Car going in garage - Guestimates please!

Mentioned elsewhere previously.

The wipers seem to have a mind of their own. Sometimes they'll work fine, other times they wont start, and other times they'll start.... then stop. Previously I've just had to get out and give them a little push to get them going again, but they got the point where they'd manage half a wipe?, then stop.

And now they're doing nothing. Boo!!!!

Shall be taking it in shortly.

Place your bets now....

 

What's the car?

Wiper motor £30-£100 on average with an hour for fitting?

Wiper control unit would be around £20 on your average car?

 

Seat Ibiza 1.4 SXE R Reg.

It's green.

 

How long is a piece of string? On a car like this though at least you can get cheap second hand parts. Sounds like the fault maybe the logic control on the wiper stalk, should be a cheap fix depending on the garage. If you have taken it to the main dealer than any amount is possible.

If it was may car and this fault I would expect quite a bit of change from £100.

 

ahelluvalot

Certainly more than you want to pay.

 

haha!

Well it's booked in.... but not till tuesday!!!

A mate said he'll have a look in the meantime to see if it's anything obvious.

 

Costing parts and repairs from the motor trade, I usually think of an outrageous sum then multiply it by two!!

 

My mate rents the flat about the garage and the mechanic is generally well thought of. I made sure to name drop my mate several times.

 

Easy job, £3.99 from Halfords

 

No good when moving though eh?

I ended up going along with a tea towel in my hand and pulling over every few hundred meters when trying to get it home!

 

Nah, it'll "be rite"

 

If it's going into an indy:

1-2 hrs to isolate the electrical fault @ £50 an hour
1 hr to fix it
£10 for the parts to fix

£200 tops.


At a main dealer

1 hr to change the ECU @ £80 an hour (includes 30 minutes of reading the step-by-step instructions)
£200 for the ECU
£10 for a cup of coffee
£20 for the 'complementary' valet (sorry, hose-down)
Your sanity because you'll keep taking it back because changing the ECU didn't fix it.

 

Don't forget the dealer will also tell you your fuel pump is had it and as a result the engine isn't ticking over properly thus the alternator is not generating enough power to make the windscreen wiper thingys work, that will be £1900 + VAT plus fitting sir.

Labour should be quite a lot less than £50 an hour at an indie depending on where you. I typical pay between £20 and £35 depending on the garage. If I know the fault I will happily pay the £20 guy as he is good at fixing stuff, he is purely useless at diagnoses though.

 

That's why he's £20 per hour

When I say 'Indy' I mean reputable specialist for a particular marque - they can reasonably charge that sort of price IMHO if they provide the same service(s) and expertise as a main dealer.

 

It sounds like the wiper motor, the same thing happened to my old discovery last month (wipers slowly died over a few months!)- I'd source the motor yourself (plenty of parts suppliers on the interweb if you don't have a "scrappie" close by.) Get your garage to fit it - probably 2 hrs labour. Perhaps £20 - 40 for the part. Take a look yourself at where the motor is, you may find you can do it yourself fairly easily if you can see the fixing points for the motor.

 

The mechanic (Mike ), will offer to source parts from the scrappie if he can.

Used him twice before and though I've next to no experiences with garages, he seems good to me and friends have recommended him and said the prices he's charged me before were good.

But with not being able to get it seen till tuesday, I'll try have a look myself at some point. Could be fun

 

Have you checked the wiper relay? Probably isn't that but its an easy starting point.

 

You quite often find that the windscreen wipers are remote from the wiper motor. The connection between the two being made via a series of cables and rods with small plastic ball joints at the ends.

The plastic ball joints wear out and can sometimes come apart. With the windscreen wipers on, can you hear the motor operating? if so it sounds more like a rod / cable problem which is a fairly easy fix, and you may be able to reapir this yourself.

 

Anyway, as you may be tempted to have a look yourself I offer this translation ;-) of some common terms from Haynes manuals:

(sourced from somewhere on the interweb)

Haynes: Rotate anticlockwise.
Translation: Clamp with molegrips then beat repeatedly with hammer anticlockwise. You do know which way is anticlockwise, don't you?

