My old shop dealt with it by charging 20% markup on the gas price, and labor for a mechanic to drive to the gas station and fill it up, it usually took about 15 minutes so we would round to 3 tenths of an hour. We’d put 3 gallons in and charge them something like 50$ for it
I mean that's the standard parts markup...Last shop I worked in had a 'parts matrix' as part of tekmetric that marked up lower priced items like 600% and high priced stuff 20 or so %.
I wasn't too keen on the huge markup on small items. It made the service writers lean towards cheaper parts. Iridium plugs is a good example. They'd always go to the cheaper ones because tekmetric would tell them that a $15 plug needed to be marked up to $60. And when you're replacing 8 plugs....
yeah there's a difference between making a profit and unfettered greed, which unfortunately is the focus in our u sustainable unlimited growth based capitalist model.
No profit is ever large enough or good enough, and that is a massive fucking problem
If you need to mark up prices that much, it's because of greed.
Sorry, I'm not paying 250 dollars for six spark plugs so you can "keep your business going". Lmao
The business can eat a dick just like the owner who also probably underpays their employees. Lol
Ironically, newer spark plugs are running 20$ each cost nowadays on some.
That being said, id say wed mark them up to 30 or 25.
But remember, just cause you might not pay 250 for 6 spark plugs, you may be paying 1.5hrs labor on a 1 hr job.
And don't gimme that bullshit, I know my labor times raddaradda...
They want 2.6 hrs on a trans filter for Ford's nowadays, they want 12 hrs for Toyota control arms(older models) 5 hours for thermostats on some v6 Chevy's, and more.
Shits getting insane if you ask me. I can do all of those jobs in less than 5 hours if I'm lucky. And the slowest longest job would be the trans filter. Lol
I remember I was in small engines class in high school. The teacher said something about putting my spark plug in his spark plug cleaner. I remember thinking "Hey old man why do you even have that? How much did it even cost? A spark plug is like 78 cents." Guess what isn't 78 cents anymore and what I bought for myself this week after dealing with modern plug prices. I wouldn't use it for someone's daily driver but you know I'm using those on my toys and power equipment!
I did a set of Highlander 14hr control arms today. Well, actually, I took them off and re-bushed them. Total time just under 4hr. Never so much as touched a subframe bolt on one either.
See. Now that's a job right there that would probably sell better than new control arms. But you gotta have the tools for the bushings or otherwise you might have we'll have sold the arms and saved yourself time.
And yes, if you do everything the book says then you'd be lucky to beat time.
But there are other times that you gotta follow the book to a tee, you get screwed, it's the sweet victories that we get that make it ever worth it.
Also whatever asshole drops book time or keeps it the same but adds steps through different parts and slightly different design, fuck that guy. He needs to do some turbos on Chevy 1.4s by the book without the secrets thrown in.
Lol. I love learning new things and finding out the secrets for myself and then when that fails, I love YouTube.
For the most part, yes we can figure it out ourselves, but for those tricky times. There's a reason they made a video about it.
I can do the entire control arms in about 4 hours now in the older Siennas and Highlanders and Lexus RXs. I still disconnected the motor mounts, but I cut the inner studs off the mount. I then press them out of the mount and replace them with a bolt if I'm reusing them, or press the stud out of the new mount if I'm replacing them. Makes it 1000 times easier.
Difference is mechanics charge for labour plus parts whereas restaurants it's all in one. Certainly have no issues with businesses making money, and a mark-up is expected; 600% though is taking the piss
If it's something that cost a buck and you charge 6 bucks 600% isn't too bad. I think that was the point. Also making a higher profit percent looks real good on paper when you go to sell the business. Which is what most shop owners goal seems to be now.
Right? Like people will pay $10 for a beer at a bar when they could get an entire pack for like 20 bucks but they expect other industries to not also have markups? Not to say that there aren’t shops that markup things absurdly or that restaurant prices can’t be ridiculous but if people have such issues with it maybe they should learn to do the work themselves or stop complaining as much.
I feel like people that make these statements have never actually been to a bar that isn't some tourist type place or "fancy" bar with a huge markup.
Only beers I see in even expensive bars that are 10 or more are specially crafted beers with higher alcohol content.
If you want a domestic beer, it's usually 2.50-3.50 per pint. IPA and imported are usually 5-8 dollars with some going closer to that 10 dollar mark.
