Justify this, Anybody ???

[jjmk98k]

Cedarman, you're talking about the V8 Chevy Monza's that needed to undo the drivers side motor mount and jack it up to get to the end sparkplug....

been there, still doing it.

[redpowerd]

im pretty sure my brothers older model lumina needed the upper motor mount to be removed and the engine tilted to change the plugs. i wouldnt buy a front wheel drive vehicle anyways

[slowzuki]

Two weekends ago I did the clutch in my fiancee's Pontiac Sunrunner (it's a Suzuki Sidekick inside) and I went to price out the parts at the GM dealer for it.  900$ to assemble a clutch kit with no alignment tool.

I didn't ask what the labour would be...

Went to the local autoparts supplier and got a clutch kit with lifetime warrantee and the alignment tool for 200$ and put it in myself.

[Murf]

They tried to ding me for about $200 for a power steering hose on the wife's Bimmer, after being that generous they wanted 4 hours labour to swap it out.

The local hydraulics shop made a new one, with a stainless steel braid over it so it wouldn't rub through again, for $45 and installed it for 20 minutes labour charge.

Tough decision. 8)  8)  8)

[MemphisLogger]

  Quite often I believe it is compitition or a lack there-of. A part like that hydraulic hose will be outragously priced from GM untill the ABC company makes one for 1/2 the price. Then Gm will lower the price to be competative.
MH

That's why all my vehicles have been air-cooled Volkswagens and 22re Toyota pickups--I can choose from company A, B or C for after inexpensive and often better engineered replacement or upgrade parts  8)

We'll have to see how well I fair with the Subaru my wife just brought home  :-\

[Murf]

Speaking of clutches in Pontiacs and undoing motor mounts, do a little research on doing a clutch in a Fiero.

It goes like this, raise car on hoist, undo engine and subframe from balance of car, block balance of car in the air, lower engine, transaxle and subframe on hoist, split engine from transaxle, change clutch, re-assemble drivetrain, re-assemble rest of car, fall over from expense ........

[OneWithWood]

Thanks FDH for the post.  Now I don't feel quite a steemed at John Deere for having to pay $13.65 each for the gaskets for the brake covers on my tractor.  I had the parts man double check the price because I was sure it was $13.65 for a pack of ten.  No, it was $13.65 each.  They weren't gold plated either.  I sent John Deere an e-mail asking why this gasket cost so much.  The reply I got was "How much would a similar gasket cost for a New Holland (Ford) tractor?' !!! >:(

[Buzz-sawyer]

OWW
I live way out in the boonies, so, that is even more incentive to , do what Grandpa showed me with a roll of gasket material and his pocket knife....the right paper will work in a pinch.............
other alternative, go to store, talk to ignorant and uncarring sales person, find that dont carry that, but will order and that its only 59.95........fillup gas tank head home come back in a week, find out they ordered the wrong part, reap first steps until you reach desired result or have a melt down.......... :D :D :D :D

[jjmk98k]

New fuel level sending unit for my 2000 Blazer, $654.00 + labor...

needless to say, I have got real good as using my trip odometer, every 240 miles, time to get gas!

[Norm]

I would've sent em back an e-mail saying I'll be finding out just as soon as I can sell this green one and get a red one. It's that kind of attitude from John Deere that has me buying red tractors next. >:( They could care less about keeping customers just make sure the stock options keep flowing in. Guess you can tell how they treat me, owned John Deere all of my life but the next one will be red or blue.

[Patty]

We service Sony medical equipment. Talk about high priced parts!  Of course we have zero say so in parts prices. I can't figure it out; Sony keeps forgetting to call and ask my opinion about pricing.  :   All of these big manufacturers seem to forget how they got where they are. It is a real shame that they have to tumble and fall before they remember who is supporting them.

[jjmk98k]

I work on the Ejection Seats for the A-10 Thunderbolt II..... you wanna see expensive parts... anything that is considered "life critical" is outrageous...

not that I am trying to put a price cap on a pilots life, but $47 for a small plastic knob, the size of a gumball, is crazy. Shouldered bolts, $8 each and thay are only 3" long, nothing fancy. Seat cushions, made of sheepskin, $225.89

I could go on and on.....

I ordered a bag of washers, supposed to be a bag of 100 pcs. I counted 73, asked the folks in supply if there was a way to run this through as fraud on the side of the supplier... I was told the suppliers, when it comes to small hardware, are allowed + or -     30 %  I have yet to get anything that had more than what was labeled.

[Cedarman]

My youngest son, 17 is not that great in school. Got 3 went to college.  This one is a workaholic though. Works on his vehicles, works on mine. Troubleshoots very well. Intends to go to diesel mechanic school after high school.  This forum just reinforces the fact that his future looks real good.  With all the equipment we've got, I hope to hire him, but he says he intends to be kinda pricey.

