Did I get taken?

[Duxnbux]

I currently deployed and I had my wife take my boat to get worked on so it's ready to go when I get back. She takes it to a mechanic that I was referred to and he charged her $521 and all he did was clean the carbs on a '98 40hp Mariner with 3 carbs. That seems to be high. I took it to him instead of the local dealers to avoid paying their steep labor charges. She's got the receipt and I'm thinking about going down to see him once I get home to talk about it. I have know idea if this is the going rate for this service or not. Does that price seem fair to you guys? Thanks

 

[DuckOfDeath]

Re: Did I get taken?

That seems a tad excessive to me but that's why most of us are here. To avoid paying for regular maintanence or repairs. What did your wife request the mechanic to do when she dropped it off? What's the invoice breakdown of parts and labor?

 

[hkeiner]

Re: Did I get taken?

Where I am at in California, it is hard to even find a shop that wants to work on carbs or older motors in general. The shops in my area said that EPA restrictions on the use of carb cleaner tanks and high labor costs makes it impractical for them to offer this type of work anymore. I have been my own mechanic since I got my boat a few years ago, thanks to the support I get from this excellent forum.

 

[Duxnbux]

Re: Did I get taken?

She told him to only clean the carbs, he wanted to replace the water pump while he had it but I had her tell him that I had just replaced it. She got the invoice so I'll go over it before I go down to talk with him about it.

 

[Kev144]

Re: Did I get taken?

That is huge. I just had my carbs cleaned by a local fella as i dont have time to do it right now. To clean the carbs on my v6 150 was about 180 bucks (labour mostly).