basically I took my car to a local shop not knowing exactly what was wrong all I knew is it was drivetrain related. We were thinking clutch. I gave the mechanic $1,000, tore it down and found the fault to be the transfer case. I got a brand new one yesterday and went to the shop today and tried to explain from the info Ive gathered I should not have to pay anymore than I did but he basically said if he dont get another $1200 then i should get it out of there....so pretty much Im looking at $2,200 for labor alone and I bought a brand new case....Maybe Im wrong but something just dont seem right What do I do???????? Im just so angry I really need help or advice from someonePLEASE JL121880@aol.com

 

Hi Jason,
first of all I gotta say that sux.
T/C itself and removal and refitting are expensive I know from past posts. There will be some members on here who have had first hand knowledge and I'm sure will be able to offer advice. In the meantime, it may be a good idea to contact one of our resident techs and ask their advice.

try
Brutal
jagtechohio
Real_tech

I'm sure one of them will be able to offer some words of advice that may help.

All the best

Jim

 

thanks ill see what i can do ....

 

when my transfer case broke down, i could not move the car. Car would not move at all, i thought it was the transmission at first. I'm not sure if this helps but it cost me $1,200 for a used transfer case from the junkyard, and about $900 dollars in labor. I would have bought a new TC but the dealer quoted me $3,500 for a new one.

 

Cant understand why you paid any money upfront?

 

It doesn't take $2200 worth of work to put in a t-case. I had mine put in for about $300 and it was done in a day. Don't let him bullshit you. The job can be done in a day, and I can attest to that. At a reputable shop at $75 an hour, that would be a whopping 29 hours worth of work. BULL-*******-****.

In the meantime, I'd ask how many hours it's gonna take him to do the work, and do the math. I'm angry for you. I just can't see a shop charging that much money to put in a t-case.

I'd call a local news station, or get a good lawyer

 

I 2nd that one...

 

One of the Jag techs would be able to tell us what the book says it should take, in hours.
And at my dealer, the labor hour is closer to $145, not $75.

 

TSB calls for 8 hours labor to remove and replace.

 

It sounds like it might be an independant shop so let's go with $100/hour, which is generous by most indy shop standards (at leastI my neck o'the woods). And factory time allowances are often on the skimpy side, and there was teardown time on the old TC, so let's call it 12 hours for the sake of conversation.

We still end up with $1200 in labor, not $2200.

Sounds like the shop is having a slow month and trying to make up for it on one job ! I have no problem at all with anyone making a good living but sometimes you gotta wonder. Price gouging is one of the things that gives repair guys a bad reputation, and the fair shops suffer as a result.

This is the sorta thing that needs to be discussed and ironed out up-front, before the job begins.

In fairness, though, we've heard only one side of the story. No offense towards Jason intended but I have to wonder if there was more to it. At the end of the day the repair shop may still be in the wrong but I'd wanna hear both sides before passing judgement.

Cheers
DD

 

Transfercase removal and replacement labor time has been recently lowered from 5.4 to 3.6 hours. That is warranty time that Jaguar pays the dealer. Normally out of warranty is anywhere from 1.5 to 2.0 times warranty depending on mileage and condition. Most independent shops in my area stick to this pricing and Alldata and Mitchell tend to use the 1.5 figure. Unfortunately there is no law I'm aware ofthat says an independent shop has to charge a certain amount. Mostreputable shops stick to the Alldata numbers for legal reasons and make exceptions for things like a car with 150k miles or a car that is driven on a dirt road daily. These things can make a big difference in difficulty. Remember any car under warranty has less than 50k miles and I have repaired X-Types with more than 250k miles and I would rather do the warranty repair than the 250k repair at 1.5 warranty time.

Considering a clutch problem was suspected the warranty labor time for clutch removal and replacement including flywheel is about 9.0 hours which would make 13.5Alldata customer pay hours.

