Repair shops ask ... Can You Get The Parts?

[borgward]

Had a chore on my wife's Cmax, replacing the engine splash shield and front bumper shield that I did not want to do as I already had too many irons in the fire. Went to several local shops to see if they would do it. The response was "can you bring the parts?"

I ordered them and will deliver the Cmax and parts when they parts arrive.

That response is shocking but welcome.

Is this going to be the new normal?

 

[Escape08]

First off, they'll not going to fix it if the part fails. That would save them time and labor costs

 

[slacktide_bitog]

they might not be able to get the parts from their normal channels

The C-Max wasn't too popular over here, though they seem to be more common in Europe.

 

[borgward]

they might not be able to get the parts from their normal channels

The C-Max wasn't too popular over here, though they seem to be more common in Europe.

I think that's probably right. One of the parts places was saying how hard it is to get parts for anything unless it's about 30 years old. I think these shops could get things I can get but not at a discount that they can mark up. I remember that markup used to be about 40% for a lot of things.

 

[Hall]

Those aren't parts that they can call NAPA or a local parts store and get delivered the same day or even next day. In fact, dealers probably don't even stock them. They'll probably charge you an hour's labor for 15 minutes of work so sure, they'll be interested in this job.

 

[borgward]

S.O.P is to charge 1 hr labor even for 1 minute. That helps to even the score for jobs that take longer than quoted labor time. For sure dealers don't stock much. Dealer could not even source pads for my Fiesta. A shop does not want a car sitting in the back lot waiting weeks for a part to come in.

 

[AutoMechanic]

There has been parts shortages and delays for years ever since the pandemic and it hasn’t went back to normal yet so that might be part of the reason. At least it’s like that in my area. Parts that used to be next day are sometimes a week out these days. For parts like you mention we usually wait about a week or two for that.

 

[bdcardinal]

Those aren't parts that they can call NAPA or a local parts store and get delivered the same day or even next day. In fact, dealers probably don't even stock them. They'll probably charge you an hour's labor for 15 minutes of work so sure, they'll be interested in this job.

I haven't checked lately, but we used to stock the C-Max ones all the time. The owners were constantly ripping them off.

Just checked, but I don't stock it. But our facing PDC in Rancho Cucamonga has 73 on hand so it would be overnight for us.

 

[LostInTransit]

We've been riding without the lower engine shield as it was ripped off while visiting a winery. They made us park in the grass where we abruptly packed over a tree stump which in turn tore off the flimpy molded fabric shield. I'd leave the shield off. But as for what the shop said.. I have several shop that would rather I bring in the parts oils of fluids. then they don't have to charge me. But the issue here is they wont warranty the parts just the labor.

 

[Auto tech]

At our shop we will install customer supplied parts. No warranty on those parts. If your Amazon alternator I just hung doesn't charge you pay for that labor plus pay for the labor and parts that we get

 

[The Critic]

Obtaining "body" parts can be a nuisance for the average mechanical shop. Tracking down the correct clips and fasteners, along with the appropriate shield, can be quite time consuming. Most independent shops simply don't have the staffing nor expertise to look up these parts in OEM catalogs; they're only used to using a "rockauto style" catalog.

 

[Kruse]

Since most replacement parts now are junk, it makes sense for a shop to install customer-supplied parts. Case in point:
My brother has a 2005 F250 Ford truck with the V10 engine. He's a farmer and he uses it hard. The front end of this truck lasted until about 150K miles and then it needed ball joints, tie rods, the whole works. He had a local shop install whatever their parts supplier brought. In other words, house-branded Chinese junk. The front end lasted about a year before it all needed to be replaced again.
If the shop had installed parts that a customer had brought in, they could have blamed it on the customer parts instead of their own parts junk failing.
Funny thing about this was my brother was complaining that Ford can't make good suspension parts for his truck. I told him to think about it for awhile.

 

[bdcardinal]

Obtaining "body" parts can be a nuisance for the average mechanical shop. Tracking down the correct clips and fasteners, along with the appropriate shield, can be quite time consuming. Most independent shops simply don't have the staffing nor expertise to look up these parts in OEM catalogs; they're only used to using a "rockauto style" catalog.

What is fun is with Ford at least, a lot of the hardware pieces won't give a quantity needed. It will just have AR for As Required and we get to play the guessing game.

 

[Auto tech]

Since most replacement parts now are junk, it makes sense for a shop to install customer-supplied parts. Case in point:
My brother has a 2005 F250 Ford truck with the V10 engine. He's a farmer and he uses it hard. The front end of this truck lasted until about 150K miles and then it needed ball joints, tie rods, the whole works. He had a local shop install whatever their parts supplier brought. In other words, house-branded Chinese junk. The front end lasted about a year before it all needed to be replaced again.
If the shop had installed parts that a customer had brought in, they could have blamed it on the customer parts instead of their own parts junk failing.
Funny thing about this was my brother was complaining that Ford can't make good suspension parts for his truck. I told him to think about it for awhile.

We deal with a warehouse and try to source OEM parts as much as possible for our customers. Good example is cam phasers for Ford. We use motorcraft due to dorman cam phasers not lasting.

 

[nthach]

body is a whole another beast. Body shops are dependent on what Mitchell or another SMS tells them. The collision catalog for a car doesn’t list everything or quantities needed.

 

[JimPghPA]

If you spend quite a few hours finding parts whenever you have the time to do that, it's no big deal to you. But if a shop spends half a man day or more locating parts for it do they even break even for their lost time.

If that shop said OK but we will charge our mechanics hourly rate for our mechanic while they locate and order your parts and that could take anywhere from 1 hour to 2 days of time, would you say OK?

 

[LostInTransit]

Spoke with the shop the other day, I asked what tools they use to remove the struts from the knuckles.. one fellow show me a chisel.. while another said he uses a hammer.. Although I trust the one fellow, I showed him this strut/knuckle spreader tool. he asked to use that next time they do a new strut install. so not only do they accept my own parts, now they'll accept tools I bring in to do the job.

 

[Zee09]

Shop labor fees always come up
The last two dealerships I was at had so many people employed that most and I mean most did nothing but walk through the dealership like it was a walking path.
Grab water and soda and walk again. It was so bad they could run it with one third of the staff and the walking path would still be full...

I am not including the sales staff.
Being in business myself I have never seen anything like it.

 

[Donald]

Had a chore on my wife's Cmax, replacing the engine splash shield and front bumper shield that I did not want to do as I already had too many irons in the fire. Went to several local shops to see if they would do it. The response was "can you bring the parts?"

I ordered them and will deliver the Cmax and parts when they parts arrive.

That response is shocking but welcome.

Is this going to be the new normal?

They did not want to do the work.

 

[Timmastertech]

What is fun is with Ford at least, a lot of the hardware pieces won't give a quantity needed. It will just have AR for As Required and we get to play the guessing game.

And then when the per car quantity isnt an even multiple of the pack quantity, like fuel injector o-rings for the 6 cylinders come 10 to a pack but you need 12 for a car.