Replaced the side mirror on my Mercedes…

[RJVB]

Along a similar vein: a few years back I discovered my airco no longer worked. Had the fluid replaced because that's of course the 1st thing you think about. Went to pick up the car 1h later, and just after I paid the almost 100€ the guy says that the thing still doesn't work, and that I'd have to book and pay for another service if I wanted the system purged. No real surprise there.
What I was not prepared for was being told that he couldn't repair the unit (using words implying he was incapable of it). Asking around I learned it's the same everywhere else: they hide behind probably bogus regulations to sell an entire new unit. I think the part alone is around 1000€, and I simply don't have that kind of money for a feature I rarely used (before heat wave summers became the norm).
Thing is that the compressor is probably fine. It uses a sort of clutch mechanism sitting between the pulley being driven by the accessory belt and the compressor itself. All that's probably required is to replace that drive part. I know someone who offered back then to help do a DIY repair, at some point I may take him up on that.

[Horsehockey]

Originally Posted by Riverwolf

I am in the process of replacing the idler pulley and serpentine belt on my wife's 2007 Ford Escape. The idler pulley bolt broke off, throwing the pulley and belt. Independent shop could go as high as $1000.00+.
I am so far into it about $100.00.
Thank god for youtube.
It is a tough job and may be my last auto repair!

My son owned the 2012 Ford escape for period time and that thing was a total POS. And ridiculously complicated to do something as simple as changing the spark plugs. Hope you’re able to beat the odds with that thing and keep it running.

[casualmusic]

Note: Local companies who buy wrecked cars generally identify all sellable parts and list them on the national database. Tell them what parts you need and they can locate an exact or very good match (trim, colour, brackets, harness, prices, nearest); and arrange shipment as needed.

Some folk also use this service to install an option only available in a higher trim package.

Here is a searchable database ==> https://www.car-part.com

[Gasworker]

Originally Posted by SFCRetired

It's not just luxury car dealers who charge this high. I recently had to take my Mustang in for a warranty thingy and I noticed the labor cost was 200 bucks an hour. Labor was more than the parts and the parts were expensive.

I do not see how a young person/family can even afford a car in this day. Its crazy and not sustainable.

I had a luxury car once, l’ll take the Mustang. In our neighbourhood the average labour price is about $120/hour but there is a flat rate for repairs as well.
You can invest a lot of money in non luxury cars as well and I’m pretty careful with the repairs I’ll do myself on cars and guitars.

[Mr. Jelly]

Originally Posted by Birdbrain

Is this a joke? About a man with a private jet who doesn't want to mess with the fancy stuff?

You can't figure people out, or at least I can't. He bought his wife an expensive Mercedes once. She didn't want to drive it because it was so expensive. She'd park a mile away in parking lots. He took it back to the dealer to sell it back and they would only give him half of what he bought it for. He took it back home and told his wife it wasn't as expensive as they thought so go ahead and drive it.

[Gromitspapa]

Eastman mirror?

[imwjl]

The idea of DIY makes sense and I try but in this case the 9x cost difference has me wondering if even without labor that is comparing a knock off to an OEM part.

Some knock offs are fine but in my looking and from associates' experiences I would be careful which sort of part. Now some mirrors have safety sensors and electric motors. The ones I most worry about for a fix like this are reading of bad experiences with headlight assemblies.

It is really wise to check if the fix is easy labor before you start.

[Mandobart]

My youthful financial situation and bad experiences with "professional" auto/motorcycle techs drove me to be a DIY guy. I've amassed a lot of tools, manuals and experience over the last 45 years.

Now in my 60's though, I'd have to save a LOT ($1000's, not $100's) to make it worth the soreness associated with crawling under a vehicle to perform some of the jobs I easily did a few decades ago.

My local Harley dealership says they won't work on bikes over 10 years old! Not even to replace tires! I go to an independent bike shop for parts/work I don't want to do.

[Bob Womack]

Originally Posted by Mr. Jelly

I see the vehicles on the used car lots with the year advertised on the windows and I always wonder where a person gets some of them repaired and what the expense would be. I also see allot of old top shelf vehicles in poor neighbor hoods and look at them as bad decisions. I had a friend that would buy a new Toyota every year and park the old ones in his hanger by his jet. He didn't want to mess with the fancy stuff.

My family was headed by the opposite: a man with an environmental engineer's pocketbook and Champaign tastes. When Alfa Romeo left our city it became a six-hour drive on a flat bed to the nearest dealer. Well-off folks would buy an Alpha and flaunt it around town for two years. Alfas were "passionately engineered" performance cars that traded reliability for performance. At about 30,000 miles or two years the car would suffer its first major breakdown. The owners would let them cool in the garage for a year and then sneak them onto the classifieds for cents on the dollar.


We would watch the classifieds. My dad would buy these beauties on the cheap, do the repair himself, and voila'! Sports car urge satisfied.

Bob

[Kh1967]

We just replaced the back on our driver’s side mirror. Dealership wanted $450. Ordered the part from E-Bay motors, installed it ourselves for a total of $17.50.

In a world of price gouging, I am happy not to participate whenever possible.