The LR service wood duck ripoff is alive and well

[PhilipA]

I recently had my transfer case deleaked by a LR specialist in NSW.
They seemed to know what they are doing and although I haven't been on a long trip yet, there is less oil around the transfer.

When I went to initially get a quote the person behind the desk estimated 10 hours labour and about $1000 . When I bridled at this the person asked a mechanic who walked in and he said oh about 5-6 hours , so the person then said about $650. This I guess could have been an innocent mistake but maybe not.

So that was fine and I had the work done and it looks like a good job and cost was about $680 so no great bracket creep there.

When I picked up the car, I spoke to the mechanic who reckoned the auto was about 2 litres down and that the fluid was filthy and needed a service badly. In addition he had written on the invoice.
auto transmission service -est $800
numerous water leaks -est 800
rocker cover gasket -est 700.
Now I knew that I had serviced the auto about 25KK ago and taken out 4 litres and added 4 litres. There are no leaks in my cooler hoses , so maybe it had dropped some out the rear seal which they replaced.

Anyway today I did a service including new filter, and drop and refill with Castrol Transmax Z, and I dropped and refilled about 4.5 litres, so it may have dropped some as it obviously had some red Dex 3 in it.

But the sump was pristine, not a grain of clutch material, and about 0.5mm of black steel paste only on the magnet. I also cleaned the oil tray before and after and there were a very few very small grains of clutch material..

All this took me max 2 hours labour on my back, plus 4.5 litres Transmax Z , plus a filter and sump gasket. All up should be about say $350 at a specialist.

Oh also I have posted up a couple of months ago that the leaks that I had when I replaced all the hoses had fixed themselves and I have used no water now for several months.

So what if I were not a DIY person and knew nothing about cars? I would be ripped off royally .

Although I have not been ripped because I know a bit about DIY, it has left a bad taste, and I would be reluctant to go there again, and I certainly would not recommend them without a big caveat about checking the price.
I guess it is a rhetorical question, but why do some service people do this?
Regards Philip A

[disco man]

G'day Philip.
Your spot on mate,if your not a bit clued on with mechanical work there is a lot of places out there that will rip people off.Most places up here charge around $110 an hour,Tim out at LANDROVERS ONLY, charges $90 an hour.

And he is a bloody genius and does top notch work.I guess us blokes in Townsville are very lucky.

[Roverlord off road spares]

Hi Phillip, refilling the auto should be done by sitting under it whilst it is running on a level surface and the gear shift is worked then when oil is running out of the filler plug hole then it is full as per rave instructions. Never assume that x amount of litres came out and replace it with same amount of litres as if it is initially the wrong amount your only replicating it.

Rave has a section on repair times it quote the hours allowed for service times
So if it takes the mechanic less time he still charges the scheduled time, the list price of the service kit is pretty exxy, so if the mechanic like a lot do charge list price then the cost of service also goes up..

[PhilipA]

Thanks Mario, yes I always start it up , run through the gears then fill with the engine idling in neutral.
I must admit I may have been low in the past as this time there was nothing, nothing then a rush, as I presume it was pumped through the cooler. I don't recall this before, but it was not down that much.
Regards Philip A
The out/in check is just a double check.

[DiscoMick]

I just had some auto transmission, engine and other work done and, while they had the auto open, got them to empty, clean, re-fill and replace the internal filter and generally service it. The cost for that bit of the job was $240.
I think one of the problems is that some workshops don't have much experience with Land Rovers, so they sometimes get it wrong when estimating how much work is actually involved. It may not be a deliberate rip-off, just a mistaken estimate of what is involved.

[PhilipA]

It may not be a deliberate rip-off, just a mistaken estimate of what is
involved. This is a long standing Land Rover specialist who has mechanics who were previously dealer trained. They really know their stuff as they were able to ID the LT230 problem straight away and had worked out a fix . I am absolutely sure that they know what is involved.

Regards Philip A

[DiscoMick]

Fair enough, they should know. Its not as if ZF gearboxes are unusual.

[PAT303]

At least they did the work,I had a coaster bus that came back from being serviced with the same filters on it,I had my Hilux serviced with new filters but without the oil being changed,I was having lunch and the bloke I was working with had his wifes corolla stop at the same place with three mechanics from the dealership he dropped it off at that morning get out of it and buy their lunch,they were using it as their personal transport. Pat

[wardy1]

You're pretty much spot on on what a trannie service should cost.

I had mine done last year at AMV in Ringwood, $370.

Unfortunately, mine just gave out recently (SOS - Blown Transmission in Shepparton) but that isn't the fault of AMV, the transmission appeared fine at the time and they didn't have the benefit of removing it to inspect it. If they had, they probably would have discovered the deliberately bent drive plate which was the main cause of the failure.

[Disco Muppet]

Your auto condition sounds similar to mine :)
However.
$700 for the rocker cover gasket, get bent.
Gasket should cost you at absolute most, $50.
Doesn't take over 5 hours to replace either.
What a load of bollocks, and exactly why I do my own work.