Looking for help and advice with tune-up bill

[BlacksburgSho]

Recently my 1997 SHO went over 100,000 miles and I decided a tune-up was needed. Not knowing much about automechanics, I took my car to a shop I trusted, but I was floored when I heard their quote for performing a tune-up on my car.

The following is the quote I received when I went to pick up my car for some other work:

Tune-Up Minor: Which involves replacing the spark plugs, filters and removing and replacing the gasket, intake manifold because of the nature of the SHO engines. Basically I was told the manifold had to be removed because it was the cheapest means of getting to the rest of the engine. This didn't sound quite right to me, but wanted to run it past some of you guys first. All said, the tune-up is supposed to run me $618.00.

So if some of you guys/gals could let me know if these costs are legit I would appreciate it. To me it seems a bit excessive for a tune-up, but as I've stated before what do I know.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Glue Maker]

wow, I hope that includes 10 hours of labor

Never heard of intake manifolds going bad

 

[kvonmc]

I definently think you should get a second opinion from a different shop just to see what they have to say.

 

[stephen newberg]

It is way out of line. You definately need to check other places, and it is time to shift that shop to the "not trusted" list.

My cost for a full service hit including: All new filters, (fuel, oil, transmission, and CAB), plus and all new fluid for oil, transmission, & PS; all new plugs, greasing everything that could be geased or lubbed, and rotating the tires was $136 for parts and $108 for labor, plus tax. And that is in Canadian dollars, so reduce it by 1/3 to get an American dollar number.

The estimate you were give is not even in the ball park.

pax, smn

 

[Tim Rice]

Duuude

Dude, are you in Blacksburg, VA? If so I'm in Lynchburg, about 1.5 hours east of you. I would be more than happy to help you out. I reused my intake gaskets with no problem, also have you been welded? It would be a good idea to clean the intake runners and surge tank while we are at it. also, have the rear coils been rotated to the front? Has the rear coil wiring harness been insulated? Good time to take care of it all.

Let me know how I can help, probably buy the parts and a steak and we'll take care of it

Timmayh

p.s. Did you get a written estimate? I would like to see a line by line. (this is what I do for a living)

 

[Vroom]

Yep, that's about as much as I paid for a cam weld + some other tune-up work like spark plugs, etc.

My advice: talk to Tim Rice if your cams have already been welded. If not, I'd say take the car to one of the "Folks who will weld your cams" on V8SHO.com and have them weld the cams, and do all of the tune-up work while you're there.

 

[Shakey]

I am aslo in Roanoke and would be willing to get together with you Tim. Just drop me an email. [email protected]

 

[Tim Rice]

Thanks bro, maybe we should find out how many SHO's are in the area,
"Blue Ridge SHOclub"

Whattya think, I'll get an e-mail to you, I'll let you know when I run the Limited Stock Torino (#90) at Franklin County, if you want to tag along, we could use the help

Timmayh
[email protected]

 

[Shakey]

Cool man, sounds good. I do know of a couple of us here. Like Joe Hatcher - he has helped me so much, I think I could owe him a kidney. Also, Mike Gillespie. He is from Roa. and goes to school at Va tech. I have seen a couple of Gen IIIs hoping around town, so there is deff. potential for a good presence here.

I would love to get a club going. Let me know.

 

[Tim Rice]

Sorry for the delay, got tied up w/ racing, was out of town, I'll e-mail my snail mail address

Any car show comming up in the star city soon?

 

[Shakey]

Hmmm, Well there was one last Friday on Williamson Rd. It was pretty big too. Although I wasn't able to stop, I passed by and there were lots of sweet eye-candy there. I'll let you know if anything else pops up.

 

[Bizzy]

I grew up in Roanoke. Wish I could move back home.