New Throttle Body £346 - Is this right?

TrickyWicky

Don't have the time? - The online breakers can be very fast. There is one called findapart (also various others with similar names) that will almost certainly find you the part and many of their members will have the part to you by next day courier for a fee.

So, it's down to you at the end of the day but with the hours wasted here on this forum with this thread, you could of had a replacement located and on its way to you by now.

molerat

Dealerships charge silly prices for their parts. I have recently had to get a couple of small parts for my Focus. Sump plug ....... Ford £7.50 .... Halfords trade £2.99(retail £3.99), anti roll bar drop link ..... Ford £45 ........ Halfords trade (quality aftermarket part not cheapo e-bay type) £8.45 (retail £9.69). You can see where they make a few quid after selling you a new car cheap !!

fivetide

Molerat. That's grand but how much is Halfords consumer?

Example: oil filter for a Merc C180 from main dealer. Made in Germany, comes with seals etc and nice Genuine Parts Hologram, plus big service invoice that looks good in the folder of reciepts £8.50

Halfords own brand £11

So while the 'trade' price might be cheap the 'joe public' price will be higher.

Eurocarparts is probably a better place to compare. Not that them or Halfords are likely to sell throttle bodies!

5t.

molerat

edited with retail prices. Interestingly the drop link was cheaper from Halfords retail than a local garage pays (£11.20) even though it comes from the same factor.

Notmyrealname

farfromhome wrote: »

Don't agree that, if you take in a car running perfectly well, and it then doesn't start a few hours later after a service, you should expect them to look at it free of charge to establish the cause?

Not for an hour. There's nothing that they would have done in the service that would have caused the car to stop running.

Especially when they know that you intend to buy your next car from them? I had been looking at their new models.

Until your money is in the till thats all you've been doing, looking. I looked at cars at my local Ford dealer this weekend. I don't expect them to start doing work on my car for nothing...

Yes, I would have preferred to pay £346 in August to fix a problem properly instead of being told the engine needed recalibrating at £51. They brought up the recalibrating last night and made a connection between that and the throttle body - not me. I have wasted £51.

And if they had done the throttle body in August and you subsequently found out that a re-calibration could have fixed it, you'd be on here whinging how you'd been ripped off £346 and they should have tried the recalibration first because that was only £51.

Garages can't win with people like you.

Notmyrealname

molerat wrote: »

Dealerships charge silly prices for their parts.

Really? I had a brand new genuine Ford alternator with 12 month warranty supplied and fitted cheaper than the motor factors wanted for a reconditioned one with 6 months supply only.

And I can guarantee the Ford drop link for the Mondeo will outlive the Halfords ones...

TrickyWicky

Notmyrealname wrote: »

Really? I had a brand new genuine Ford alternator with 12 month warranty supplied and fitted cheaper than the motor factors wanted for a reconditioned one with 6 months supply only.

Does happen, I ignored my local renault dealers when I was looking for a rear shock absorber. Everywhere I went wanted £150 minimum.

I rang the local dealers out of desperation.. £86. Granted its the only part I've had from them thats cheaper than other places (they're always the most expensive) but I was bloody glad I called them.

jonnyd281

There are brand new throttle bodies on ebay for between £250 and £275, used ones start at £20 and keep going up. Add on your labour, VAT etc....

cyclonebri1

I can't see any way that a throttle body would die within 50kmiles, the only real way the mechanics of it fail is if the spindles/plain bearing wear allowing air in.
I think the real issue has been touched on, ie, the low mileage. This encourages gunge and crap to clog the housing and it's airways causing the issue you have. All of these issues I've had have been cured by the use of a can of carb cleaner and some right foot welly.

I thing you have become a victim of the culture of "well the machine says it's faulty so it's faulty". Only too common at main dealers who generally employ underskilled staff. Whether they would rather just change out a part rather than spend the time cleaning, or is it company policy to make money by selling parts that actually aren't needed is another issue.

You need to find a small, skilled, reliable and above all trusted independant garage to avoid these issues in the future

fivetide

Notmyrealname wrote: »

Until your money is in the till thats all you've been doing, looking. I looked at cars at my local Ford dealer this weekend. I don't expect them to start doing work on my car for nothing...

Think you are being over harsh on the OP.

He's quite right, car went in running, I'd expect it to be running when it came to take it away.

How do you know what they did/didn't do? they could have dropped anything in the motor, moved a sensor or whatever so damn right I'd expect them to find out what was up.

Notice you dropped your moan about the hire car after the OP pointed out he'd had cars before no issue and you haven't bothered to apologise for jumping the gun...

Also, your statement above makes no sense.

He bought the car off them, he's had hire cars off them, he's had all his services done with them. at what point have they not had his money in the till?

The OP's point stands, he's been a loyal customer and the garage left him stranded.

5t.