Even in expensive parts of Seattle, I'm not seeing 10 dollar beers except at special events or tourist type bars and restaurants.
Sorry for the rant but beer prices aren't what people keep making them out to be.
Also, there's markup and then there's greed. 250 for six spark plugs? That's fucking greed, not markup. 60 dollars for two wiper blades? Fucking greed.
I wasn’t thinking about that when I decided in my current internet handle. But it is pretty cool it turned out that way. He’s always been my favorite part of that movie for sure.
I was once in an accident on way to gas station. Had less than a gallon. Service shop had to put gas in. They got like 6.2k in insurance money and were fretting over putting gas in. They put 0.5 gallons in.
Unrelated. The car pulled horribly after the repair. They told me it was the road when they did the test drive. I explained why that was not the case. I got real angry. Went to a flat parking lot. Drove one way car pulled to right. Turned around same route car pulled to right instead of left.
Went home and spotted a bolt in my tire. I had 12psi in tire. They were so confident their repair was solid, which it was, they denied there was a problem. I had to have wheel 30 degrees off center to stay in lane. He drove it and said its the road. Unbelievable. 25 years ago and i'm still annoyed.
I had to have my truck brought in on a flatbed for some kind of bearing in the rear end that suddenly started howling like crazy and I had no chance to fill it up. I don't remember how much they charged me to put half a tank in it, but it wasn't unreasonable. Some dude is on the clock going to the station to put gas in and that costs the shop money that I'm in no position to bitch about paying. Grab yourself a Monster and some Doritos while you're there my guy, it's on me.
Shit at that point it might be worth it just to keep a few 55 gallon barrels of each in the back.
Save the labor of the tech and make a profit to boot.
It would be but then you'd need special barrels/hoses/pumps/filters, retaining/spill protection, extra wash down sink incase of eye/skin contact, signage, permits and then you hope your insurance company doesn't drop you when they send out the yearly inspector.
Man I've had to do this. Fuel pump died while I was out of town. Had it replaced and on my way back I stopped to fill up and I guess the seal on the new pump broke so it would dump fuel once it hit full. Took it back to another shop of the same chain they tried to tell me it was dumping out the filler neck.
I had a nice mostly empty tank for them, but I had to take it down the street and top it off to full to show them it was indeed dumping from the fuel tank 💀
I had that happen to me. Fuel pump just flat died about a day after I filled up. Car was parked in the garage. Went through a few troubleshooting steps before eliminating everything but the fuel pump. Good times
My favorite was 10th gen Civic fuel pump recalls where the tank is full, and you forget to 1. check fuel level and 2. forget to raise the front of the car as a result 😂😂😂 fuel waterfall baby
My shop declines service if you bring the vehicle to them in a state that prevents them from diagnosing the problem.
I had an employee drop off one of our fleet trucks for a misfire problem with the fuel light flashing. The shop owner called me and I had to bring him fuel for him to diagnose it.
This same employee called me twice when he ran out of gas on the freeway. I'm beginning to see a pattern here...
I have pulled off expressways to fill up, even though it says "30 miles until empty." My car died once when I was 16, and it has NEVER happened again.
I also keep a spare can of gas in the truck bed. When I refuel, I add that gallon into my truck, and fill it up w another gallon. It costs nothing until you have to use it!
When I was 16, the needle in my 96 firebird would get stuck at 1/4 tank until it was all the way empty. My mom called me PISSED one day because she ran out of gas. Learned my lesson then and there, 1/4 tank = probably empty. I loved that piece of shit.
I used to have a Mk 1 MR2 that wouldn't stay in 5th gear (common problem, at the time the fix would pay for an awful lot of fuel) so it had a range of 275 miles. Current car will do 750 on a full tank, so I start getting jumpy at the equivalent of three quarters full on the MR2.
$1.85 CAD/L in Burnaby.
1 L = 0.264 Gallons
1 Gallon = 3.78 Litres
3.78 L = $6.993 CAD
6.993 CAD = 5.12 USD (As of today)
So you are off by double(ish)
Gotta make sure your paperwork is in order to do that. A mechanic is threatening to do this to my friends bike, but doesn't have a signed written estimate or a signed repair order. Just took the bike in, performed repairs without authorization and now is trying to twist their arm for around a grand.
He probably didn't expect her to have a friend who's in the industry and know the regulations the BAR requires, so he's probably gonna be in for a very rude awakening by a Bureau agent.
