Just had a t-belt job done. Thoughts on the price?

[kway]

Not bad at all. Be glad you don't have an Audi. Just did a timing belt and water pump on an A6 3.0 the other day. $700 in parts alone, before even talking about the labor.

[e30evolution]

That price sounds good for everything that you had done. I want to say we run $400 or so for t-belt and water pump replacement (that's 3 hours plus parts cost; iirc). The extra stuff costs more, and little stuff adds up.

Fidhle knows. That's how 90% of customers are. They only want the timing belt done or the water pump. Not both.

A guy I know (teen guy) came by my house for some quickie diagnosis about a fan noise. His fan clutch was shot and wouldnt release. Anyway I checked his t-belt and water pump and told him both needed replacing. He cheaped out and did just the t-belt, against my advice. He called me the next day and told me the water pump crapped out. Genious.

We generally try not to work with customers that aren't logical

[e30evolution]

Not bad at all. Be glad you don't have an Audi. Just did a timing belt and water pump on an A6 3.0 the other day. $700 in parts alone, before even talking about the labor.

We have the tooling to do those, and i wouldnt take it to someone who doesn't.... and if your shop doesn't recommend replacing all the bearings and hydraulic tensioners you should find a new shop

[Funkmasta]

That price sounds good for everything that you had done. I want to say we run $400 or so for t-belt and water pump replacement (that's 3 hours plus parts cost; iirc). The extra stuff costs more, and little stuff adds up.

Fidhle knows. That's how 90% of customers are. They only want the timing belt done or the water pump. Not both.

A guy I know (teen guy) came by my house for some quickie diagnosis about a fan noise. His fan clutch was shot and wouldnt release. Anyway I checked his t-belt and water pump and told him both needed replacing. He cheaped out and did just the t-belt, against my advice. He called me the next day and told me the water pump crapped out. Genious.

Ouch. Sometimes you have to really break the explanation down and show them why it is in their best interest overall.

[HiTheNameIsBJ]

Fair but do it your self next time. All of about 2 hours work. Putting on the actual belt and getting the covers just right can be a bit of a pain but it's really just a matter of a BFH for the balancer and a blunt pry tool for the tensioner and your set.

[Funkmasta]

Fair but do it your self next time. All of about 2 hours work. Putting on the actual belt and getting the covers just right can be a bit of a pain but it's really just a matter of a BFH for the balancer and a blunt pry tool for the tensioner and your set.

It is a much bigger job than that. If you are not absolutely comfortable around the engine bay of a car, I would not attempt it.

[rThor432]

We dont work with customers who dont think logically. Well, sometimes we are a bit too nice I guess, but I'm not going to go off topic about the 300k 6er with the fuel heating system that came in yesturday. Scary..

He was a teen stopping by my house for a quick diagnosis and some advice. He chose not to follow my advice about doing both at the same time (even though I had both the t-belt and pump at the house) and did the work himself with the Bently. He also used an off the shelf Auto Zone belt, which scares me (from experience). Now he has to deal with it. He was almost apologetic when he called me.

[kway]

We have the tooling to do those, and i wouldnt take it to someone who doesn't.... and if your shop doesn't recommend replacing all the bearings and hydraulic tensioners you should find a new shop

Um, I am the shop, well, half of it anyway. And yes we have the tools, and yes we did the tensioner and all idlers.

[325YOY]

Not bad at all. Be glad you don't have an Audi.

Trust me. I have a 99.5 B5 2.8 30V Avant and BTDT. Last guy that did the total t-belt job when I bought it a few years back decided to save me $19 by sparing the thermo. YeeHaw. Three months ago and 23k later the thermo gave out when my wife was on the road out of town. Needless to say that by the time they diagnosed it the front was off the car and they were in there so I told them I had 'ALL' the parts in my basement so I would run them up to them. Words fell on deaf ears so I ate it for about $1200 but at least I was able sell off all the parts I had. Gotta love CL for that. My older Audi's (4kq's) and QSW's always went under my knife when it came t-belt time.

[dashboardmonkey]

Yup you got a good price

[chameleonleather]

average price, but it's still painful to part with so much and receive no "upgrades" out of it.

[z31maniac]

It is a much bigger job than that. If you are not absolutely comfortable around the engine bay of a car, I would not attempt it.

Yup.

To the OP, that sounds like a fair price for the work done. I wouldn't feel bad about paying that amount for the work done by a professional. There are some jobs I don't want to dick with and a TB/WP is one of those jobs.

[Funkmasta]

Yup.

To the OP, that sounds like a fair price for the work done. I wouldn't feel bad about paying that amount for the work done by a professional. There are some jobs I don't want to dick with and a TB/WP is one of those jobs. ...Right up there with a clutch job.

fixed

[TwoJ's]

I would say that you don't need to be comfortable in the engine bay of a car at all. You just have to have mechanical aptitude. I had never even changed the oil in a car (or anything... most I had done was replacing bulbs) when I bought my e30 with a broken belt and bent valves/broken rockers. I just tore it apart, had the cylinder head rebuilt and put it back together. All I needed for help was the bentley manual.

[einstein57]

I changed my sisters timing belt once. It sucked cause it was an 88+ autotragic. Its much easier on a 87 and older manual. But it all worked out and i did not brake anything on start up (i had my fingers crossed). I think i paid $150 for all the same stuff minus cap, rotor, and hoses. Then she drove it for 6 months with out even checking the oil or anything once and seized the rod bearings. This is not her first e30 and she knew they burn oil.