Rear subframe replacement cost?

[Nasher]

My 04 Connie CDTi just failed it's MOT last week on a rusted through rear upper suspension arm and garage charged me 5 hours labour to get old one off and fit the new one that I supplied as they said it was well rusted to the subframe.
Had to have a new exhaust fitted at the same time as they said when they took the exhaust off there was ahole in the back box although I hadn't heard it blowing. They also had to service the rear nearside brake for the MOT.
Result - a bill of £523 and I paid £114.95 for the arm and plus £50 for the MOT.
Not cheap.
Do you think the garage ripped me off at 5 hours for the arm and 2 hours for the brake and fittting the exhaust.
Cheers,
Nasher

[buchanan]

Every job on a car used to have a time set by the makers for doing a job, so say you get three hours to replace a rear arm, and its takes five hours, three hours labour should be charged. That was back when i served my time in the 70s, garage would charge for four hours labour say for a major service but you could do it in two, you did four a day that was 16 hours so you got eight hours bonus. But you could get other jobs were you could never do them in the time allowed, but customer paid for the time allowed by Ford.

[clf]

Originally Posted by Nasher

My 04 Connie CDTi just failed it's MOT last week on a rusted through rear upper suspension arm and garage charged me 5 hours labour to get old one off and fit the new one that I supplied as they said it was well rusted to the subframe.
Had to have a new exhaust fitted at the same time as they said when they took the exhaust off there was ahole in the back box although I hadn't heard it blowing. They also had to service the rear nearside brake for the MOT.
Result - a bill of £523 and I paid £114.95 for the arm and plus £50 for the MOT.
Not cheap.
Do you think the garage ripped me off at 5 hours for the arm and 2 hours for the brake and fittting the exhaust.
Cheers,
Nasher

The arm itself would not have been rusted to the subframe, they likely meant the bolt. The bolts are known to be stiff at least, and whilst trying to release, it can break free in the cage that holds the nut captive. If this happens, it will continually spin, and at this point, it is almost impossible to hold the nut to release the bolt. So, subframe removal or at least lowering it, is the quickest way of removing the bolt/arm.

Once they removed it, they will then be able to get to the nut, and release the bolt and therefore the arm. Then to do it up again, the nut that was held captive would need to be welded up again (it should have been at least!). So five hours if this happened I could see as being possible.

An hour each for the rest, I can see it being possible, but with the subframe lowered, an experienced garage, with the correct exhaust (ie using the original hanger, and not having to weld in new hangers) should have been able to do the exhaust in 20-30 minutes (but some places charge an hour as minimum).

Brakes, if it was the nearside suspension arm, access would have been easier (but access is quite good anyway), but if they fitted new caliper seals, then at least an hour for doing this.

If it went wrong for them, 7 hours would be possible - the unfortunate part is, if they had to remove the subframe, it would have been an extra ten minutes to fit the other arm.

You could look under the car around the subframe, for witness marks of various fastener removal.

[macafee2]

Originally Posted by clf

The arm itself would not have been rusted to the subframe, they likely meant the bolt. The bolts are known to be stiff at least, and whilst trying to release, it can break free in the cage that holds the nut captive. If this happens, it will continually spin, and at this point, it is almost impossible to hold the nut to release the bolt. So, subframe removal or at least lowering it, is the quickest way of removing the bolt/arm.

Once they removed it, they will then be able to get to the nut, and release the bolt and therefore the arm. Then to do it up again, the nut that was held captive would need to be welded up again (it should have been at least!). So five hours if this happened I could see as being possible.

An hour each for the rest, I can see it being possible, but with the subframe lowered, an experienced garage, with the correct exhaust (ie using the original hanger, and not having to weld in new hangers) should have been able to do the exhaust in 20-30 minutes (but some places charge an hour as minimum).

Brakes, if it was the nearside suspension arm, access would have been easier (but access is quite good anyway), but if they fitted new caliper seals, then at least an hour for doing this.

If it went wrong for them, 7 hours would be possible - the unfortunate part is, if they had to remove the subframe, it would have been an extra ten minutes to fit the other arm.

You could look under the car around the subframe, for witness marks of various fastener removal.

and there could be a seized bolt holding the upper arm to the "hub"


macafee2

[COLVERT]

This seems to be happening a lot lately---Old thread revivals. Some even over 11 years old.---

[clf]

Originally Posted by macafee2

and there could be a seized bolt holding the upper arm to the "hub"


macafee2

I would hope an experienced garage would be able to deal with this, using heat etc. and deal with it relatively quickly.

Originally Posted by COLVERT

This seems to be happening a lot lately---Old thread revivals. Some even over 11 years old.---

That is a good thing, means people are searching for answers rather than asking the same question over again .............