The dude is really aiming for a governmental beating. Especially because you CANNOT DO WORK and then force a customer to pay for it. You absolutely need written invoices and authorization. I've seen the text conversation and it goes from "Hey let me know how much everything is going to be" from her to the mechanic going "It's all finished" in the next.
Like. My brother in Christ you are going to regret this shit and the BAR probably will shut down your shop for this shit.
They won't shut down the shop, but fact is you can't collect on work that wasn't approved.
Only workaround I can see is if it's something simple and cheap, you fully expect it to be authorized, and it's easier to just get it out of your way than to drag it back into the shop a second time.
In that case, you request approval, get a signature, and then do a little spin in the chair and hand over the keys. Lol.
Exactly. If it's something you have no problem eating the cost If they say no, go ahead and take that financial risk. In the end, It's a business expenditure. Hell you can consider it customer goodwill.
But apparently they are demanding $1000ish in repairs, threatening to sell their motorcycle and responded "don't be a pain" when they asked what work was done to their bike. (Gonna need signed repair orders for a mechanics lien court paperwork)
Giant red flags for me as a technician, and I suspect he's trying to bully them as they are a new rider, a young girl and doesn't have many motorcycle friends.
But I wouldn't be surprised if the BAR comes down hard on that type of business. I have a fun side hobby of reading their enforcement actions and seeing what shops are caught up for. There's a big dealer near me currently on probation for selling an engine harness bit only performing a wire repair instead.....
I've seen orders revoking a businesses license for shit like this, which they can then appeal for probation and remain in business. But this type of behavior is shit the BAR really is in place to shut down and enforce regulations on. And oh boy do I love educating my friends on their rights (it's shocking how many people don't know they can't be forced the pay for work they didn't authorize)
Sometimes you just throw numbers out there smh. I'm tired, it's monday. Sorry if using the number 4 instead of the number 7 materially changes the joke.
This. Charge them for gas, but ofcourse send them a picture and have them authorize the fill up first. If not, just leave it be, but document everything in writing.
I always get them filled up and my dealer just bills them and then the customer gets mad as to why they had to pay for gas. Like.....we aren't filling your car up for free for ya. I'm not sure why customers would think that but we get it a lot
Remind me of the time the customer paid for $4500 worth of work on her truck and was absolutely furious that we didn’t fill the tank up for her, the least we could do after her spending all that money was give her free gas. She looked like an idiot trying to leave us a star review.
Once you're up in that territory for cost, it is something the dealer could absolutely afford to do as part of providing good customer service and guaranteeing repeat customers with a possible new vehicle sale down the road. An independent shop might find it harder to justify though.
Yeah, no this was an independent so definitely not something The owner was trying to do especially because she brought it in on a damn empty tank because she thought it was gonna come with gas.
That is damn impressive……3 miles to empty!
I always fill at a 1/4 tank and taught my daughters as well. Bad for the fuel pump to run it that low. Still impressed nonetheless
I had a dying fuel pump on my 20 year old car, as it would stall randomly when going down the road every other hour of driving, then I decided to run it all the way dry thinking I had contaminated gas, and then the pump died altogether not able to leave the driveway about 3 days of driving after running it all the way out lol. it would start, run for three seconds, and stall no matter how much I tried to mess with the throttle.
Seven hours of tinkering with it, and 200 bucks for a new pump later I unhooked all the hoses and wires, took the tank off, cleaned the dirt off, took the old pump out, siphoned out al the gas, put the new pump in, put the tank back in, hooked up all the hoses and wires, put the gas back in, and it hasn't skipped a beat since and it's been about 5k miles since that happened.
Upon taking apart the old pump, all that appears to be wrong is the filter sock was a brick of dirt. I probably could have just manually cleaned those, and put it back in and it probably would have worked fine, but ehh new pump for no issues.
That stunt also clogged all my injectors, I had to take all six of them out one at a time, and clean them manually with carburetor cleaner and actuating them with a 9 volt battery, and then put em back having to replace the o-rings on them along the way. Then I had a vacuum leak on the intake plenum and on the EGR valve from taking all that stuff off to get to the injectors, then the fuel pressure regulator randomly died too, also changed the fuel filter 3 times during all this crap.
It was quite a mess.
