.
Steering racks
Cooling systems
Brakes
etc.

Often they give you a huge range which is better than nothing but still not
a good answer to the question (for example $500 to $1500 for brakes or a
clutch).

All repair "can" get bigger but many times they don't (although often they
do) where all I want to know is the "traditional" cost of the basic repair
in my zip code (I can easily find out the shop rates so that's not the
problem as I can assume $100 per hour or something like that).

While I understand that I'm never going to go to a mechanic I still would
like to know for my own benefit how much I'm saving by my own home DIY.

I take a long time to do any job so the amount of hours it takes me is
nowhere near what it takes them (they just want to get to the next job).

What's a good reliable reasonably accurate way to look up repair costs?

In article >, dan > wrote:
>What's a good reliable reasonably accurate way to look up car repairs?

There is none. Most shops use the Chilton's book which tells you how many
hours something is supposed to take. However, the assumptions made in the
Chilton's book are not necessarily correct.

Sometimes mechanics don't have a special tool, so it takes them much longer.
Sometimes there is rust, and it takes much longer. Sometimes it starts out
with rust and gets much much worse. Sometimes everything just comes apart
neatly.

Valve adjustment on my car is listed as a two-hour job in the Chilton's.
My mechanic wants an hour to do it. I can do it dry to dry in 18 minutes,
but I have done it many times over the years.

If you believe the Chilton's book, a brake job on the same car is five hours.
It's not even an hour if everything is well-maintained and clean, maybe a
bit more than an hour if you have to turn the rotors down.

The book isn't very detailed either. They'll have the same time on a U-joint
whether the car has a manual or an automatic transmission, and the difference
affects how much time you're going to be in there.

>I've never been to a mechanic in my life but I've asked plenty how much
>large repairs cost and rarely do they give you a price for repairs which I
>understand because they will tell you that they have to look first for the
>bigger jobs.
>
>That makes sense but I just want a price assuming all goes to plan.

Nothing ever, ever goes to plan.

>Steering racks
>Cooling systems
>Brakes
>etc.

These three are particularly insidious because they all can be easy if
everything goes well, and they can turn into hideous nightmares if there
are deferred maintenance issues and things don't go well.

Cooling system seems a little sluggish, the pump is leaking, you replace
the pump and then once the flow rate comes up, a hose blows out. You
replace the hose and.... oh, now the heater isn't working because you
stirred up junk in the ill-maintained system and clogged the heater core.
Could have been an hour, could be a week.

>Often they give you a huge range which is better than nothing but still not
>a good answer to the question (for example $500 to $1500 for brakes or a
>clutch).

Ask them to show you the number in the Chilton's book. But don't believe it.

>All repair "can" get bigger but many times they don't (although often they
>do) where all I want to know is the "traditional" cost of the basic repair
>in my zip code (I can easily find out the shop rates so that's not the
>problem as I can assume $100 per hour or something like that).

You can look in the Chilton's guide and see where their numbers come from,
but don't believe those numbers. Sometimes it takes much less time than the
book says, sometimes it takes much longer. The dealer will charge you for
the book time even if it takes much less, but a good independent shop will
charge you for actual time spent.

However, the time spent on maintenance is definitely predictable, because
if you do it properly, on time, and well, you won't have surprises. Change
your automatic transmission fluid every 80,000 miles; it's a very quick job
on most cars and the time is predictable. Whereas the time to rebuild a
transmission is not.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

On 21 Mar 2021 15:34:19 -0000, Scott Dorsey wrote:


> You can look in the Chilton's guide and see where their numbers come from,
> but don't believe those numbers.

I understood everything you said which is logical and sensible that the flat
rate will vary but if it's the best we can do then it's the best we can do.

The current guide is for pros and is many hundreds of dollars in cost.
https://www.auto-repair-manuals.com/...abor-guide.htm
http://www.autorepairmanuals.biz/page/134522

The cars I work on are all older so an older out of date guide is ok.
Plus I only need a lookup a couple of times a year at most.

Anyone know of an old PDF for the Chilton flat rate reference lookup online?
https://www.google.com/search?q=chil...+time+pdf+file

In article >, dan > wrote:
>On 21 Mar 2021 15:34:19 -0000, Scott Dorsey wrote:
>
>> You can look in the Chilton's guide and see where their numbers come from,
>> but don't believe those numbers.
>
>I understood everything you said which is logical and sensible that the flat
>rate will vary but if it's the best we can do then it's the best we can do.

Don't ever quote a flat rate on anything.

>The current guide is for pros and is many hundreds of dollars in cost.
>https://www.auto-repair-manuals.com/...abor-guide.htm
>http://www.autorepairmanuals.biz/page/134522

It is, but you can find an older version for much less. Note, however,
that doing the brakes on an '82 Escort today is apt to run you into a
lot more than than doing the brakes on the same car in '83.

>The cars I work on are all older so an older out of date guide is ok.
>Plus I only need a lookup a couple of times a year at most.
>
>Anyone know of an old PDF for the Chilton flat rate reference lookup online?
>https://www.google.com/search?q=chil...+time+pdf+file

Have you tried the usual suspects, namely alibris and amazon? Or bumming
one off a local mechanic?
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."