New to Australia.. what do mechanics charge?

[v8s&2wheels]

Looking at buying a manual vr commodore tomorrow. Needs a new gearbox mount, and new gasket (or gasket goo) where cat converter meets newly put in 2.5inch cat back exhaust as its leaking.

Generally I could do these jobs myself with some time and a mate, but I havnt got the tools or time to do them as new here and need to do other things.

What does your average garage charge around here per hour? And also what sort of time frame would you put on getting these two jobs done?

Also on a side note, car has been converted from auto to manual.. how legal is this? Would cops ever know? Its a good conversion and drives very well just like a factory manual.

Cheers for your help guys

[MikeCuzzy]

Depends how good he is and how reasonable he chooses to be. $75 is what I'd expect, bigger places will charge more - got my tyres aligned and they wrote a massive list which was included:

Broken engine mounts - $380 (they are 30,000km of easy driving old)
New centre muffler - $320 (it has a ding, I could replace the whole system from the cat for that)
They also said rear pads were 5mm and 6mm respectively... they are brand new like literally the day before.

Needless to say, I did not get them to repair those componants.

I'm not sure on the legality of auto to manual. The two jobs you listed... maybe 1.5/3 hours?

EDIT: Where are you from mate?

[m1lky]

3 hours is a long time. Engine mount would take an hour. On a hoist maybe 20min to replace the gasket.

Mechanics are expensive though. In nz the dentist charges less per hour!

[MikeCuzzy]

3 hours is a long time. Engine mount would take an hour. On a hoist maybe 20min to replace the gasket.

Mechanics are expensive though. In nz the dentist charges less per hour!

Sorry I should have more clear, I meant 3 hours MAX if they try to charge any longer, they are taking you for a ride.

[v8s&2wheels]

Hi guys,

Im in Canning vale in Perth. The work needed is a gearbox mount not an engine mount.

Ive done a complete gearbox change on my series 1 rx7 racecar back in NZ in less than 2 hours (and i am by no means a mechanic) and ive also done exhaust gaskets on my racecar in approx 15minutes per gasket.

So id be hoping they wouldnt charge more than 2 hours to do these two little jobs. $75 an hour you say? Does that include GST? May have to ring around today.

Still hoping someone can answer my question about the gearbox conversion. I went on WA govt site and it says to do conversions you have to apply before you modify. So im guessing cant take that route to get an engineer cert for it. The car has about 5 months rego left.. If i used that up and then handed in the plates.. could I run it over pits and get it put on the road as a manual?

Or the other thing is just leave it as is.. i dont plan on having any run ins with the cops and I dont speed so they would never know.. But would it still be fine to on sell in a years time when i buy a clubsport?

[Irukanji]

How many arms and legs do you have is the more appropriate question

Generally, everything on your car is better off done by yourself, with some exceptions. If you have the internet, somebody else would've done it before...and most things in cars are simple enough.

[dwayno80]

lol n yeh its true... mechanics in s.a.. well yorke peninsula charge 90 p/h.. they asked for 1300. estimate to change a valve spring... i decided to drive my car missing a cylinder or 2 for a while... got a spring for free from a wrecker. did it myself..

[greenacc]

Who's gunna know if you apply now and say it hasn't been done yet ? Then go back next day and say you did it this morning.... Do they do a before and after inspection ? Anyway since you didn't do it i wouldn't worry too much. Heaps of mechanics wouldn't even read the papers properly when they do your next rego check and reregister it for you without asking any questions.