My suggestion, which wouldalso help prevent any bad blood between the customer and the shop, would be to get a printout of the Alldata labor pricing sheet and take that to the shop and ask that that pricing be honored. That way if the shop refuses you at least have some legal recourse with your local government as Alldata times are pretty much universally accepted in the states. Also remember that if the shop refuses and the car is still tore down it isn't going to have a front suspension or front wheels installed and would be nearly impossible to tow to another facility. Laws vary state to state and here in MI where auto repair laws are quite strict, technicians have to be licensed and tested by the state. If I were to tear this car down for inspection and the customer declined further repairs I am not obligated to put it back to the way it was. Now, I would never have quoted the inspection tear down at a labor price that didn't include reassembly but that is me and other techs have different methods.

 

It looks to me that this is gonna be a real sore one[&:]
I have to say though that I cannot for the life of me understand why you'd pay ANYTHING up front? Thats not the way business is done.....seems strange!

Good info Real tech

Jim

 

great info there, Real_tech. Glad you're HERE!

I think that multiplier stands up to reason. So the REAL variable here still is what his shop is charging per hour.
Just as a base-line: What is your Jaguar labor rate where you're at? And does Jaguar have some sort of contractual consistency on that with their dealers?

 

I can think of several scenarios in which asking for "up front" money is appropriate. This isn't one of them.

Cheers
DD

 

No, you are right Doug. It is pretty unusual over here, generally the bill will be presented after an idea of the time involved, approx price for the job etc has all been agreed. Uusally there is an agreement that if it looks like going over that agreed amount due to unforseen problems / extra parts etc that a call will be made to the owner for authoristion.
There are circumstances taht would possibly require " up front " funds, but I'd be wary of that myself, unless there are any extenuating circumstances that we don't know about?

Jim

 

In the old days.....back when I still had a job, heh, heh, heh....we would ask for up front money when the amount of work was obviously gonna exceed the value of the car. This was a lessoned learned after having customers agree to a big job and then abandon the car after having a change of heart....and after the work was done.

Or, if it was a large jobwhere we didn't know the customer and had a gut feeling there was no money to pay the bill.

Or, even on a relatively inexpensive job on an oddball car where we'd have to special order a slew of parts that we wouldn't have any chance of returning or using on another car.

Assuming all parties are honest and acting in good faith, 99% of disputes can be avoided with clear communications and avoiding assumptions. We all know what "assume" does. It makes an *** out of U and ME !



Cheers
DD

 

Oh so true Doug...
I live by the *** U ME motto myself as far as possible, because you can gaurantee its the motha off ALL f**k ups

The scenarios you mentioned were also kinda what I had in mind. No mention of any of this in the post mind you? Maybe he'll fill us in?


Jim

 

The hourly labor rate at the dealer where I work is $115 for customer pay and $105 for Jaguar warranty which includes Select Edition. Various aftermarket warranty companies have set amounts they are willing to pay hourly. If the aftermarket company insists on a low value of say $80/hr we normally require the customer to cover the difference. The reason for this is the way Jaguar approves labor rate increases. If we can show that we have been charging customers a higher rate for 6 months Jaguar will increase our rate of pay accordingly. When this happens the customer charge rate usually goes up another 5-10 dollars and the game begins again. With todays economy we haven't increased labor charges in quite a while. Please keep in mind I am in MI and labor rates are notoriously high here(big three country). Independent shops that follow book time(Alldata) pricing are usually in the $80-$100 range but their prices can vary greatly repair to repair.

One important thing to remember, and probably the most important, is that labor times are not carved on stone tablets. On page 1 of every labor time guide I've ever used is the following statement; "Labor times listed here are only a guide, times should be adjusted accordingly for wear and tear, damaged components, rusted fasteners and abuse." The first page is never read by a customer complaining the price is too high and always read by the tech that has to spend 2 extra hours heating rusted bolts with a torch to save $500 in hard parts.

 

All true.

I don't know if any states require use of a labor time guide at all. Anyone here know?

As far as I know a shop can charge whatever they want so long as the customer agrees. And, since we're straying off the specific topic a bit, I'll add that there are some miserablejobs where I take a "Here's my price, take it or leave it" approach.

And, a lot of shops use variable labor rates for different kinds of work.

Cheers
DD