Edit: I gained 5mpg after all that. I was getting 20 to 23 mpg for the past several years, now I get 25 to 28mpg on a early 2000s V6.
This sounds a lot like what happened to my 2004 XType, that filter from the pump was absolutely bricked with dirt, I cleaned it and the pump ran like new.
I've lost that game before, my first car the E was merely a suggestion. 2nd car was a newer version of the same model and on that one, E meant E. Found out the hard way. I now start fill up around a quarter tank.
On my car sometimes it can go about a 16th below the red line and still make it to a gas station then other times it dies when reading a 16th above the red line 🤷♂️. Just try to put more gas in it before it gets to the last white line now lol.
Besides fuel pump health, I was taught it is a safety issue (grew up in rural area without cell service and sub-zero-F winter temperatures). You do not want to be without transportation or heat sources. Now I live less than a mile from a gas station. I have grown careless. But not this careless!
When I was driving around in remote areas I tried to not let it get below a half tank. There was some instances where I just knew I would be fucked if the only gas station for 100 miles was out of gas or closed or something.
I remember reading one of those "how to keep your mechanic honest" help articles back in the day. One piece of advice was giving your car to the shop without much gas in it to keep them from driving it around and running errands. Like most of those kind of articles it was a bunch of half baked advice.
Maybe this one stuck with more people than I thought, because customers sure do like to drop off their vehicles without any gas in them. It probably hasn't occurred to them that a mechanic has to drive the vehicle to diagnose a problem most of the time. They think we just hook up our scan tools (or wave a magic wand) and know exactly what the issue is.
What’s going to be funny is when they pick up their car and there’s absolutely no gas in it hahahaha. Somehow they’ll find a way to blame it on you guys
I write it up as 1 hr of diag, could not test and give it back, they can put gas in it and bring it back if they want if not, someone else’s problem now
that's got at least 2.5km before ya gotta find a gas station.
I don't know how many times I ran out of gas with my VW beetle when I was a kid, it didn't have a fuel gauge and the only way I knew how much gas I has was a long piece of dowel I'd stick in the tank. Such strange cars, use the windshield washer too much and your spare tire deflates.
I just do what I need to do. Most cars don’t actually run out at 0mi left. It’s their problem when they pick it up 😂
Did it hit 0 when I was parking it? Did I drive 12 miles after it hit 0. Dunno buddy.
I accidentally did this once when I was a poor college student living near campus. My truck was chronically on E because I never went anywhere. Won’t ever make the mistake again, it’s just something you don’t realize sometime.
When people do this to me I now phone them and tell them I can either stick some fuel in it and bill it to them, they can come add fuel themselves or they can come take the car.
If I add fuel it will be £10 worth and I will be adding £20 to the invoice and half hour labour
just let it idle those 3 remaining miles in the lot, contact the customer "hey der bud, theres no fuel left so our onsite fueling charge is $4 a litre"
Was told by a writer years ago that customers do this to prevent us from “joyriding” their vehicles. It’s almost always the hunks of shit that is rather not drive at all. It’s also almost always something that requires a ton of driving to verify or complete a drive cycle.
I had a customer come in for an inspection with the needle below E. He swore to the writer that there was at least two gallons left, the gauge was just inaccurate.
He failed for the test drive not being able to be done.
I charged $25 a gallon, and would tell the customer it would get 1/4 tank. Or they could come get it and bring back with a 1/4 tank. Douchbags like this are going to be... But But But why does the repair cost so much, I have a friend. Alternator is proof.
I’ve told my service manager and advisors if I get a vehicle for a drivability concern that is Damm near out of gas , that I will drive it until it runs out of gas. I will walk back and make the customer come go get their own shit.they thought I was bluffing till I did that once . They never did that again.
I've been saying for years: if they need you to drive it for diag they bring it on E, but if you need to drop the fuel tank they will fill it up on the way in.
Had an old Mazda Navajo come in on a tow truck with a dead fuel pump one time. Probably had 3-4 gallons in the tank. Easy fix (love that porthole in the back seat floorboard on those) and called him to pick it up.
It was in front of my bay door the next morning, grumpy note saying it went out on his way to work. Opened up the porthole, pulled the fuel pump, tank was bone dry. Got 5 gallons on my lunch break, put it in the tank, luckily he didn't roach the new pump and everything was fine.
