Haynes Manuals

Has anyone noticed but if you compare the Haynes manuals today to ones of 10-15 years ago they dont seem to tackle any of the complicated issues anymore - it just says leave to a mechanic or the like. ? :confused: Can appreciate cars are much more complicated but its always worth having a stab first.
 
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I quite agree with you there. Here's a possible theory as to why this is :- With modern engines and their extensive computer control and non servicable parts there is less that you can do at home yourself.
 
tha car companies shold be more reaonsable and supply a computer program with every new car that you can upload to your laptop/pc and then connect to the car to see how everything is running an diagnose problems. doubt they will do this as they prefer to shaft everyone with the extra cost of having to go to the main agents,
 
yup thats it VW charge £80 for diagnosics check, my vagcom license cost me around £50 and the cable was a £10. can do all my own now in real time
 
at work we charge £65 just to plug it in and get the diagnosic, then u got labor ontop and then fixing it, the reason we charge that is the kit cost £4000 (and it doesnt work on every car so we need to get a new one to do some over modles)...so it has to make its money worth i can see it going down in time.

the anoyeing think is that us mechanics cheak the manuals... we dont know where everythink is in every car and its nice to double cheak...really anoyeing when it says "leave to a mechanic" so we have to spend time (so more money) looking about...
a mechanic doesnt know everythink about every car...i have and i know many over people that have spent 10mins looking for the bonnet catch becuase it is hidden away and really hard to see!

car companyies do need to make duagbisucs more universial, and lower the price on the kits. for example we just got a new softwere for Haldex EBC brakeing systems, the software cost £50ish and the cable was £400!! and then there was a license ontop! views?
 
sounds like the motor industry is no different to the electrical by that i mean it seems you are always paying out for new bits of kit to do different jobs becasue they keep bringing new and supposedly improved products.

now the 17th edition of electrical regulations is out every time we change a socket or add one (a typical 30 minute job) it takes us half a day and costs the customer over £300 because more often than not they need a new fuse box which is not cheap! We have no power over this as if something went wrong we could be sued and put in prison for not adhearing to these regulations!!!

Its just so hard for smaller companies to make a decent wage!!!
 
yup i added 6 sockets upstairs ( floor was wreaked and there was only 4 sockets between 2 rooms, so while the floor was up thought hell with it ill do it the now) put in a shower and fitted a new fusebox as the old bakelight thing couldnt handle the shower (max fuse on it was 20amps).
done it all myself then found out, that the rules were about to change. boy was i lucky. some of the old cable that was upstair was still in the lead pipe thats how old it was
 
yep just dont show your work to an electrician now otherwise he will probably try and sell you some crap about how your thingy majig has gone and your uja maflip needs replacing lol, wow sounds like a mechanic!!!
 
i get extreamly anoyed when mechanics rip people off, had a customer come to me once and say if i could do a service for less than £600...ofc i questioned this figger and she told me that that was what she was being charged! it puts a bad name on us people who are trying to be honest!
 
:) well if a job looks to be getting expensive we always try and contact the customer and talk them thro the prices so that they dont get a nasty shock.
£100 for one central locking motor...well we charge £25ph labor + for commercials company's, and £20ph labor for privet, and then parts on top, ofc it is cheaper if you already got the part. but we are mainly a commercial company tbf, and we dont see many cars but we are trying to expand into that area a bit more with the new workshop.
 
How much roughly is labour per hour or day and how long will it take to change a central locking motor? Just a rough price from someone not looking to mug me off!!!
 
£20 per an hour labour, if I did it would take ages as i never done one :p but if one of the over people did it would take 30mins-2 hours prob depends on what it was on, as some can be really hard, some are piss (always charge a min of 2 hours even for a 2 second job) so £40 labour, then the price of the motor.
 
apprentice :) so some jobs i fail at cus i just havent done them before xD but we all got learn somewhere :D
 
Yea same here but i do electrics started a year late as i went to college and thought it was #!#!#!#!#!#!e, in my first year of apprentaship towards the end, did you start when you left school and how long till you qualify?
 
when i left school i did Alvls for a year and hated it, i only started this apprentaship aug so i got a long time left.
 
christ 25 an hours cheap
the average price for a hours labour in a private garage is £90 over the UK. Dealerships are alot worse closer to £200
 
:) well from April we are opening are new workshop in cinderford in the forest of dean and it will have a 1/2 of it just for cars mite be worth the petrol, and we also offer a cup of tea when you book your car in :p (sometimes if i can be asked) £90!! LOL never seen it that high! getting a service must be a nightmare!
 
think you might be a bit far for me. services are normally a set price. mines is due and looking at around £200 for it but that is for the long life service.
garages round here are around £50 an hour
 
not worth the petrol then will cost you the extra money just to get down :p
about £100-120 a full service, more if anything need doing ofc, think there is a difference in price due to the area? cant tell on over garages around me, as i always done mine my self (first time the old man helped :p)

£100-120 seems to be avg around my area tho from what people have said. new treat maybe and see if there is a difference in price over the uk?
 
ohh i can get it cheaper than that but id rather it was done by a specilest that knows what there doing with my engine.

used to work with a guy who recommended them to me just after i bought the car.
cambelt, all tensioners, water pump, fan belt and coolant also done a throttle body alignment ( they disconected the battery ) for just over £300, bradfords my local VW garage wanted closer to £500.

mate that recommened them had a Mk3 golf vr6 with an R32 engine with some light work done
 
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