Haynes: Should remove easily.
Translation: Will be corroded into place ... clamp with adjustable spanner then beat repeatedly with a hammer.

Haynes: This is a snug fit.
Translation: You will skin your knuckles! ... Clamp with adjustable spanner then beat repeatedly with hammer.

Haynes: This is a tight fit.
Translation: Not a hope in hell matey! ... Clamp with adjustable spanner then beat repeatedly with hammer.

Haynes: As described in Chapter 7...
Translation: That'll teach you not to read through before you start, now you are looking at scary photos of the inside of a gearbox.

Haynes: Pry...
Translation: Hammer a screwdriver into...

Haynes: Undo...
Translation: Go buy a tin of WD40 (industrial size).

Haynes: Ease ...
Translation: Apply superhuman strength to ...

Haynes: Retain tiny spring...
Translation: "Crikey what was that, it nearly had my eye out"!

Haynes: Press and rotate to remove bulb...
Translation: OK - that's the glass bit off, now fetch some good pliers to dig out the bayonet part and remaining glass shards.

Haynes: Lightly...
Translation: Start off lightly and build up till the veins on your forehead are throbbing then re-check the manual because what you are doing now cannot be considered "lightly".

Haynes: Weekly checks...
Translation: If it isn't broken don't fix it!

Haynes: Routine maintenance...
Translation: If it isn't broken... it's about to be!

Haynes: One spanner rating (simple).
Translation: Your child could do this... so how did you manage to botch it up?

Haynes: Two spanner rating.
Translation: Now you may think that you can do this because two is a low, tiny, ikkle number... but you also thought that the wiring diagram was a map of the Tokyo underground (in fact that would have been more use to you).

Haynes: Three spanner rating (intermediate).
Translation: Make sure you won't need your car for a couple of days and that your AA cover includes Home Start.

Haynes: Four spanner rating.
Translation: You are not seriously considering this are you!

Haynes: Five spanner rating (expert).
Translation: OK - but don't expect us to ride in it afterwards!
Translation #2: Don't ever carry your loved ones in it again and don't mention it to your insurance company.

Haynes: If not, you can fabricate your own special tool like this...
Translation: Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!

Haynes: Compress...
Translation: Squeeze with all your might, jump up and down on, swear at, throw at the garage wall, then search for it in the dark corner of the garage whilst muttering "******" repeatedly under your breath.

Haynes: Inspect...
Translation: Squint at really hard and pretend you know what you are looking at, then declare in a loud knowing voice to your wife "Yep, as I thought, it's going to need a new one"!

Haynes: Carefully...
Translation: You are about to cut yourself!

Haynes: Retaining nut...
Translation: Yes, that's it, that big spherical blob of rust.

Haynes: Get an assistant...
Translation: Prepare to humiliate yourself in front of someone you know.

Haynes: Refitting is the reverse sequence to removal.
Translation: But you swear in different places.

Haynes: Prise away plastic locating pegs...
Translation: Snap off...

Haynes: Using a suitable drift or pin-punch...
Translation: The biggest nail in your tool box isn't a suitable drift!

Haynes: Everyday toolkit
Translation: Ensure you have an RAC Card & Mobile Phone

Haynes: Apply moderate heat...
Translation: Placing your mouth near it and huffing isn't moderate heat.
Translation #2: Heat up until glowing red, if it still doesn't come undone use a hacksaw.

Haynes: Apply moderate heat...
Translation: Unless you have a blast furnace, don't bother. Clamp with adjustable spanner then beat repeatedly with hammer.

Haynes: Index
Translation: List of all the things in the book bar the thing you want to do!

Haynes: Remove oil filter using an oil filter chain spanner or length of bicycle chain.
Translation: Stick a screwdriver through it and beat handle repeatedly with a hammer.

Haynes: Replace old gasket with a new one.
Translation: I know I've got a tube of Hermatite around here somewhere.