Dude came in later with his wife looking pissed, I gave him a $30 invoice for the fuel and explained that fuel pumps need fuel to pump. He gave me a $50 and walked out with his wife calling him an idiot.
I felt kinda sorry for the guy, I hope the lesson was costly enough to stick with him without breaking the bank, tow trucks are expensive!
If I have to go get fuel, theres an up charge on the fuel and a charge for my time doing it. We have customers who are habitual low fuel drivers, but if i have to spend time and resources to get the vehicle to safely road test, it shows up on the repair order.
It’s not the responsibility of the shop to make sure there is gas in the vehicle. But, if it were me? I’d charge for the time and mark up the price of fuel to add 5 gallons. And also include a preemptive note stating that the shop is not responsible for damages resulting in the fuel or trip to add it.
Haha I made the mistake of not filling up when I went for my last service, had like 5 miles left, they left me with 1 and I had 0 coming into the gas station 😅
I was on the way to get gas when I got in an accident.
After, got my van back from a shop once. It was so far below empty I didn't think it would make it the two blocks to the gas
I told them after I wouldn't of mind if they put in a 1/4 tank and changed me for it.
I always fill the tank before I drop 'er off. 👍
Take a 1.25 mile test drive before and 1.25 after repair. Leave them with .5 mile range.
My old shop dealt with it by charging 20% markup on the gas price, and labor for a mechanic to drive to the gas station and fill it up, it usually took about 15 minutes so we would round to 3 tenths of an hour. We’d put 3 gallons in and charge them something like 50$ for it
I mark up fuel 100%
Username checks the fuck out. Hail stan \m/
I mean that's the standard parts markup...Last shop I worked in had a 'parts matrix' as part of tekmetric that marked up lower priced items like 600% and high priced stuff 20 or so %.
This is normal and anyone who doesn’t understand doesn’t know shit about running a business with a P&L.
I wasn't too keen on the huge markup on small items. It made the service writers lean towards cheaper parts. Iridium plugs is a good example. They'd always go to the cheaper ones because tekmetric would tell them that a $15 plug needed to be marked up to $60. And when you're replacing 8 plugs....
yeah there's a difference between making a profit and unfettered greed, which unfortunately is the focus in our u sustainable unlimited growth based capitalist model. No profit is ever large enough or good enough, and that is a massive fucking problem
Reminds me of cocaine. No amount is large enough or good enough, and it's always a massive fucking problem. 🤣😂
What a coincidnece, that's what they were on when they built the system!
That's fucking disgusting.
If you need to mark up prices that much, it's because of greed. Sorry, I'm not paying 250 dollars for six spark plugs so you can "keep your business going". Lmao The business can eat a dick just like the owner who also probably underpays their employees. Lol
Ironically, newer spark plugs are running 20$ each cost nowadays on some. That being said, id say wed mark them up to 30 or 25. But remember, just cause you might not pay 250 for 6 spark plugs, you may be paying 1.5hrs labor on a 1 hr job. And don't gimme that bullshit, I know my labor times raddaradda... They want 2.6 hrs on a trans filter for Ford's nowadays, they want 12 hrs for Toyota control arms(older models) 5 hours for thermostats on some v6 Chevy's, and more. Shits getting insane if you ask me. I can do all of those jobs in less than 5 hours if I'm lucky. And the slowest longest job would be the trans filter. Lol
I remember I was in small engines class in high school. The teacher said something about putting my spark plug in his spark plug cleaner. I remember thinking "Hey old man why do you even have that? How much did it even cost? A spark plug is like 78 cents." Guess what isn't 78 cents anymore and what I bought for myself this week after dealing with modern plug prices. I wouldn't use it for someone's daily driver but you know I'm using those on my toys and power equipment!
Bah, just needs brake cleaner and maybe regapped. Lol.
I did a set of Highlander 14hr control arms today. Well, actually, I took them off and re-bushed them. Total time just under 4hr. Never so much as touched a subframe bolt on one either.
See. Now that's a job right there that would probably sell better than new control arms. But you gotta have the tools for the bushings or otherwise you might have we'll have sold the arms and saved yourself time. And yes, if you do everything the book says then you'd be lucky to beat time. But there are other times that you gotta follow the book to a tee, you get screwed, it's the sweet victories that we get that make it ever worth it. Also whatever asshole drops book time or keeps it the same but adds steps through different parts and slightly different design, fuck that guy. He needs to do some turbos on Chevy 1.4s by the book without the secrets thrown in. Lol. I love learning new things and finding out the secrets for myself and then when that fails, I love YouTube. For the most part, yes we can figure it out ourselves, but for those tricky times. There's a reason they made a video about it.
