Is the Garage at it?

[a7snt101]

I recently put a post up about rear springs and yesterday phoned the Skoda garage I take my vRS to. Not local but prefer the one I go to.

 

I was shocked when they said to allow 2 hours each side to replace the rear springs. Is this right or are they at it? If I had a lift, I'd probably give it a go myself. Watched a few videos on youtube to see how complex it was before phoning the garage and the guy seemed to be able to do it in about 10 minutes so am horrified to be told it'll be £360 plus parts.

 

Has anyone had experience of fitting rear springs on a vRS and how long do they take to do or is the garage playing fair.

 

Thanks.

[VRsdgm]

If you’re even half competent you could change them on your drive with a trolley jack (preferably two) and axle stands in an hour for each side.  The YouTube videos reflect that, the garage is completely at it.  You could probably change the shocks within that hour also. The garage is completely at it IMO, It’s a simple job on the Octavia, I did mine recently, you don’t even need a spring compressor for the rears.  £160 would buy you the Bilstein replacement shocks and springs plus a few new bolts and new top mounts won’t take you to much over £200.  For the springs, just drop the rear wishbone by undoing a single bolt with a jack supporting the wishbone and the spring comes straight out.  Replacement is just as straightforward.

[Gissin]

rears are a piece of pi** on a ramp I can do the  rears in about 20 minutes

 

as said above they're having you on at 4 hours labour,

 

as a guide local garage near me would do all fronts and rears in 2 hours for £100

[Babs]

Yeah, rear springs are litterally one bolt each side to release the shock from the arm, then the springs fall out! 4 hours is horrendous!

[Ootohere]

What a nice easy day for a Skoda Dealership tech or fitter if the morning is made up of fitting a pair of rear springs and their employer is charging 4 X £85 =£340 plus VAT, so £408.

Then after lunch they do another pair and maybe a service or 3. 

Edited 18 July, 2018 by Offski

[Ju1ian1001]

The Garage is defo at it, at halfords we charge an hour a side (we charge a minimum of an hours labour at £80 an hour), plus parts and the dreaded VAT.

 

I think the time given by car web (similar to Auto Data) only gives an hour a side for rears. I'd say 2 hours a side for the fronts as the are harder to do with more strip out work to do.

[Babs]

Is this really what garages are quoting?!

 

On a two post lift, so no scrabbling around on your back, with proper air tools and hot spanners, replacing all 4 springs should take no longer than 3 hours. Probably less. Hell it took me 4 hours to fit coilovers to a Mk5 Golf that had never had suspension work before, so everything was coated in rust. And that was on my driveway!

 

At a garage, they'd knock two rear springs out in 30 minutes!

[Guest]

Skoda dealerships will charge what they think they can get away with. 

 

I was recently quoted £589 by a Skoda dealer to get the cambelt and waterpump replaced. When I told them that's not the price quoted on the Skoda website (£489) they immediately matched it. 

 

The other Skoda dealer I use charged me £110+ for a haldex oil change in 2013, they now charge the Skoda fixed price of £69.

 

Skoda. Simply Clever. 

[meaty101]

Skoda. Simply clever!! I like that. It would no doubt surprise us all how many people would just pay that as well without question just due to the fact it's a main dealer. The o.p has been shrewd asking on here. The back suspension is extremely easy to work on. 

[Excision]

Buy springs, get a good indie to fit them = minimum fuss

[wiilydog]

Probably a Skoda dealership team building night out coming up, the extra two hours will go towards beer funds

[Ootohere]

I never noticed the OP was in Edinburgh.

Here you are just outside Edinburgh, all the gear, more than an idea, fully trained qualified and busy.

http://autohausedinburgh.co.uk 

[Guest]

Definitely a DIY job if you've the tools.

 

A pair of springs will be ~£50.

 

If you have spring compressors with a long enough reach (garage spec) you can remove and install springs without touching anything else, the DIY types are probably not going to allow this.

 

In that case you'll need to remove the wheel for access and a couple of bolts to allow the transverse arm to swing down and free the spring, no spring compressor required.

Edited 18 July, 2018 by MicMac

[DJSmiley]

Agree, if you have some tools and a good trolley jack you can do it easily yourself.

 

1 jack to liften the car, remove the wheels, use the second jack to support the suspension while loosening the bolt, carefully lower the jack and the spring will come of without issue. 

