no-start diagnosis/fix cost?

[tkeenan]

'88 325is, mechanic had my car for 2 weeks to fix a no-start diagnosis. He ran around in circles, and finally determined that it was corroded connectors on the fuel-injector wire harness.
He wants 400 for the job. Since he's not a legit shop, what do you think I should offer him? I don't think that's a fair price. Opinions?
Apparently, he's also an e30 guru. That along with the discount I thought I'd receive made me give him the car.

[jlevie]

I'm going to guess that shop rates in St Louis are probably $100/hr or more. That being the case, 4 hours of diagnostic work doesn't seem excessive to me.

[nrubenstein]

No start, especially on a pre-OBD-2 car, is a pain in the ass. First, he needs to run through the standard diagnostic tree, then he needs to go through a whole bunch of stuff to figure out why the hell it's not starting. That's not an unreasonable charge given the amount of time that he's likely to have put into it.

If you didn't want to spend the money, you should have figured it out yourself.

[tkeenan]

The info he had was that the car started when carb spray was used in the intake. All new relays, cleaned injectors, cranked, got spark, and timing had been checked again and again.
He had a lot going into this and still spent 2 weeks on it. Seems excessive.

Rube, what a teenie comment. It's about being charged for something that turned out to be way easier than it should. I was trying to save money by going to an under the table e30 fanatic, and at the end of the day, I would have paid maybe the same or less at the dealer and had the car in less than 2 weeks for sure.

[ZombiE30]

It's about being charged for something that turned out to be way easier than it should.

What do you mean by this? There's no use in being a backseat mechanic, because hindsight is always 20/20. "Of course it was caused by X and Y! It's so simple, it's practically obvious!"

What you're paying for is diagnostic time, and that can indeed be a pain in the ass on pre OBD II cars.

I was trying to save money by going to an under the table e30 fanatic, and at the end of the day, I would have paid maybe the same or less at the dealer and had the car in less than 2 weeks for sure.

I realize you wanted your car back faster than 2 weeks, but he also probably didn't want to be dealing with your electrical headache for 2 weeks either, hence wanting to be paid for his time.

Now, do you know this guy? Because it's another issue entirely if you think he figured it out in 30 minutes, lied about it and is now charging you an arm and a leg.

All in all, you gambled by taking it to a backyard guy. Sometimes you win, and sometimes you lose and honestly you don't have a lot of ground to stand on because you made a conscious decision NOT to take it to a certified business.

My recommendation is to buy on ohmmeter and a Bentley and learn how to use them. After some practice, then YOU can be the backyard guy!