'We don't do clutches'

agrinnall

seatbeltnoob wrote: »

seems a bad business move to fob them off elsewhere. The may lose a long term customer after they build a rapport to the cluitch place. By all means charge more if the clutch job is longer/harder.

But if they have referred on to a clutch specialist then unless the OP is in the habit of needing new clutches there's no rapport to be built. To me it seems like good business to outsource specialist work and concentrate on their core activities. I'd expect them to do the same with things like big paint jobs and tricky electrical investigations.

Robisere

I am an ex-workshop foreman, so I understand what the garage is saying. We had 5 hoists, so were hardly ever stuck for somewhere to work. We serviced several taxi firms, including one large company which ran many Ford diesel estates of the same model. They were always blowing clutches due to the masssive mileages the cars made, so we left one hoist clear for their jobs. Any one of us could drop and change a clutch in a maximum of 30 minutes, 20 was more usual. That was because we were all so used to that one job, that it became a matter of "muscle memory". We earned a name for clutch fitting on other models and that brought us work. However, with only 2 hoists, there is no way we could have done all those clutches and still carried on servicing, maintaining and carrying out MOT tests on our regular customers cars. In fact, another, smaller garage would send us clutch jobs because they had only one hoist and a ramp.

It comes down to expertise, number of experienced employees and workshop facilities in the end. There should be no criticism of the garage, they were trying to help out a regular customer.

Strider590

It depends on the engine with GM, the diesels can be a real swine, but the petrol 1.8 is very simple.
But even on the 1.8 your looking at £500+, due to the labour costs and a lot of garages now don't like doing these big jobs because it only takes one unpredicted thing to go wrong and they're making a loss on that job.

Also because of the nature of the job, they'l usually recommend changing other parts like the slave cylinder, which can lead people to thinking they're being ripped off. These people take the tight option, don't replace those extra parts and then come back complaining when they fail 6 months down the line. In the same way that most garages I know, will refuse to do a cambelt job if the customer doesn't want the pulleys, water pump and tensioners done too. They just don't want to deal with said customer when the tensioner breaks and writes off the engine.

arcon5

Robisere wrote: »

I am an ex-workshop foreman, so I understand what the garage is saying. We had 5 hoists, so were hardly ever stuck for somewhere to work. We serviced several taxi firms, including one large company which ran many Ford diesel estates of the same model. They were always blowing clutches due to the masssive mileages the cars made, so we left one hoist clear for their jobs. Any one of us could drop and change a clutch in a maximum of 30 minutes, 20 was more usual. That was because we were all so used to that one job, that it became a matter of "muscle memory". We earned a name for clutch fitting on other models and that brought us work. However, with only 2 hoists, there is no way we could have done all those clutches and still carried on servicing, maintaining and carrying out MOT tests on our regular customers cars. In fact, another, smaller garage would send us clutch jobs because they had only one hoist and a ramp.

It comes down to expertise, number of experienced employees and workshop facilities in the end. There should be no criticism of the garage, they were trying to help out a regular customer.

Half an hour doesn't sound impressive at all. Changing the clutch over is easy!!!! It's the before and after that takes time

bod1467

arcon5 wrote: »

Half an hour doesn't sound impressive at all. Changing the clutch over is easy!!!! It's the before and after that takes time

And that, folks, is a prime example of selective reading ... the post quoted by this member already infers 20-30 minutes total job time.

s_b

we use a local firm that calls and collects and does clutches and or gearboxes,they specialise in this ,do a good job and do good rates,why would you want to give yourself a hernia in a garage where servicing is much more productive and a money earner than having a zafina on a ramp for 3 days because the parts sent out are wrong each time
well done that garage for advising another trader

bigjl

rubble2 wrote: »

I thought that it seemed really cheap. You must bear in mind that I am getting this info from my daughter ( who doesn't know anything about cars) who got the information from her friend (who doesn't know anything about cars).

I was more surprised about my local garage 'not doing clutches' I would have thought that this was pretty much bread and butter stuff for any garage but perhaps someone with some knowledge of the garage industry could shed some light.

Lots of garages don't get involved with stuff like clutches.

They can't compete with the fast for chains as they specialise and when you do clutches all day everyday you can find ways to save time and therefore make more profit.

bigjl

Robisere wrote: »

I am an ex-workshop foreman, so I understand what the garage is saying. We had 5 hoists, so were hardly ever stuck for somewhere to work. We serviced several taxi firms, including one large company which ran many Ford diesel estates of the same model. They were always blowing clutches due to the masssive mileages the cars made, so we left one hoist clear for their jobs. Any one of us could drop and change a clutch in a maximum of 30 minutes, 20 was more usual. That was because we were all so used to that one job, that it became a matter of "muscle memory". We earned a name for clutch fitting on other models and that brought us work. However, with only 2 hoists, there is no way we could have done all those clutches and still carried on servicing, maintaining and carrying out MOT tests on our regular customers cars. In fact, another, smaller garage would send us clutch jobs because they had only one hoist and a ramp.

It comes down to expertise, number of experienced employees and workshop facilities in the end. There should be no criticism of the garage, they were trying to help out a regular customer.

Have never heard of anybody being able to do a clutch start to finish in 20 or 30 minutes.

Maybe on a Cavalier but can't see it on a recent Ford like a mk3 Mondeo as you need to mess about with the subframe.

But if you found a workaround to save time them good luck to you.

Sally_A

I think your local garage is great...they have recommended a clutch specialist that would be £250 cheaper than their own costs.

It saves your local garage the time of delivering, coming back, going again and bringing vehicle back - 2 guys 10 miles each trip x 4 @ 30m a pop + extra costs for the additional car the mate is following/collecting in = 4 hrs minimum lost workshop time in delivering and fetching, they could be getting £60 per hour doing work your local garage prefers?

Not fishy at all, just best use of their time and recommending a cheaper alternative to you.

bigjl

seatbeltnoob wrote: »

seems a bad business move to fob them off elsewhere. The may lose a long term customer after they build a rapport to the cluitch place. By all means charge more if the clutch job is longer/harder.

If they did that there would likely be a thread started saying a Garage had gouged then on the price of a simple clutch change and how they have lost a good customer because of this.

As has already been mentioned if they only have one ramp or one two post lift then a clutch job can put it out of action for a day minimum, and jobs that are rarely done tend to take longer.