[submarinesailor]

jjmk98k,

I know exactly what you mean.  When I rode submarines, I worked on the Polaris, Poseidon and Trident missiles.  Talk about the A10 parts being expensive; try order repair parts for a nuclear weapons delivery system.  Ouch!!!!! is all I can say.  >:( >:( >:(

subsailor

[Sawyerfortyish]

My 99 ford f250 pickup started missing the other day. My work hand says call up auto parts and get a cap and roter throw it on and it's as good as new . Yea right I call them up and they tell me there is no cap and roter  Whaaat i said this is a gas engine. Nope no cap or roter. Each plug has it's own coil pack. Cost 140+ each. Ford recomends replacing all of them. Took my truck to a friends garage he puts it on a machine finds 3 bad coil packs. Got it fixed but still a tuneup at ford would have been 1000.00 +. My friend at the garage tells me that the spark plug holes will fill up with water in wet conditions freeze when I stop the truck in cold weather and short out the coil packs. Ford has updated the coil packs 5 times so far.

[wiam]

Murf sounds like my skyhawk that I had in college.  I blew up the motor, went to a junk yard, got a used one and put it in from the top.  About 6 months later I bought a Haynes manual for it.  It told me to do what you said to change the motor.  I said "I am glad that I did not know that." :D :D

Will

[mhburton]

OWW
I live way out in the boonies, so, that is even more incentive to , do what Grandpa showed me with a roll of gasket material and his pocket knife....the right paper will work in a pinch.............

  My brother had a '69 Plymouth Fury with a water pump gasket leaking. Well being a '69 the local NAPA (No Auto Part Available) didn't have one so we got back to the house and made one from the paper from a Cherios box. We used a little gasket sealer on both sides and it worked great for years.
  On a more recent note, I had a fuel pump go out on my '99 Z71. I decided to just let the Chevrolet house fix it since I didn't feel like dropping the tank. Cost me $850 to get it our of the shop. $465 for the pump and $385 for labor.
   Last truck I had '82, Chevy 1/2 ton, I did all the work, including rebuilding engine and auto trans twice in 275,000 miles. Total cost for both rebuilds including[/i][/b] machine work was only about $1500 with some horspepower to boot. ;D I'm fixin to get me a good service manual and some error code software on the internet.
  My brother showed me some sites a while back where you can download [u]for free[/u] the software for reading your trouble codes and also the pinout diagrams and connector info for building your own home made patch cord to plug the CPU on your car into your laptop or desktop. Beats hell out of ever getting screwed by the dealership again. >:(

[rebocardo]

I was going to guess either a high pressure fuel pump line or a hydraulic clutch line. Working at a Ford dealer I have seen more then one replaced after the owner decided to do their own repairs with cheap tools and mangled the ends. The cheaper tools can work as long as you are careful AND know what you are doing. Some people bring the car in with the disconnect tool still stuck in the line  :D  I got pretty good at fixing them instead of replacing them.

Thank you to Snap-On and KD-Tools for quality products for me and Autozone for everyone else  ;)

> We should all be driving Hummers.

H1s and not H2s!

> Remember the pull the engine to replace the spark plug car?

I remember a couple, but, the one that stands out is the V-8 Monza painted black and gray like the 1976 Corvette Pace cars.  I ended up doing plugs in those things by loosening the mounts, and lowering the car with a jack stand against the motor if I remember correctly. 80s Citations with the 2.8 with A/C are no walk in the park either.

My wife's 1982 Impala can be a hassle, I have to jack the frame up to drop the wheel and go through the pass. side wheel well because of the Chevy design of the exhaust manifold over the plugs and emission equipment. I have owned a few Chevy cars and worked on tons more at dealerships and in my yard and when doing Chevy spark plugs all I can say is

"I love owning a Ford 1971 F-100 with a Ford FE 390 with spark plugs I can see!".

Want to learn about GM corporate greed, just read about how and why GM bought out Ross Perot when he rallied against management for giving performance bonuses of tens of millions while firing line workers.

[Quartlow]

My brother showed me some sites a while back where you can download for free the software for reading your trouble codes and also the pinout diagrams and connector info for building your own home made patch cord to plug the CPU on your car into your laptop or desktop. Beats hell out of ever getting screwed by the dealership again. Angry

And your going to share that info right?

[etat]

Everybody's right, them parts are way too high.  The big problem as I see it is not enough parts interchange from car to car, or even model year to model year on the same kind of car.  There OUGHT to be a law.

I do want to run my mouth about something for a minute, can't help it.

My favorite old car to work on was a 69 ford fairlain that was first our main car and then our back up car for years and years and years and years.  Before that it was a 66 Chevrolet impala I had when I was a teenage.  Weren't nothing about them cars hard to get to, or hard to work on except the heater core on the ford.  Me and Kim once rebuilt the carburetor 'in the dark', no kidding.  We once rebuilt the motor in a weekend. When that heater core got a hole it it it was a different story.  Had to take the whole dash apart piece by piece to get to it.

Memorable moments.  I once spent almost all night replacing a key switch in a Ford Thunderbird.  Many many choice words were said.