Haynes: Grease well before refitting.
Translation: Spend an hour searching for your tub of grease before chancing upon a bottle of washing-up liquid. Wipe some congealed washing up liquid from the dispenser nozzle and use that since it's got a similar texture and will probably get you to Halfords to buy some Castrol grease.

Haynes: See illustration for details
Translation: None of the illustrations notes will match the pictured exploded, numbered parts. The unit illustrated is from a previous or variant model.

TOOLS:

HAMMER: Originally employed as a weapon of war, the hammer is nowadays used as a kind of divining rod to locate expensive parts not far from the object we are trying to hit.

ELECTRIC HAND DRILL: Normally used for spinning steel Pop rivets in their holes until you die of old age, but it also works great for drilling mounting holes just above the brake line that goes to the rear wheel.

PLIERS: Used to round off bolt heads.

HACKSAW: One of a family of cutting tools built on the Ouija board principle. It transforms human energy into a crooked, unpredictable motion, and the more you attempt to influence its course, the more dismal your future becomes.

MOLE-GRIPS/ADJUSTABLE spanner: Used to round off bolt heads. If nothing else is available, they can also be used to transfer intense welding heat to the palm of your hand.

OXYACETELENE TORCH: Used almost entirely for lighting various flammable objects in your garage. Also handy for igniting the grease inside a brake-drum you're trying to get the bearing race out of.

WHITWORTH SOCKETS: Once used for working on older cars and motorcycles, they are now used mainly for impersonating that 9/16 or 1/2 socket you've been searching for for the last 15 minutes.

DRILL PRESS: A tall upright machine useful for suddenly snatching flat metal bar stock out of your hands so that it smacks you in the chest and flings your beer across the room, splattering it against that freshly painted part you were drying.

WIRE WHEEL: Cleans rust off old bolts and then throws them somewhere under the workbench with the speed of light. Also removes fingerprint whorls in about the time it takes you to say, "F...."

HYDRAULIC FLOOR JACK: Used for lowering car to the ground after you have installed your new front disk brake setup, trapping the jack handle firmly under the front wing.

EIGHT-FOOT LONG DOUGLAS FIR 2X4: Used for levering a car upward off a hydraulic jack.

TWEEZERS: A tool for removing wood splinters.

PHONE: Tool for calling your neighbour to see if he has another hydraulic floor jack.

BOLT AND STUD EXTRACTOR: A tool that snaps off in bolt holes and is ten times harder than any known drill bit.

TIMING LIGHT: A stroboscopic instrument for illuminating grease buildup.

TWO-TON HYDRAULIC ENGINE HOIST: A handy tool for testing the tensile strength of ground straps and brake lines you may have forgotten to disconnect.

CRAFTSMAN 1/2 x 16-INCH SCREWDRIVER: A large motor mount prying tool that inexplicably has an accurately machined screwdriver tip on the end without the handle.

AVIATION METAL SNIPS: See hacksaw.

INSPECTION LIGHT: The mechanic's own tanning booth. Sometimes called a drop light, it is a good source of vitamin D, "the sunshine vitamin," which is not otherwise found under cars at night. Health benefits aside, its main purpose is to consume 40-watt light bulbs at about the same rate as 105-mm howitzer shells during the Battle of the Bulge. More often dark than light, its name is somewhat misleading.

PHILLIPS SCREWDRIVER: Normally used to stab the lids of old-style paper- and-tin oil cans and splash oil on your shirt; can also be used, as the name implies, to round off Phillips screw heads.

AIR COMPRESSOR: A machine that takes energy produced in a fossil-fuel burning power plant 200 miles away and transforms it into compressed air that travels by hose to a pneumatic impact spanner that grips rusty bolts last tightened 30 years ago by someone in Dagenham, and rounds them off.

PRY (CROW) BAR: A tool used to crumple the metal surrounding that clip or bracket you needed to remove in order to replace a 50 pence part.

HOSE CUTTER: A tool used to cut hoses 1/2 inch too short.

 

:lol:

Just had a thought. I've got a silver account with lloyds tsb. Part of the package is some sort of AA cover. I can't find any paperwork or such so not sure exactly what it covers. Is there a way to get them to sort it out?