Bleeding brakes?

Bleeding front brakes on a 93?

A local shop charged a guy $100 to bleed and replace the brake fluid in his 1993 VFR. He asked me about the charge, Never had that done at a shop so I had no feel for answering the guy's question. Anybody oot there who has had this done at a dealership or private shop?

That was the labor, not including the fluid charge. How it was done I don't know.

 

Billy, out here that is an hours labor charge in a shop , you can end up messing with brakes so much and an hour can go out the window very fast. Last week I spent probably 6 hours working on the front brakes on my CB750 because they were dragging, I spent probably 3 hours on Monday and another 3 hours on Tuesday to get them sorted, who knows how long they spent working on this bike, but it is one of those things, if you don't do it yourself you have to pay the man the money

 

The charge was for bleeding and replacing the fluid. As I understood the guy, that is all that was done. I do not know how much the owner was charged for the new fluid. Then we have the difference in what our dollars are worth. If the standard time frame/charge is an hour, then 100 USD is out of line for this particular shop.

There are rate books up the wazoo that set prices for both parts and labor. There are also skilled mechanics who figure out how to do the same job in minuites instead of the times in those rate books.

Short story.. I had a Subaru wagon a few years ago. Stopped in between jobs for a lube and oil change. It was running a bit rough. In about ten minutes the shop dude had me up to buying a new distributor and an equalizer line (actually steel tube) to the tune of several hundred pesos. I took the car to a guy in my hood and he showed me how to fix the problem with a few feet of fuel line and two small hose clamps taking all of about 10-15 minutes.

IMO the guy with the 93 got hosed.. I do not know the owner of the 93 well but I do know the shop....

I rebuilt the brakes on the mach 1 91 and yes, it is time consuming and done correctly, all the parts and components including pucks should IMO be replaced and the rotors measured for warpage.

This is why God invented Dremel tools..

 

Billy the Harley importer out here I'm told is charging $135 an hour and his shops and he has a lot of them, are always flat out

 

shop labour is 100 bucks here, they usually won't take bikes over ten years old too. dollars to donuts you need to rebuild the front calipers mininum, you can re-use the seals if your careful removing them and of course after examing them under a good magnifier. I use an orange stick, like your old lady uses for her feet, anyway, it is time consuming but not impossible, its messy too btw. Keep us posted, Cheers...

 

The smarter VFR riders do all or most of their own maintenance and would almost be ashamed to send their bike to any shop. Doesn't matter what they charged; he could have done the job for $4.50 in fluid and 1/2 hour of his time. Or pay some possibly-incompetent tech to work on his bike ?? NEVER ! :crazy:

Unless you're seriously wealthy, owning an older bike means you must do your own work.ig:

 

So with all this information aboot what Harley shops are charging in OZ , Florida, and Snowbank USA and the fatal error that everyone is ready willing and able to turn a wrench, has tools, a place to work , the information necessary to rebuild an entire front brake system on a older bike, the question still remains.

Did the dude who asked me if $100.00 to bleed and refill the front brakes on his bike get fucked or not?

 

Yes, he technically he got farked! He did bring the bike to "sed" shop, he knew the labour rate, most like the service writer contacted him upon the mechanics inspection with a price. So, Yes, he got "pompanoed." HD shoppes? Jeez, more like boutiques...:loco:

My opinion on this one is this though; if the "sed-doode" paid the money have his front brakes exactuated and new fluid installed, he may still have to rebuild the front calipers as when they reach this age, the 'mug' behind the pistons builds up and prevents the pistons from retracted when the brake lever is released, so you will get brake drag and a non-free spinning front wheel. Just my observations...

 

I will have to check on all that the next time I see this guy. I hope I can remember all this information that has been provided.

 

Billy he probably did, but you can never prove it, because they will always have a reason as to why it took an hour or more and then they will end up convincing him that they did him a favor because it actually took them longer because of some problem they encountered

 

That is why God invented cancelling checks and stopping payment on credit card charges.


Seen the 93 guy around. I do know this shop and you are spot on.

