is quote for my car repair reasonable?

james007ago

Hi there,
About 8 months ago i bought my first car. Its a 2002 Ford Focus 1.4 cl with 83K mileage. So far I have than 4k. My concern is since the car wasnt service for the last 3 years, i took it for a full service (silver) today which cost me £160. This service didnt include spark plugs and fuel filter renewal.
Now there are advisories which the guy told me to fix, quoting me £337 including part, labour and vat. These are:
- OSF anti-roll bar link arm linkage broken
- NSF anti-roll bar link arm linkage worn
- NSF and OSF brake hoses bulged
- rear brake shoes 90% worn.
Is £337 reasonable for these items to be fixed? Shall I get ring different quotes from other garages? Another issue is since my car's MOT expiry is at the end of May, shall I wait by then to have these items fix?
*I was actually thinking of buying the parts myself, but im scared I will buy the wrong parts.
Any advice is welcome. Thank you in advance for your help.

attila_

Sounds reasonable for a main dealer, yes.
If you go to an indie it may be £220-250.

If you are not confident I would not buy the parts yourself...especially if you're asking a garage to fit -they will have a field day.

passatrider

I does not sound too bad to me to be honest. Always better to get a couple of quotes for piece of mind anyhow.

As for having the repairs done now you might as well otherwise it will probably fail the MOT in May.

s_b

link arms are £10 each
brake hoses are £15 each
rear shoes are about £25

you must stop driving this car and have the dangerous brake hoses fixed immediately as they may go at any time
the back shoes at 90% worn are safety critical to have done too now

an independent garage can knock the links off and the hoses in lets say 90 minutes
back shoes lets be really generous and give him an hour

so independent garage charging £40 an hour the labour bill is £120
parts are £75

so £200 all in

Notmyrealname

james007ago wrote: »

Hi there,
About 8 months ago i bought my first car. Its a 2002 Ford Focus 1.4 cl with 83K mileage. So far I have than 4k. My concern is since the car wasnt service for the last 3 years, i took it for a full service (silver) today which cost me £160. This service didnt include spark plugs and fuel filter renewal.

So it wasn't a full service as per the Ford schedule as the 3 year "major" service from Ford includes spark plugs, air filter and fuel filter.

The worst part? It would have probably not been that much more than you paid. You've had a service that my Ford dealer would have charged £99 for.

Please take note of what sb says about the brakes.

Joe_Horner

s_b wrote: »

link arms are £10 each
brake hoses are £15 each
rear shoes are about £25

you must stop driving this car and have the dangerous brake hoses fixed immediately as they may go at any time
the back shoes at 90% worn are safety critical to have done too now

an independent garage can knock the links off and the hoses in lets say 90 minutes
back shoes lets be really generous and give him an hour

so independent garage charging £40 an hour the labour bill is £120
parts are £75

so £200 all in

Pretty much this, especially the comment about the brake hoses. The rear shoes are less critical because with bonded linings, if they still have 10% of their lining (seems remarkably precise btw) then they'll still stop you ok.

But some of the time involved with the hose and shoe replacement will be duplicated by the time it's up in the air if you do them separately, so it really doesn't make sense to have to book it in twice, waste twice as much of your time getting it there, and pay them twice for doing things twice!

james007ago

thanks for the advice guys.,
i will call different garages tomorrow about these advisories. Ill have them fixed by thursday then hopefully. It does make sense to fix them now rather than than later, at least I will get 3 months peace of mind. The independent garage I took my car with is a member of good garage scheme and well recommended by my friend so I might still go in there.
This is my first car and therefore havent got that much knowledge. Im learning and still learning. Thank you very much for your advice, I appreaciate it!

Notmyrealname

With the Focus, it needs to be serviced every 12,500 miles/12 months. Every third service is a major service so its a major service at 37500, 75,000 miles and 112,500. I would expect yours has not had the 75000 mile major service. You must get the spark plugs changed. If you don't they will seize in the head. And as they're quite worn, they'll start causing damage to the coil packs.

waynedance

For that price of service I would have expected the plugs and fuel filter as well, cost £154 at my local for a major with an mot.