Hi all,

The other night, I was turning in the parking lot in upstate ny in the slush and all of a sudden my 94 Civic LX just stopped. Heard the engine spinning and gears grinding. Called a tow truck and they towed it to their garage. This was 4 in the morning and I am not from the area so I don't know any garages.

So basically the driver front axle (CV) was broken.The shop charged me 350 for everything. The towing was $75, which I guess is whatever.

But is the repair really $275??

The invoice had the part at $101 which is reasonable. I can find cheaper parts online or at a local autoparts shop but not by much.

What I am su****ious about is the labor hours. It is $75ish an hour and they said it took two hours? From what I have researched online, it doesn't take 2 hours to change one axle. What do you think?

p.s. I did call around to other shops, one shop has a really good reputation and said it would be $150 for part and labor. But since my car is undriveable, I didn't think it would be worth to pay towing again to another garage. Thanks in advance for your replies!

 

The labor time they're quoting would be flat-rate time from a shop manual; it's what most larger shops and dealerships use. It's basically a set time for what each job should take; sometimes the customer wins (job takes longer than it pays), sometimes the mechanic wins (job takes less time than it pays).

But $75/hr sounds about right; most dealerships charge between $85/hr and $100/hr for heavy engine or chassis work. The one I work at tops out at $90/hr.

 

Hi reaper,

Yeah $75 an hour doesn't sound bad to me. It's the fact that they said it took 2 hours that didn't sound right. From what I have seen using google and just talking with a high school buddy who is a mechanic at his dad's dealership, it should take around 45 minutes to an hour.

 

Did that include an alignment since the axle was removed and the hub disconnected for a bit?