Fair deal? $300 to fix oil leak?

[hoontime2]

So this is about my mum car, I know much about cars as a monkeys to spanners.
She got the top seal and now the mechanic at Kmart now saying there's oil leaking at the bottom and he needs to remove the gasket to seal the bottom of (motor?)

He wants $700. But I found a mechanic off gumtree that advertise himself at $35 per hour. So I got him telling me it's $300 to fix the job.

Anyway is this a fair deal?

it's a 1995 Holden Apollo.

and it had so many changes in the past 2 years.

[Jace]

So the sump gasket needs replacing?
Tell Kmart to jam their $700 and don't go there again.

For what it is, $300 even sounds like a lot.

[Water Boy]

Ahhhhhh.

Look around your local garages and check them out. It may be only a simple fix.

Cheap may not always mean good. And expensive may also not be the best.

[VW Convert]

Ahhhhhh.

Look around your local garages and check them out. It may be only a simple fix.

Cheap may not always mean good. And expensive may also not be the best.

Good advice. $35.00 per hour sounds too good to be true and $700 is a lot of money to replace a sump gasket. The reality is, no one can answer the question without knowing the precise nature of the problem. Possible it may be more than a sump gasket replacement.

[mikinoz]

I'd suggest that you take it to a middle of the road place like ultratune.

[DubSteve]

A decent mechanic would be able to sort this out for half the price no doubt!

[brad]

$35 an hour sounds very cheap. I was charging family/friends $45/h a few years back when i had the time to do weekend work & they thought it a bargain.

The $700 sounds like they might be covering their risk a bit much. Is it the sump gasket or a front/rear main?

Why not ask jimmy Mac on this forum if he can recomend anyone (or himself) for the job. If you get it done cheap then I can guarantee it will cost a lot more in the long run.

[Speed]

So this is about my mum car, I know much about cars as a monkeys to spanners.
She got the top seal and now the mechanic at Kmart now saying there's oil leaking at the bottom and he needs to remove the gasket to seal the bottom of (motor?)

He wants $700. But I found a mechanic off gumtree that advertise himself at $35 per hour. So I got him telling me it's $300 to fix the job.

Anyway is this a fair deal?
it's a 1995 Holden Apollo.
and it had so many changes in the past 2 years.

You really take your mums car to Kmart???

Being cheap with a car usually bites you back, However if it is a sump gasket, then yes $700 is way too expensive.

I'm guessing there is more to the story.

[hoontime2]

Yes, it's a sump gasket seal.

if $300 is too much how much reasonably would the price be?

she off to kmart mechanic to see the exact problem

[Maverick]

I'd suggest that you take it to a middle of the road place like ultratune.

I wouldn't be calling places like ultratune middle of the road, they're down there with kmart and repco!

[DubSteve]

Honestly it would take a mechanic roughly 1 hour to do the whole process.

Jack car up
undo sump plug, empty out engine oil
undo sump
change gasket
change oil filter
refill oil
off you go

Oil roughly $60, gasket roughly $30, Oil filter roughly $30 + an hours worth of labour at say $75 = ~$185

[brad]

I wouldn't be calling places like ultratune middle of the road, they're down there with kmart and repco!

Ultratune can be hit & miss. They are a franchise & hopefully the owner is onsite to keep an eye on his mechanics & ensure quality control. I have no idea what the pay scales are but if you pay peanuts.....

k-Mart: I worked for them for a total of 4 weeks way back in 1985 or '86. You were paid & treated the same as a shop assistant. The mechanics at the Sylavania store I was at were shockers & didn't like being shown how to change front struts without opening the hydraulics. I started there because i was desperate & left for a 35% increase in pay & a free hand in how I did my work (seriously, the dudes at K-Mart wanted to tell me how to fix brakes & suspension & I'd been service manager of a brake specialist for 2 years beforehand).

k-mart might be a bit better now. The national manager of KTAS is(was?) a guy called John Sink. He was my boss for 4 years at Goodyear (hence the Goodyear/Dunlop KTAS tie-up) and last time I saw him (years back) he was telling me that k-mart mechs were now on a decent wage & got a lot of training. I can't quite see it myself as when you get to a certain level of expertise you realise you can get paid lots more doing other stuff with your skills or have a lot more interesting (and appreciated) job for the same money working on one of the prestige marques like BMW (where i went before starting on aircraft) or Mercedes or a specialist independant doing tuning, etc.

One of the main requirements of working at K-Mart when i was there was the ability to talk to women & explain what the problem with the car was without dribbling on their cleavage. 90% of the customers were women.

repco - I have no idea.

The new NRMA places are marketed well - not sure what they are like though.

[brad]

Honestly it would take a mechanic roughly 1 hour to do the whole process.

Jack car up
undo sump plug, empty out engine oil
undo sump
change gasket
change oil filter
refill oil
off you go

Oil roughly $60, gasket roughly $30, Oil filter roughly $30 + an hours worth of labour at say $75 = ~$185

You've done the job or had a look under an Apollo/Camry? 95 model is the pig-ugly wide-body model isn't it?
IIRC there's an undertray, a cross member & the flex pipe is in the way too. If it's straight forward then it would probably take me 3-4 hours but I'm slow & thorough & don't like comebacks. Seriously - it would take me 45 minutes to clean all the mating surfaces.

i'm thinking there might be more than meets the eye - maybe an engine mount involved.

It's only a run of the mill toyota - were'd all these oil leaks come from FFS?

[ryana89]

it would take me 45 minutes to clean all the mating surfaces.

Its good to know there are still people like you out there, willing to do a proper job regardless of time.

[Spyda]

Dunno about the camry but i can do a 8v sump in about 30min, that includes cleaning the surfaces if the previous sump had used gasket maker goo instead of a proper gasket and if i have a powered wrench.

I guess if there was stuff in the way then it might take a bit longer but it shouldnt take more than an hr or so man.