Just got the outer passenger side cv joint and gator replaced on the other halfs golf mkv

Was originally in just for the boot itself but the garage said they couldn't split the old cv so it needed a new one?

Cost £277

Genuine cv £109

Genuine boot £19

Labour 3 hours at £35

Total £277 inc vat

Now i think this is verging on excessive! 3 hours labour? I can change a mk4 golf platforms complete suspension in this time on my drive on axle stands

I assume you got a price before you asked them to go ahead?

 

Do it on the drive for the sake of £105 would seem the obvious answer.

Nope it was originally going to be the gaitor but ended up needing a cv joint aswell.

Never done a cv joint, id probably balls it up. Plus its not my car and she needs it for work etc.

3 hours labour seems a bit high, most garages just charge what the book time is on auto data for jobs like that, I'm not sure what they mean when they say they couldn't split the cv joint, they must have been able to so they could change it, my guess is that they damaged it getting it off more like... Alas they are quite hard to get off sometimes, i did one on my audi a few months ago and I ended up cutting the joint in half with a cutting disc in the end, it wouldn't budge even with a proper cv joint puller and a 3' breaker bar on it.

Well the car was there for 2 days. And they apparently couldnt put it back together so we could have it after the first day as they needed to get a new cv which took it into day 2.

So sounds like they fudged it! Garages do my head in. There is always an issue. Every simple job turns into a mammoth task

Well went to change gearbox oil today!

Outer CV joint boot has came away!

The f***ing cowboys have held it on with a cable tie! Will be blowing a gasket tomorrow at the garage!!

This is why i do all the work to my car myself! Mechanics are still cowboys!

All from a 'volkswagen audi specialist'

I could put a proper metal clamp on myself but for £277 why should i? Also as i don't know how long its been like that for i will be wanting another CV joint FOC. 2 year warranty hardly lasted 2 weeks due to incompetence

Edited 12 January, 201412 yr by BigJase88

p.s i have also given up smoking, on day 6 so far so im ready to blow a gasket lol :/

Thats really bad workmanship......3 hours is mad,you could change the full driveshaft in a hour,you have to remove the cv joint to replace the boot anyway so there shouldnt be any extra labour charge just the price of the joint,they sound like a right bunch of cowboys! did you ask for the original cv joint back so you could examine it? sounds like to me they damaged the joint trying to remove it. 

Keep that rage for tomorrow :P

Sounds like they didn’t have the right tools for the job?

 

Yes they can be tricky to split but with the correct CV joint puller and air tools they should seperate easily enough.

 

I also agree with Tom the joint has to be removed to change just the gaiter or the joint itself, so it sounds like they didn’t use a puller and hammered the old joint off damaging it in the process.

 

IIRC the genuine boot comes with the correct metal clips so using a cable tie is just laziness (unless yet again they did not have the correct tools for the job!)

Oh they are idiots!

I was going to change a caliper on a lad from works audi tt 225

The lads from the garage said to him that they had my car in a few times and the work i did on my own car was dodgy.

This ****ed me off at the time as my car has never been to their garage ever.

So we will see on monday who's work is dodgy and substandard.

The reason the missus golf went to the garage is because she somehow thinks a full Volkswagen / specialist history is better than what i can do. Volkswagen has already managed to drop it off a ramp and bust the wheel bearing previously that they tried to say was there beforehand!

I am sick to death of garages and their constant lies / bullpoop / and shoddy work.

Edited 12 January, 201412 yr by BigJase88

Fortunately my GFs car has no stamps since she bought it, so there are no arguments over who services it! (She claims it was serviced at the same time as it was MOT'd by her local garage. I suspect it spent 4 years / 30,000 with the same oil/plugs/filters).

 

We did have a bit of a disagreement when he caliper started to stick, I cleaned it up (as you would) and it started sticking shortly after, then I was sent the wrong one (why have a reg-checker if you are not going to get it right?). I ended up doing the caliper change outside her work in the rain so she didn't take it to the garage and fork out for a caliper+fitting... the things I do to save her cash :(

I work in a garage myself and this sort of thing upsets me too. The garage trade has a bad reputation because of garages like the one you describe. It makes things much more difficult for decent garages.

Agreed with Dave - they're not all bad.

 

I had an upgraded clutch and flywheel fitted to my 330d before NY (it rained, so we didn't try). In another job I was doing I dropped a couple of bolts onto the metal undertray/chassis bracing, but thought nothing of it. A few days later when I returned to work it started making some properly bad noises from the gearbox area (I assumed shoddy clutch job), so I got it recovered to the garage.

 

They looked at it for me the next morning (I didn't get home til 1.30am, 7.5 hours after leaving work!) and rang back saying it was due to some bolts in the undertray. Took 2 mechanics 45minutes to find it, so 1.5hours worth of labour, but they didn't charge anything, despite not being their mistake at all.

 

I know there are bad garages, I've come across them too, but they are still good ones out there. 

Well the last 3 trips to a garage have ended in distaster

1 - smashed wheel bearing

2- tracking (managed to torch my track rod ends)

3 - and then this scenario

(All different places)

Apologies to the mechanics on here but i really honestly have no faith in garages whatsoever. If i do it myself i know its done right

Edited 12 January, 201412 yr by BigJase88

Booked in tomorrow...

They were surprised that a cable tie was used believe it or not. The only reason this could have happened is that the metal clamp was out of stock

(Erm no it comes with the gaitor)

So its getting sorted tomorrow FOC and a metal clamp installed, i doubt they will change the CV itself but they gave a 2 year warranty on it and the car will be sold in a year anyway.

Cowboys

Apologies to the mechanics on here but i really honestly have no faith in garages whatsoever. If i do it myself i know its done right

 

    No apology necessary, I can understand your frustration. The garage should be apologising to you.