i have a buddy with an 02 excursion. he just bought it on ebay, and it has WVO from golden fuel systems. he bought it and when he took it to DMV for registration, it died and wouldnt start. whole veggie system plugged up from lack of filter changes. cost him $750 to get the system cleaned.

i took him to get it today from the shop, cause the UVC harness on the drivers side went bad, and they got almost $500 for that!!!!

his flex-plate is bent, and they want almost $800 for that!

his computer is bad too.

how rediculous are these prices? i think its pretty crazy to pay $500 for a valve cover gasket to be replaced. he is filing a suit through ebay, cause it was supposed to be ready to go. what u guys think?

 

That's exactly why I never let anyone touch my vehicles....especially my diesels. I assume it was dealership?? Right?
Caveat Emptor, "Let the buyer beware."
It's a waste of time and $$ to sue thru ebay or anywhere else for that matter. It's an 02.....used truck. No warranties unless it's actually stated in the auction that there is a warrnaty, I'll bet not.

 

nope, not a dealer. private shop!

 

i know theres no warranties, but the guy placed a gaurentee that there was absolutely nothing wrong with the truck, ready to go any where but the shop

 

Yep, they can do it to you too.


Very dumb seller if that's the case "guarantee that there was absolutely nothing wrong with the truck, then he may have a chance at winning. Hope so.

 

I doubt he'll win anything.
Flexplate I can understand- that's a real b**** to get out... gotta pull the whole drivetrain from the transmission back... and fuel systems suck.
but the UVCH was surprising to me. how much of that was parts?

 

a good mechanic can do the uvc harness in less than an hour, so lets say 90.00 in labor. a uvc harness is def not 410.00. buy a haynes manual and do it yourself it really is not hard at all.

 

Something you guys need to remember is Diagnostic time and shop labor rates. My time to diagnose isn't free. I usually (not always and not always my full time) charge to diagnose the problem and to fix the problem. And labor rates are high but there is a reason I can fix everything in your fleet. The shop is full of expensive equipment so I can service your needs. You don't even want to know prices of some of that stuff!

$500 for UVC issues might be high BUT on an 02 there is intercooling tubing to remove, the engine is further under the cowl and it might not have only been the UVC that fried. Might have been the gasket, and the outer plug. More parts and more labor to repair the harness end. They may have also done the other side as well.

There are crooked shops out there no doubt, I have seen plenty of their work!

Edit: some prices to add to the mix. From Ford a 02's UVC and gasket total $170 list price.

 

about a year ago i paid a shop to replace both uvc harness ,valve cover gaskets , and icm . that was $2400. it really hurt my pocket . i'll never do that again. good luck with trying to recover some of your friends money.

 

you gotta remember besides the things that tj mentioned the shop also has overhead such as rent (or morgage) taxes insurance and utility's to cover as well 800 for a flex plate sounds fairly reasonable maybe a touch on the high side you figure 600 of that is probably just the re-re of the trans. then a flex plate could be say 120 plus a markup on the parts and an half hour labor on top of the trans re-re

 

He might get some money back from it. There are still some reputable people out there that are not in it just to make money. Maybe I'm trying to be too positive?

Like everything else, mechanics and shops have raised their prices to stay a float. Those prices seem high in my opinion, but sounds like he was in a tough situation at the DMV.