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Snapped bolt who pays? #

Posted by Adam Critchley on June 22, 2014, 5:10 pm
Edited by board administrator July 3, 2014, 7:00 am

On another forum I'm on

Theirs a bloke kicking off that he put his car into Vauxhall for timing belt change

And they rang him to say tensioner bolt had snapped it would be an extra £300 for them to get someone to drill it out and re cut the thread.

So as usual on forums theirs a lot of get reading standards etc etc etc

If something like this happens in our garage we usually just inform the customer of what's happened the fact theirs going to be a delay in returning the vehicle and just sort it out.

But I can understand why their would be an extra charge.

Just wondering what you guys do in this sort of situation
Do you charge extra (labour and parts)?

Or do you just rectify the fault?

Re: Snapped bolt who pays?

Posted by Tony Ludford on June 22, 2014, 5:29 pm, in reply to "Snapped bolt who pays?"
Tony Ludford

The answer I often give the customer: Is it your car or mine? Ah, it's yours is it? Therefore, it is your problem.
However, I can help you fix that problem, but as it's going to take time & time=money (if I'm fixing your car, I'm not fixing someone elses' = earning money).
Then it is up to you to provide the relevant funds to allow me to fix your car.
Obviously, making a profit on the bolt removal would to me be wrong, but covering your costs and helping the customer would be high on my priorities.

Re: Snapped bolt who pays?

Posted by Keith Simpson on June 23, 2014, 9:22 am, in reply to "Re: Snapped bolt who pays?"

Any good Mechanic would know when a bolt is going to break. It's at this time when you inform your customer and give him/her the worst case scenario and related extra costs. It's not rocket science.

Keith

Re: Snapped bolt who pays?

Posted by Peter Warman on June 23, 2014, 3:12 pm, in reply to "Re: Snapped bolt who pays?"
Peter Warman

I am with Keith on this, a good technician or engineer will have a feel for this sort of thing, if it's suspect then give the customer a heads up and let them make the decision to proceed

That's the problem with the young mechanics / apprentice technicians now, they have no sort of engineering background, they do not know the difference between mild steel, high tensile or case hardened etc, stick the windy gun on it to save time, will give them a few extra seconds to check their Facebook

Peter

Re: Snapped bolt who pays?

Posted by Jim Power on June 23, 2014, 7:57 pm, in reply to "Re: Snapped bolt who pays?"
James Power

Surely it depends on why it broke.

If the bolt was worn or weakened due to wear and tear or perhaps partly seized then yes, the owner bears the cost.

But, if it was needlessly broken by a careless tech or an inexperienced apprentice then why should the owner bear the cost of the garages shortcomings.

Jim.

Re: Snapped bolt who pays?

Posted by Adam critchley on June 23, 2014, 10:10 pm, in reply to "Re: Snapped bolt who pays?"
Adam Critchley

I understand its hard to say from all possibilities of why a bolt would break

Like say we've had instances where some times you have no choice other than to break it and rectify it when said part is removed.

I understand the above comments about young lads. Yes I am only young myself
However I feel serving in military and working in all climates with no power tools gives a great insight into things.

Worked in a couple workshops now with lads same age as me who don't seem to think things through properly before getting the gun out and causing them self some issues.

The particular car in question on the other forum is a Vectra 3.0 cdti and having owned one of them myself I feel the bolt had too much thread lock fitted to it and it didn't feel great getting bolt out on my own car.

So as a dealership I'd assume they've seen a few of theses cars and know this particular bolt is hit and miss

We all get to know them don't we? Ford lower ball joint or strut bolts are just one example.

But anyway just seems a rather steep amount for removing a bolt. Yes access to tensioner bolt is never going to be amazing but that still seem excessive too me?

Re: Snapped bolt who pays?

Posted by Jim Power on June 24, 2014, 4:38 am, in reply to "Re: Snapped bolt who pays?"
James Power

Yes Adam I would agree that £300.00 seems expensive.

I cant say I have experience of this particular bolt but my prefered method of removing sheared studs is with a 2.5mm welding rod, a steady hand and my good reading glasses.

If I got anything like £300.00 each time I'd be retired now.

Jim.

Re: Snapped bolt who pays?

Posted by Keith Simpson on June 24, 2014, 6:57 pm, in reply to "Re: Snapped bolt who pays?"

If it's been into the dealer then that makes matters worse, as they will have seen this before. A quick phone call the customer before you know it's going to break, at least gives him / her the option on how to proceed. I bet they knew it would break and didn't even think about informing the customer.

Keith

Re: Snapped bolt who pays?

Posted by Shane gray on July 29, 2014, 6:54 am, in reply to "Re: Snapped bolt who pays?"
Shane Gray

Hi,
Had a Citroen c3 in last Thursday with 1.4 petrol and the usual waterpump bolt snapped. Contacted customer and told him an extra 2 hrs needed as we need to remove pump housing and drill out bolt. Customer happy to carry on.
Shane
P.s we did spray and try to get bolt out but to no joy.

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