I am looking for a sorce on line that can give me the time alowed for repairs. I know the dealers have one but they guard them from the public. I plan to fix a friends car for free and just wanted to know how many hours a dealer would charge for this.

 

Got mine from Nappa. I believe they trained a bunch of midgets till they got the fastest time and use that. If your shop isn't top of the line computerized and you haven't done it at least 50 times you will not match there time. I have had three shops running at the same time and if the book said 1.5 hours for a job than no mater what happened or how many days it took you can only charge the flat rate. That tell ya why the rates are so high?

 

From my experience, many of the flat rates are simply a percentage over the factory warranty rate. Problem is warranty often includes some additional addons for certain labor operations added to the main job. This is OFTEN overlooked by the motor guide and the others.
There are also certain jobs that they are way over the actual time that would have been charged by the dealer. Go figure how they arrived at that. Maybe because we know shortcuts that they cant figure out.
In any case, a labor guide is just that ... a GUIDE. Shops can choose to over ride it when there are obvious mistakes.. But dont bank on many techs giving you a break when the book is in their favor by a wide margin... just the facts of life.
In some shops they charge the minimum number of hours and pay the tech based on that. Then they charge a huge bloated hourly rate to cover thier butts, leaving the techs eating the loss.

 

True, I worked as a dealer tech and know how to read the manual ,I just dont have access to one as of yet. I assume the radiator R/R will give a time of 4 to 6 hours .

 

On most Fords the R&R time for a radiator is 1 to 2 hours. A Taurus is about 4-6 hours but that is one of those that may be well over its actual due to improper sequence or access. It would definitely be difficult without a rack.

 

OH LORDY.The car is a 97 Tarus,,,,,,,,,,,,,,I have some large heavy duty stands and will try to raise it,If not,oh well, and I promised the wife I would fix her co-workers car........

 

heh! Proof that no good deed goes unpunished.....

Steve