Is $100/hr really the going rate???

A friend of mine was charged nearly $400 to replace 3 brake lines on her Ford 150 PU.

Higher than the West Coast? Really?

Sue

Here in VT I have found labor costs ranging from 45 to as high as 80 dollars an hour. The cheaper places tend to be the smaller shops while some of the chains will charge an arm, leg and small child. I take almost all of my business to the local parts store that charges only 35- 50 per hour depending on where you purchase the parts. Buy the parts from them get the cheaper labor cost!

Here in NJ most shops are in the $40-60 per hour range. Overtime would put them in $60-100 per hour.
Lots of $$$ but always remember...you get what you pay for.

By the way, I try to do as many auto repairs as I can and leave the $$$ in my pocket.

Assuming that I am doing the math correctly (I never was very good at that), I would wonder more about it taking four hours to replace three brake lines (or a little less if the $400 included parts). I used to have a 150, and none of the lines were very hard to get at.

But if you want to see some high labor rates, take a motorhome in for some work, $120 an hour is not unusual, at least in CA. But then everything is expensive in CA, which is one of the reasons I'm not there right now...

Many mechanics, especially dealership, are paid flat rate. That is, they are paid according to the job rather than hourly. It may be that that dealership charges six hours for replacing brake lines on a Ford truck even though it only takes the mechanic four hours to do the job. Changing a headlight bulb might pay 1 hour and take only 15 minutes, etc. I know a mechanic who occasionally flags 13-14 hours in an 8 hour day, meaning he gets paid almost double time.

$400 sounds pretty excessive for 3 brake lines though... <img src="/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />

This wasn't a dealership, it was a small-town auto repair shop. She said she will call a dealership in the next larger town to get a quote, and see what THEY say. If they're less than the shop, it's probably a clearcut case of ripoff.

Sue

What brake lines did they replace, the long steel line going through the frame from front to back, that could take a while but really should never need replaced. I would guess the three rubber hoses, one going to each front wheel and the one going to the rear axle. Those hoses are average $30 each, then you have to bleed the air out, replace the fluid, etc. Maybe $400 for parts and labor, espically if it had ABS so they had to hook up an expensive scan tool to bleed the air out of all the little valves in the ABS. I was out of town so I let a dealer charge $500 to change a fuel pump in my wife's van because it kept stalling. We got the van back and our full tank of gas was now 1/4 of a tank and I looked up the price of a fuel pump and it was under $100. The van still stalled too so I ended up having to fix it myself.
High cost of repair is why everyone now leases a throw away import, if it breaks then they just turn it in for another one.

As with most car repairs, it's hard to judge unless all the details are known. But from my experience, it doesn't sound like an UNreasonable charge. I'm assuming it's the rubber lines that lead to each wheel cylinder, then the cost of the parts alone is probably $50-80. Figure the mechanics markup 100%, you're looking at $100-$150 for just the parts. In an ideal situation, you can probably change those lines out in about 15 minutes, but I'm assuming it's probably on an older truck, being exposed to the elements on the road. It can very easily turn into a 3+ hour job, especially if the lines aren't accesible and other parts (abs sensors, dust shields, etc) need to come off first. If any of the nuts are really stuck and stripped, then it just became a much more difficult job. I've changed out the brake lines on all my cars, sometimes they come off easily, and other times I'm cursing the whole time and wishing I had taken them into the mechanic. I don't even have corrosion to worry about on the west coast. So before you tell your friend she was ripped off, she might have actually gotten her money's worth.