For that little lot I would have thought £800 would be closer to the mark.

 

MIne was high and mine was only a grand. Someone is having a laugh I am afraid

 

as i feared ...

is replacing the oil feed rail standard practice in these cases?

 

I think its recommended with the LR gasket.

You would think an XPART garage would be cheaper as they should know what they are doing and should do it quicker. Unfortunately I know from experience that this is not always the case

 

It's debatable if the rail is needed or not but the gasket's warranty is void without it.

I think the rail adds an hour or two to the time.

 

With an XPart garage you are essentially paying main dealer prices - get a friend to enquire about their hourly rates (About £30 is average).

I bought all the parts myself (including Oil and coolant) and it came to a shade over £200..... a local garage wanted £300 to do the work for me using my parts.

Re: the LR Gasket - Its only £30, so get the damn thing fitted! The cost comes from the extra time needed to fit it.

But to answer your original question, you are being bent over a barrel and having it given to you royally on that price

 

mine was done recently at a cost of £850

 

yer fraid so. does the head NEED skimming? probably doesn'tim going through the same with my brm.all the parts are costing me like 200 quid, but doing the work myself. hard to find the time but the saving's worth it.that includes cambelts too, so get a cambelt change as part of it, which needed doing anywayAndy

 

the hourly rate of sewards christchurch (xpart) is £72.50!!
trouble is, they've got the car and already taken the engine apart and sent the head off for skimming (without specific authorisation). i've spoken to them again and they say that they'll reduce the total cost to £1296. oooh! which beings the labour cost to around £60/hour. grrr ...

 

Even so, how many hours do they think it takes to do a HGF + the extra bits?

I have just looked at the invoice for my HGF and it looks like it was 6 hours labour just to clean the systems and change the HG. The bill came to £463 ex VAT with the work done by a MGR dealer.

 

their hourly quotes are as follows:

replace HG - 6.5 hours
skim head - 1.5 hours
replace oil feed rail - 1.5 hours
flush coolant - 1 hour
replace oil & filter - 0.5 hour
cambelt, water filter etc - 1 hour

total 12 hours

 

flush coolant - 1 hour

Pah , I could do that myself in less time, and they are pretty sure to have a vaccuum filler so it will take them even less. Even if they are flushing 2-3 times to remove mayo.

The rest of the times look OK though and are probably just lifted form a standard list. Although 1.5 houes to replace oil rail? Not sure about that TBH.

Its the labour which is the killer

 

So that at £70.50 x 12 = £846 leaving £679 for parts and VAT (on the original quote).

 

agree on the coolant bleeding, surely they could let that bleed while they were doing something else? the whole job may take an hour, but that doesn't mean they will be working on it for that hour! just sat drinking tea watching the coolant bleed!

Though that still barely touches the surface of that astronomical bill, that labour charge and parts cost is mega!

 

Yeah but I think big garages work from a book price and just count each "task" as individual. I remember I got my lower ball joint done last year. I was quoted 120 or something from the "book", but the guys had to end up dropping the whole suspension out and the guy on the desk was not amused. Said it should have cost me hundreds more as they had taken an extra 4 hours to do it or something. But as he quoted me the book price, he had to honour it. He told me not to come back for a while :lol:

From now on I am going to try and do EVERYTHING myself, except gearbox, T4, Clutch etc.

 

Yes sometimes book prices work against you and sometimes they work for you.

 

well, i spoke to Brown & Gammons and they quoted me around £1100 for the same work but seeing as though the car is not driveable it would have to be transported to them in hertfordshire (they quoted me £200 to pick it up from poole).

i also spoke with MG owners club garage in cambridge. they quoted around £1000 also with £200 transportation costs.

so seeing as though sewards already have the car and the engine apart i've decided to bite the bullet, let them sort it out and cough up the revised £1293 quote.

grrr ... i should've taken it to B&G or MGOC sooner. oh well! at least now i should have HGF free motoring!

many thanks for all your input and help.

 

the amount of people on here that get HGF it could be a nice little earner

 

£870 plus vat is more realistic IMO (inc a cam belt change) Depends if oil has got into the cooling system as this may need cleaning out and possibly rad changing.

 

There's still folk around who recently got it done for nearer the 500 mark.

 

Christ on a bike! I'd have done the job with cambelt and head (well the full list included) for less than £850. (Noted area in relation to me).

People are still getting done over!

 

i am just having mine HG replaced after failure. With system flush and clean, new water pump, major service and new stainless steel coolant pipes for the princely sum of £1090 all in - that is at an MG garage

 

ok, well, the deed is now done and the work completed, upgraded to the new landrover mod (gasket and oil feed rail), and i pick the car up tomorrow. is there an easy visual check (without taking the engine apart!) to make sure that these parts really have been replaced?

also is there anything i should be aware of with a new HG, like taking it easy for a certain number of miles, or anything like that?

thanks again guys

 

Crikey! I'm not that far from you - could have saved you a fair wedge of cash......:spanner:

 

i'll give you a shout next time!

 

as it seems a head gasket failure is inevitible (im defo not the optimist), im worried about it on mine even if i just bought it 2 days ago, is there anything you can do to reduce the possibility of HGF? like upgrading them to multi layered? if theres a possibility, ill request it at my next service

 

There is no point in changing the gasket if you don't need to. The money would be better spent on making sure the coolant is in tip-top condition and fit a coolant level alarm.

 

just found this thread, i thought there would be loads of people thinking the same as me! lol

http://forums.mg-rover.org/showthread.php?t=197063

http://forums.mg-rover.org/showthread.php?t=197117

i was lookin at getting a warranty from this place

http://www.warrantywise.co.uk/ww.sys/classicCover

it says it covers

Engine
all internal moving parts including; cylinder head gaskets.

and also

http://www.click4warranty.co.uk/covered-parts-full.aspx

ENGINE
The rocker assembly, including hydraulic followers, inlet and exhaust valves [not burnt valves], springs and guides, cylinder head [not cracks and de-coking or porous heads], cylinder head gasket [except skim], push rods, camshaft and followers, timing gears and chains [excluding tensioner], oil pump, pistons and rings, cylinder bores [excluding porous bores], con rods, gudgeon pins and bearings, crankshaft and bearings, inlet manifold, flywheel and ring gear, timing belts are covered as long as they have been changed in accordance with the manufacturers schedules. In the event of a claim YOU will be required to provide proof that the timing belts have been changed in line with the manufacturer's schedules. Failure to do so may invalidate YOUR claim.

(269 for a year for the 3 star service) (about 22.50 a month)

would that cover any hgf should one arise?