 

New spring, use jack to compress this a little (don't try this with the cheap 'emergency' jack which comes with the car) till you're able to fit the bolt back in and  you're done.

 

Took me 2 hours to install helper springs (which is in fact removing and re-installing the springs)... And I'm an IT guy, not a car mechanic. Also, I did it on my driveway, without any airpowered tools (you don't need them anyway), with 2 lidl trolley jacks. 

 

Any decent mechanic can do it much faster
 

[Beachy]

I hope the garage doesn't run the Skoda Rally Cars. They would be out of the event at that rate. With decent chaps on the spanners 30 minutes a side max. Probably less. That includes the obligatory fag and tea break that rally mechanics require.

[Ju1ian1001]

14 hours ago, MicMac said:

Definitely a DIY job if you've the tools.

 

A pair of springs will be ~£50.

 

If you have spring compressors with a long enough reach (garage spec) you can remove and install springs without touching anything else, the DIY types are probably not going to allow this.

 

In that case you'll need to remove the wheel for access and a couple of bolts to allow the transverse arm to swing down and free the spring, no spring compressor required.

Don't springs compressor's for the rear's, once unbolted the suspension arm drop's low enough just to grab them out,put new ones in place and if doing it on axle stands, use trolley jack to bring the arm back into line and bolt up, job done.

[a7snt101]

18 hours ago, Offski said:

I never noticed the OP was in Edinburgh.

Here you are just outside Edinburgh, all the gear, more than an idea, fully trained qualified and busy.

http://autohausedinburgh.co.uk 

 

Thanks. I did actually phone them yesterday for a price. Very reasonable but not correct OM parts. Thinking I'd prefer the pukka parts. Plus I'm now in Bandit country over the water in Fife

[Ootohere]

So you just want OEM rear springs fitted?

Just buy them and get them fitted then at any Garage,  http://tps.trade    Not that using them means the correct springs arrive...

http://starperformance.co.uk 

For anything special needed.

Edited 19 July, 2018 by Offski

[a7snt101]

Thanks for the replies. 

 

The garage in question were saying £90 an hour!!! £90! I charge £30 an hour for what I do. I was potentially looking at £160 in parts plus £360. They kept saying if it takes less then I'll only be charged the time they take but they are quoting the time Skoda say it will take. Hmmmmmm. I'm not long off the phone and they are going to have a look into things and get back to me and see if there is now anything they can do on price. I'll be interested to hear what they say.

 

I called up a few Skoda garages up and down the country and got a few prices. All were a shed load less. Had one Skoda dealer quoting me just shy of £320 which isn't bad and that's using OM parts.

 

I would be tempted to do the work myself as I do have access to axle stands, jack etc as I'm into my older cars....BUT I'm thinking it would be better to get it done at the garage so they can get it off the deck and check the underside out as I think it happened around Oxford on my way back up, whilst towing and then it's done further towing plus a further 300 odd miles without a trailer on the back. Then they can give the back end a good check over and make sure everything is ok.

[Ootohere]

^^^ Because they do not want your custom really, and if you are silly enough to use them then they will have your car in.

[Ootohere]

Who is quoting the £90 an hour?

 

It is OK IMO if they put a Trained Tech on the job and it takes 90 minutes including road test.

Not if some 'apprentice / fitter' taking 4 hours. 

Edited 19 July, 2018 by Offski

[Guest]

It would appear, going by some of my receipts recently, that in Central Scotland, Skoda charge labour at £90ph. 

 

This has gone up from £70ph which is what I was quoted by the same dealer in 2011.

[a7snt101]

Having had a chat with them yesterday. It would appear 'their system was down' when they quoted me the time and they quoted me the time it would take to do the front springs, not the rears. The rears would of course take a lesser amount of time...

 

They also dropped their labour rate as well and cost for parts.

 

Funny that

[pikpilot]

Just for completeness, I had a rear spring break which was covered by a warranty at no charge. I paid for the other spring to be changed at the same time.

Cost (usual Skoda dealership):

Spring   £64.23

Labour  £41.24 [half an hour at £82.50 per hour]

 

Total inc VAT £126.58

Date 12/12/15

[blackspaven]

As an aside, how long in hours should a garage realistically say it would take to replace all four springs AND struts??