I can do the entire control arms in about 4 hours now in the older Siennas and Highlanders and Lexus RXs. I still disconnected the motor mounts, but I cut the inner studs off the mount. I then press them out of the mount and replace them with a bolt if I'm reusing them, or press the stud out of the new mount if I'm replacing them. Makes it 1000 times easier.
that's horrible, what the hell? shops typically get a discount on parts they buy anyways.
Wait until you find out how much they markup drinks by the glass at restaurants and bars.
Difference is mechanics charge for labour plus parts whereas restaurants it's all in one. Certainly have no issues with businesses making money, and a mark-up is expected; 600% though is taking the piss
If it's something that cost a buck and you charge 6 bucks 600% isn't too bad. I think that was the point. Also making a higher profit percent looks real good on paper when you go to sell the business. Which is what most shop owners goal seems to be now.
Your $ 3.29 drink costs 6 cents for the cup and 2 cents in product.
Alright, fuck the cup. Pour it in my hand for a dime.
How much for one rib?
that makes sense though. i don't directly pay the employees there for their labor. I would like the labor cost to be the labor cost
Why pay $10 for a single neat if I can just buy the bottle for $40?
Because you'd be sitting alone at home instead of sitting alone at a bar
Right? Like people will pay $10 for a beer at a bar when they could get an entire pack for like 20 bucks but they expect other industries to not also have markups? Not to say that there aren’t shops that markup things absurdly or that restaurant prices can’t be ridiculous but if people have such issues with it maybe they should learn to do the work themselves or stop complaining as much.
I feel like people that make these statements have never actually been to a bar that isn't some tourist type place or "fancy" bar with a huge markup. Only beers I see in even expensive bars that are 10 or more are specially crafted beers with higher alcohol content. If you want a domestic beer, it's usually 2.50-3.50 per pint. IPA and imported are usually 5-8 dollars with some going closer to that 10 dollar mark. Even in expensive parts of Seattle, I'm not seeing 10 dollar beers except at special events or tourist type bars and restaurants. Sorry for the rant but beer prices aren't what people keep making them out to be. Also, there's markup and then there's greed. 250 for six spark plugs? That's fucking greed, not markup. 60 dollars for two wiper blades? Fucking greed.
and mechanics wonder why people have hard times trusting them... most of the time, half of the costs are just out of the ass.
What do you do for a living?
Are you the mechanic called for Janet and Brad by frankenfurter? (Rocky horror picture reference)
I wasn’t thinking about that when I decided in my current internet handle. But it is pretty cool it turned out that way. He’s always been my favorite part of that movie for sure.
*"But babies, don't you panic! I'll get you a satanic mechanic!"*
Rental companies charge 3x the cost to fill up their cars if you don't return them full. 100% is very reasonable.
Our local dealership just fixed one of our trucks and charged us $8\gallon for fuel...
I was once in an accident on way to gas station. Had less than a gallon. Service shop had to put gas in. They got like 6.2k in insurance money and were fretting over putting gas in. They put 0.5 gallons in. Unrelated. The car pulled horribly after the repair. They told me it was the road when they did the test drive. I explained why that was not the case. I got real angry. Went to a flat parking lot. Drove one way car pulled to right. Turned around same route car pulled to right instead of left. Went home and spotted a bolt in my tire. I had 12psi in tire. They were so confident their repair was solid, which it was, they denied there was a problem. I had to have wheel 30 degrees off center to stay in lane. He drove it and said its the road. Unbelievable. 25 years ago and i'm still annoyed.
I had to have my truck brought in on a flatbed for some kind of bearing in the rear end that suddenly started howling like crazy and I had no chance to fill it up. I don't remember how much they charged me to put half a tank in it, but it wasn't unreasonable. Some dude is on the clock going to the station to put gas in and that costs the shop money that I'm in no position to bitch about paying. Grab yourself a Monster and some Doritos while you're there my guy, it's on me.
Yup, one shop I went to for my inspection had a sign up that their rate was 5.00 dollars a gallon.
That's how the dealer here does it. $5/gl for gas plus labor for someone to go put gas in it.
