Belts and tensioners

[theorangeperil]

Had the belts done several months ago by a specialist, including belts, tensioners, oil seals and a major 48K service.
As you can expect it was a fairly hefty bill, which was fine for my peace of mind.
I was told that I needed to come back to have them retensioned after 1-2,000 miles which I did.
I wasn't expecting another bill for doing that. Although I paid, it has weighed on my mind as to whether this is normal practice.
If I am told by others this is the norm I would be happy to accept it, but at the moment I have mixed thoughts on whether to take the car back in the future.
Anyone have any thoughts?
Peter
86 924S

 

[pauljmcnulty]

See my reply on the 924 forum! [][]

 

[PSH]

It's been a while since I trusted an indy or OPC to work on my car ( I'll never do so again) but IIRC a belt tension check after installation was covered in the initial bill. It certainly was the case last time I had mine done by an indy , It only takes a few minutes and they should not charge you for this...name and shame I say.....

Pete

 

[Alpine]

I was charged £20 plus vat for mine to be retensioned last week, which was about 20 minutes of labour. If the cost of retentioning was not built into the bill for the belts then I wouldn't have though that there should be an issue with having to pay.

 

[zcacogp]

The check / retensioning would have been billed for on mine as well, which surprised me in the same way as it surprised you Peter. However I did a bit of bargaining with the indie in question and took my toolkit along, removed the covers myself (which is the time-consuming part of the job) and he checked the belt then and there, taking all of 10 seconds. I then replaced the covers. He didn't charge for this.

(I'll add that I did go back with a four-pack of beers to say 'thanks'. Which, for the cost of them, is a very cheap and easy way to buy a LOT of favour with a good garage.)


Oli.

 

[Diver944]

I've only once taken the car back to only have the belts checked and if my memory serves I was charged about half an hours labour. All the other times I've had the retension done alongside other work and I'm pretty sure it was absorbed into the overall bill.

 

[DavidL]

I didn't have to pay when I had my belts checked after the garage had changed them.
I would have though that since they have to be checked most places would factor that into the cost in the first place. If the car never comes back then the garage is making more money!!

 

[Frenchy]

Bit of a con in my book, i suppose if they charged you have an hours labour extra first time around for tension check it would not seem so bad ?
Belts should be checked when the engine is cold.

 

[pauljmcnulty]

I think this shows one of the problems inherant with "menu" servicing. You can't quote, say, £100 for a job if the indie down the road flashes £80 on his website, but inevitably you end up with the fixed-price not including things that we would consider part of the job.

 

[zcacogp]

ORIGINAL: pauljmcnulty

I think this shows one of the problems inherant with "menu" servicing. You can't quote, say, £100 for a job if the indie down the road flashes £80 on his website, but inevitably you end up with the fixed-price not including things that we would consider part of the job.

You can, but you need to be more clear about what is and what isn't included in the 'fixed price'. This whole discussion has come about because an indie (and various other indies as well) hasn't been completely clear as to whether the 1500 mile belt check is included in the price of the original job.


Oli.