Motor valve throttle replacement

ckah

Recently had my "motor valve throttle" replaced in my 55 plate VW Golf 2.0 TDI (approx 130,000 miles). It cost me an arm and a leg (£615) including 3 hours labour and £265 part. Would anyone say the price is about right? The part was not OEM but apparently good as, as it came from the same production line.

I got the following fault codes when the engine management light switched on and took it to the garage:

P3101 intake manfold flap motor open circuit/ground short

P0691 Radiator fan actuation 1 short to ground

P3102 Intake manifold flag motor signal missing

Just to add, went to an independent and not a dealership.

Thanks for any feedback

P.S. to make matters worse, got Christmas tree lights on my dash this morning (don't know if related) but it could be the battery although the roadside recovery technician mentioned that the battery seems to be in good health. It's almost 7 years old so I shall be getting that changed. More £££ :T

reddwarf2002

The labour rate (£116 per hour) seems excessive for an independent. I'm not sure how big the job is to replace the manifold flap so can't say whether the time charged is reasonable.

ckah

I've found that living in Surrey/Greater London is not cheap for garage costs. Labour comes at £80 excl. VAT so £96 incl. VAT at this garage. I am completely ignorant when it comes to cars so it's always hard to gauge these things.

stator

Seems excessive.

My VW had the throttle body replaced and it cost £200 + VAT for the part and about £60 + VAT for the labour. That included a small discount because they had misdiagnosed the fault previously

ckah

stator wrote: »

Seems excessive.

My VW had the throttle body replaced and it cost £200 + VAT for the part and about £60 + VAT for the labour. That included a small discount because they had misdiagnosed the fault previously

I was told up front that there would be 1 - 2 hours investigative work even after they read the fault codes. Maybe not that clear cut as it could be a number of components that may have something wrong on the one fault code. I have no idea really. Could really do with a mechanics opinions. Just out of interest what did they misdiagnose the fault as?

stator

Faulty sensor

Gazza61

3 Hours is excessive. Had the same fault on a 2.0TDI Passat a few years back with similar mileage. The motor drives a plastic cog which the teeth fall off and cause it to jam open. From memory the throttle valve was 5 bolts in total and an electrical connector. Fairly accessible on the top of the engine between the intake pipe and the EGR valve. To change it shouldn't really take a competent person more than an hour unless the Golf is drastically different. Sure there are videos on youtube which will show you the job if you're curious what's involved.



Not sure about the part cost. Tends to vary a lot depending on the brand.

hareng

A throttle body used shouldnt be paying more than £50 delivered and 1hr labour. Programme it 1/4hr, its needs realigning best done in Vagcom no need to run engine, dead easy.


If can be certain jobs been done right and realigned i would like to see the thrown up faults on something like Vagcom and not Snapon or the general purpose plug in jobbies.