The shop is not a dealership in a large metro area. It is a shop near my place in Oregon where word travels faster than Joey Dunlop.

 

If they dumped, flushed, refilled and bled the front brakes then 1 - 1.5 hours labor sounds about right to me. The bleeding process can really be a bitch. Older bikes are often subject to higher labor rates. I agree that is bullshit, but many shops don't want the headaches of working on older bikes. Their solution is to price gouge, so only committed owners will ask.

Jose

 

This shop is on a scale of 1-10 off the lower end of the scale. This is what prompted the question.

This shop is the sort that the rate is in effect during smoke breaks, trips to the shitter and lunch in any order you can come up with.

 

I hate that shit, man. I became a mechanic because I so very often hate repair shops. Bunch of fucking thieves half the time, gouging little old ladies and padding work orders with high value items you don't "need" but which aren't technically "completely un-necessary".

The tough part is that on a certain level I also understand their dilemma. You bring in your old beater, use it only on Saturday to recapture your youth CBXXX for a brake service. I snap off the bleeder screw which has rusted in solid and the caliper has to come off. That leads to finding torn boots and now your $800 bike needs $500 in parts and labor. You decide that you aren't going to pay for my abuse of your stuff (I'm the pro, so I should have been able to get the bleeder screw out without a problem) and now I am wasting shop time and maybe even legal fees along with burning good will and generating an angry customer. BLAH! :chairshot:

It sucks, but the bottom line is that if you expect to own something close to or more than 10 years old, then you better know how to turn a wrench and do more than just change the oil.

Jose

 

So do you think the guy with the 93 will go back for an oil change?

I sometimes wish your ten year rule applied to kids too.

 

Billy, Jose hit it smack on, nobody wants to work on old stuff, there can be too many problems and sometimes you open up a can of worms, so the guy with the 93 had better learn how to do his basic maintenance or find a shop that is sympathetic towards older bikes, they are around but sometimes not easy to find. This is one of the reasons that forums like this spring up

 

They have a ten year rule here, they simply won't work on your old cycle. Some of the dealerships have changed this rule as they are hungry for the business. Small shops usually take on bikes that come in on a trailor with owners dreaming of days of yore, I was usaully cringing near my tool box. Service writers who were not mechanics or just did'nt give a shit about the poor bastard that had to turn a wrench on some pickled piece of crap bike.

Funny thing is this; my 25 year old vee--hickles two and four wheels are in better shape than some bikes/cars that are five years old. There is a reason they use anti-sieze and assembly lube on bolts and such. I would grease custamers stuff too, just because I am "one-of-those-guys" that is if I was not tortured and bled on their machines. Cheers and happy-safe riding.

 

Posted this before..

Dude restores an older Harley and rides the bike to Daytona for the love in. Aboot the same time a new HD shop opens up.Five stories of bikes, farkles, lore and chicas with big hooters. Dude takes the bike in for an oil change and they didn't know how to do it. Pretty sure this came from CW mag..

 

You can't blame shops for not wanting to work on older bikes, it can be a struggle to find/get parts, we can scratch around on the internet and find bits and we can wait a couple of weeks for the bits to arrive, a shop can't do this

 

^yep, it is up to the actual shop in question if they wana tackle the job. Thing is this like I said above, if your stuck working for said shop, they should confer with you more than they do (my past experience.) As they (service writers/actual owners) can't find their ass with a funnel. I have seen owners come in with boxes of internet stuff to install on their bikes or used parts to
"swap" oot. Half the time, they are the wrong parts or some other disaster. Its always different, wut can I say...

There are specialty shops that will take on old bikes, there is always a "fuck-up-factor" with anything, I have seen almost new cars where the tech broke a spark plug, (bad-design-shame on ford.) Broken bleeder valves were common on old turds, you could heat them up or you could just use the banjo bolt to bleed em, blown fork seals where another adventure, specially on some of the old honda wings. :loco: I could do it with just dropping the fork legs...Cheers...

Poor HD doode in the middle of farkle land Daytona, you woulda thought they could go on the inter-web and find oot...