willus Posted November 10, 2017 Share Posted November 10, 2017 Yesterday I took my car to a local independent shop for some work. In addition to the work I requested, they called for approval on several additional items. The call caught me on the way out the door, so I said yes to several of them, including a brake and clutch fluid flush, without too much thought. When I picked-up the car, the shop listed two hours labor for the clutch fluid flush and two hours labor for the brake fluid flush. Is this normal or acceptable? I bit of digging around the net and a call to my local Subaru dealer suggests that I overpaid for these services, but maybe I am missing something that makes these tasks difficult on a 2005 LGT 5MT wagon? Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
relative4 Posted November 10, 2017 Share Posted November 10, 2017 Holy crap. A brake flush is a flat $50 job. A clutch flush should be less. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
apexi Posted November 10, 2017 Share Posted November 10, 2017 I have the dealer do my brake fluid flushes and I believe it's around $130. I think they charge 1 hour of labor and the cost of fluid. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MilesA Posted November 10, 2017 Share Posted November 10, 2017 Many shops bill based on "book time" which is whatever allowance their reference info tells them for the job. This may or may not be close to the actual time required, depending. The shop should have given you a good faith estimate at the time they suggested the additional work. In actual wall clock time, the brake fluid flush could take an hour and the clutch fluid much less than an hour. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PearlBlueGT Posted November 10, 2017 Share Posted November 10, 2017 Find independent mechanic who you can trust and won't rip you off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edgemoulic Posted November 10, 2017 Share Posted November 10, 2017 Mine I do it with my Powerbleeder a one man job brake fluid flush. 30mins. for all of the wheels, I hate doing appointments with a mechanic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
08SpecB_DE Posted November 10, 2017 Share Posted November 10, 2017 They charged 4 hours labor? That's waaaaay too much. If they did a proper brake bleeding, as in pushed all the old fluid out and not just suck it out of the resevoir, then it can take some time but maybe an hour at the most and half an hour to do the clutch fluid. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willus Posted November 10, 2017 Author Share Posted November 10, 2017 All -- thanks for the responses. The shop quoted the price in advance, and I approved the work without doing due diligence on the cost, so that mistake is on me. The question in the first post was to determine whether I should ever return to the shop. Is there a way for consumers to look up "book time". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PearlBlueGT Posted November 10, 2017 Share Posted November 10, 2017 Get some speed bleeders on that thing and bleed brakes yourself. You can open one or all four at a time and bleed out all the brake fluid in matter of minutes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MilesA Posted November 10, 2017 Share Posted November 10, 2017 Is there a way for consumers to look up "book time". There is not just one book, actually. You could ask the mechanic which source they used. Alldata or Chilton's, for example. If you went to a dealership garage, each manufacturer usually has a book they use. These sources are usually subscription services, you have to pay. If you knew another mechanic they could possibly look it up for you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
08SpecB_DE Posted November 11, 2017 Share Posted November 11, 2017 1.2 hours is book time for bleeding the brakes. No, you should not return to that shop. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.