I once spent ALL night and part of a morning straightening and welding up the very end of the rear end axle housing on a Ford One Ton Dually that lost a bearing and then the axle come out with both wheels still attached.  They wouldn't just stop at the edge of the road, no sir.  Jumped down a holler and hit the only creek for miles and rolled way down the creek.  I like to never got em out of that creek and back up the hill. Buggered it up real bad when that housing hit the blacktop. I wound up welding the last nut that held the bearning in and held the axle in , I lost the threads in welding and straightening.  By 8 oclock the next morning I had it back on the road and drove it for two more years.

We used to salvage junkyard tires or whatever and break down our own tires and mount them ourselves without the proper tools.  I've broke down many a tire by driving over it with the front wheel of my old pickup. One night after I come in late from work I found out Kim had had a blowout, no spare cause she'd just had another flat a few days before.  She then  drove in on a flat keeping the flat tire on the side of the road as not to ruin the rim.   She then begged an old tire from a neighbor, and broke it down, mounted the other tire and put it on her car (the old fairlain) herself.  I was really thankful cause i was working a LOT of overtime back in them days trying to make ends meet.

One morning on the way to work the carburetor in my old truck started flooding and pouring gas.  Jerked the top of of it and found the float had a pin hole in it and had waterlogged with gas.  Cut the float off, picked up a stick and whittled it down, and tied it to the float rod.  Put the top back on the carb and made it to work, ON TIME.

Many many old war stories of us trying to keep these old cars going. I can ever remember us missing a days work because of car trouble. 

I reckon mostly neither Kim, or I miss the good old days.

[tnlogger]

 Now that is why i run olddddd chevy trucks file the points clean the plugs and drive  :D :D
i just bought pat a 1983 chevy custom van mint condition 1000.00.
I can fix old iron 

[TomFromStLouis]

I cannot justify the high price of parts, but I can explain a little. Aside from the fact that you can charge more for parts given the situation most buyers find themselves in *, a huge amount of the cost of being in the parts business is carrying inventory. Someone somewhere along the line still carries that dohickey for a 15 year old truck, and carrying inventory involves genuine cost. Okay, you knew that and paying the price still hurts.

* (Margins stay where buyers are less price sensitive: pharmaceuticals, nuclear weaponry, any critical-but-not so-big-you-just-junk-the-whole-machine part, etc. This is natural capitalism and we are jealous because we sell commodities)

By the way, GM's stock market capitalization is around $15B, less than Harley Davidson's $17B. GM as a business is worth less than Harley.

[oldsaw]

My 1990 broke first at 170,000, my 1998 at 230,000, and my 2004 went into the shop under warranty but has been doing okay ever since.  Haven't bought too many parts.

Now my wife's Windstar cost me $1000 so far to go 105,000.  More than I've spent on all three VWs with 450,000 miles between them.  And my wife wonders why I HAVE to buy them!!!

I'm Jonesing about the $70 a new clutch on my 066 will set me back.  But it isn't slipping yet!!...DanG  I'm cheap.

[etat]

Well it was just my Dang Dadgumed luck.  The starter quit on that there four wheeler I traded for a while ago. 

I figured right off the bat it was probably just a stuck brush or a bad connection or something.  So I took er off and tore into it. 

Uh, oh, one a them brushes wasn't too bad.  The other one was eat plumb up.  I figure as much as it'd been sat up somebody done been spinning it for a long time without priming the carb.  Or trying to spin it with a low battery and heated em up.

Anyways, I figure what the hay.  Surely that dang little starter ain't too expensive.

Called the honda place.  WHAT!  Are you KIDDING ME!  Why, that's Highway Robbery. 

They done wanted almost FOUR hundred dollars for that little bitty starter. 

So I decided to go to plan B.  I ran uptown to a starter rebuild shop to get me some new brushes.

They was highway robbers too.  Wouldn't just sell me the brushes.  Oh, No.  They did volunteer to rebuild the whole starter though. 

SO I come back home.  I done decided I AIN"T gonna let them highway robbers get the best of me and that's a fact.

I tore into a old john deere generator I had laying around and hijacked them big ole brushes outa it what it had in it.

I then took em to a grinder and shaved em down some.  Then I folded me some sandpaper around a steel block and finished shaping em and soldiered the ends of the wires back to where the original brushes were hooked to.

The armature looked pretty good so I just cleaned it up with some fine sandpaper. 

And put the contraption back together.  Dont get me wrong, all this weren't exactly as easy as it might sound.

Bench tested er and whirrrrrrrrrrrr, it like to jerked itself outta my hand.  Running strong and even though I let it run a while it didn' heat up.

So then I put it back together on that honda, buttoned everything else I had loose down and hit the starter button.  It come to life just like it was supposed to.

I absolutely have no idea how long it'll hold up but I've got high hopes for it.  Along with the satisfaction that NONE of them highway robbers got one red cent of my money~!

[Buzz-sawyer]

CK
I almost made a post just like this a couple of days ago.
I have an old 1991 topaz, starter was failing, so I priced one...$180 bucks!!!!
Well ole Buzz went to looking for brushes. and a rear armeture bearing.
Well, after being misguided, and given the wrong parts, by two seperate stores (which is the NORM).$4.87 cents got that baby spinning like new!!!