Clutch replacement - shirley it can't be that much?

[ChemicalChaos]

Afternoon all,

Just trying to help a friend out with pricing a replacement clutch for his W163 Merc ML (yes, they made some manuals!) as he seems to be getting shafted so far.
Having known it was high mileage but still seeming fine when setting off from Liverpool, unfortunately the clutch on the Worlds Cheapest Used Manual ML™ has decided that Northampton would be a good place to lose all drive and expire. Whilst the car is full of medical aid destined for Ukraine. He had been hoping to reach Poland where labour is cheap and old Merc parts are plentiful, and have a replacement fitted there.

Apparently the best quote from a local place to his family (Watford) is £1700 which seems ludicrous even taking into account labour and putting a new DMF on it. Having looked around on parts site, I can see Valeo or Sachs (so not cheap rubbish) clutch kits for £250, Crank rear oil seals (might as well do that whilst it's accessible) for £10, and a LUK, Sachs or Valeo DMF for £400, and those prices are inc. vat.
This leaves me to conclude that even if the garage he's found are charging Main Dealer rates of £100/hr, it works out to 10 hours of labour which seems a tad....excessive. I had a RWD car clutch replaced for half of that at my local indy a couple of years ago.

Can anyone please recommend a good place in the region that could competently do the job in a timely manner without charging an arm and a leg?

Thanks in advance!

[GeniusOfLove]

Go to the Mr Clutch website and ask for a quote, they are a franchise and vary a lot in price by location (the Cardiff one is comedy cheap).

Also try the various "my car needs a" place to get quotes.

Phone a couple of local-ish specialists?

It's not inconceivable for a clutch to be a day and a half of work on a W163 and if I was quoting I'd put in a good couple of hours extra for rusty bolts and the like.

[Panamax]

GeniusOfLove said:

It's not inconceivable for a clutch to be a day and a half of work on a W163 and if I was quoting I'd put in a good couple of hours extra for rusty bolts and the like.

I just googled images of the underside of an ML. Looks as though there's a lot of stuff to dismantle before you can get anywhere near the clutch itself.

[GeniusOfLove]

Every single thing you dismantle will look like a part of the titanic on an W163 too.

[A.J.M]

Given a clutch change on a Freelander 2 is £1200.
He’s not being shafted, he’s being quoted a reasonable price for the work.

[Gerradi]

Neighbours Qasqai cluth £1245...

[M4cruiser]

Clutches (fully fitted price) have gone up a lot in recent years.
I'd say £1,700 for a big Merc is good.
Even a lowly Peugeot 308 is a lot of work.

When I was young my Vauxhall Viva HB broke its gearbox, so I had a re-con gearbox & new clutch all for £50, including labour. It was a lot for me then, so I asked for a breakdown of the cost, and they said £25 gearbox, £5 clutch, £20 labour.



It was still half the value of the car!

[Panamax]

M4cruiser said:

It was still half the value of the car!

Demonstrating once again that "cheap to buy" doesn't mean "cheap to maintain".

These cars depreciate - for a reason.

[GeniusOfLove]

Panamax said:

Demonstrating once again that "cheap to buy" doesn't mean "cheap to maintain".

These cars depreciate - for a reason.

I think the W163 depreciated because they were fking awful, and half of them had rust streaks down the doors by their 3rd birthday

[shtu]

It's a not unreasonable price.

I did a clutch recently, oil seals, etc., and spent about £200 on parts. Having a garage do it would have cost £1200-1500.

[loskie]

clutch and dmf on a 2.2 CRV 4WD cost me £1100 in I think 2018

[Mr MXT]

Panamax said:

GeniusOfLove said:

It's not inconceivable for a clutch to be a day and a half of work on a W163 and if I was quoting I'd put in a good couple of hours extra for rusty bolts and the like.

I just googled images of the underside of an ML. Looks as though there's a lot of stuff to dismantle before you can get anywhere near the clutch itself.

Everything on my ML has been surprisingly expensive and difficult.

[darreni]

£1300 for a fitted clutch on the wifes 2005 a class merc a couple of years ago. Engine out job. Main dealer was surprisingly the cheapest.

[stevemcs]

If it was a C Class it would be around 4 hours labour, Not having looked at an ML i would guess at least 8 hours is needed, and everything will be seized and broken. I'm suprised you can even find someone who wants to work on it.

[Krikkit]

Job really doesn't look too bad unless the manual is radically different from the automatic. You don't even need to remove the exhausts, basically just the box connections (physical, fluid and electrical) and away you go.

[aproctor1]

Wife's old R56 MCS was £1k, inc. DMF, 6 or so years ago
Wife's KA, clutch only was £400, 10+ years ago
My NA MX5, clutch only was £200 10+ years ago

Surprising, most garages detested changing clutches and gave comedy quotes, a bit of leg work is required to find a garage that wants the work.

The reference to Cardiff Mr Clutch is a good example.

[M4cruiser]

aproctor1 said:

Surprising, most garages detested changing clutches and gave comedy quotes, a bit of leg work is required to find a garage that wants the work.

I wonder how many garages know that some clutches on FWD can be changed without removing the gearbox. Vauxhall Nova was famous for this (amongst other things). Austin Maxi also (for different reasons). Just one to two hours labour in both cases. Perhaps garages take the gearbox out anyway. With my mum's Nova they took the engine out too.

So - what happened to that great time-saving idea. It's the amount of labour that makes the cost more than half the value of the car in many cases (8 to 11 hours on some popular cars).

[GeniusOfLove]

M4cruiser said:

I wonder how many garages know that some clutches on FWD can be changed without removing the gearbox. Vauxhall Nova was famous for this (amongst other things). Austin Maxi also (for different reasons). Just one to two hours labour in both cases. Perhaps garages take the gearbox out anyway. With my mum's Nova they took the engine out too.

So - what happened to that great time-saving idea. It's the amount of labour that makes the cost more than half the value of the car in many cases (8 to 11 hours on some popular cars).

You're citing cars that have been basically extinct for 20 years. The last mainstream car I can think of where a clutch change was that easy would be the Mk3 Cavalier / Vectra A, a model that has itself been out of production for nearly 30 years now.

A clutch change is a reasonably involved job on everything still on the roads. Garages make far more margin per hour on routine servicing and straightforward jobs that don't end up taking 3x book time because of seized and rusty bolts, I can't blame them for not being arsed.

[Old Merc]

As said its a big expensive job, your quote does not surprize me. Is the car in Watford, if so its London prices. Why not try these guys, they are near. https://www.mercservicing.co.uk/services-mercedes-... Remember the cheapest quote is not always the best. It must be carried out efficiently using quality Mercedes O/E parts.
If the car is still in Northampton try to find a small Merc` Indy there, they may have lower rates. like these? https://autobarngarage.co.uk/
Best of luck, especially with the trip to the Ukraine !!!

Edited by Old Merc on Monday 5th February 11:53

[Triumph Man]

Don't know if anyone else has seen him but the guy on youtube who changes clutches on people's drives/carparks is something else. I take my hat off to him but hate to think the condition his back will be in...