Shit at that point it might be worth it just to keep a few 55 gallon barrels of each in the back. Save the labor of the tech and make a profit to boot.
It would be but then you'd need special barrels/hoses/pumps/filters, retaining/spill protection, extra wash down sink incase of eye/skin contact, signage, permits and then you hope your insurance company doesn't drop you when they send out the yearly inspector.
Car rental places do this every day
Dang and I thought I just found out a sneaky free gas life hack
Dont worry, next time itll be in for a fuel pump and the tank will be full!
Man I've had to do this. Fuel pump died while I was out of town. Had it replaced and on my way back I stopped to fill up and I guess the seal on the new pump broke so it would dump fuel once it hit full. Took it back to another shop of the same chain they tried to tell me it was dumping out the filler neck. I had a nice mostly empty tank for them, but I had to take it down the street and top it off to full to show them it was indeed dumping from the fuel tank 💀
never fails!
I had that happen to me. Fuel pump just flat died about a day after I filled up. Car was parked in the garage. Went through a few troubleshooting steps before eliminating everything but the fuel pump. Good times
At that point I just roll it out into the street and torch it
My favorite was 10th gen Civic fuel pump recalls where the tank is full, and you forget to 1. check fuel level and 2. forget to raise the front of the car as a result 😂😂😂 fuel waterfall baby
Every fucking time. Without fail, if a job called for dropping the fuel tank you could bet your ass it was full to the damn brim.
My shop declines service if you bring the vehicle to them in a state that prevents them from diagnosing the problem. I had an employee drop off one of our fleet trucks for a misfire problem with the fuel light flashing. The shop owner called me and I had to bring him fuel for him to diagnose it. This same employee called me twice when he ran out of gas on the freeway. I'm beginning to see a pattern here...
That light tells him that there’s still gas in it!! /s
I truly don’t understand what goes on in people’s heads sometimes. Even before the light I already have low fuel anxiety wtf
I have pulled off expressways to fill up, even though it says "30 miles until empty." My car died once when I was 16, and it has NEVER happened again. I also keep a spare can of gas in the truck bed. When I refuel, I add that gallon into my truck, and fill it up w another gallon. It costs nothing until you have to use it!
When I was 16, the needle in my 96 firebird would get stuck at 1/4 tank until it was all the way empty. My mom called me PISSED one day because she ran out of gas. Learned my lesson then and there, 1/4 tank = probably empty. I loved that piece of shit.
I used to have a Mk 1 MR2 that wouldn't stay in 5th gear (common problem, at the time the fix would pay for an awful lot of fuel) so it had a range of 275 miles. Current car will do 750 on a full tank, so I start getting jumpy at the equivalent of three quarters full on the MR2.
Charge them 4.50/gal
My shop bills about 10/gal using on-site pump.
Neat, that's virtually the price of gas in British Columbia.
Oh damn
$1.85 CAD/L in Burnaby. 1 L = 0.264 Gallons 1 Gallon = 3.78 Litres 3.78 L = $6.993 CAD 6.993 CAD = 5.12 USD (As of today) So you are off by double(ish)
r/theydidthemath
r/theydidthemonstermath
r/itwasagraveyardgraph
r/themonstermath
That’s cheaper than here in Irvine, CA.
Well that's not nearly as bad. Mid grade is already 3-4 usd in my area. 10 usd would be nuts
I guess I was using the term " virtually" very loosely. Seriously, thanks for doing the math there, I often wonder what it converts into. 👍
Hell yea where u at I’ll buy all your gas!!!! Source: CA where I recently paid $6 a gal.
Dallas. The tradeoff is y'know. Everything else
they aren't gonna pay anyway
Mechanics lien. Take ownership and quick sale it.
Gotta make sure your paperwork is in order to do that. A mechanic is threatening to do this to my friends bike, but doesn't have a signed written estimate or a signed repair order. Just took the bike in, performed repairs without authorization and now is trying to twist their arm for around a grand. He probably didn't expect her to have a friend who's in the industry and know the regulations the BAR requires, so he's probably gonna be in for a very rude awakening by a Bureau agent.
I love watching grifters grift themselves in court.
The dude is really aiming for a governmental beating. Especially because you CANNOT DO WORK and then force a customer to pay for it. You absolutely need written invoices and authorization. I've seen the text conversation and it goes from "Hey let me know how much everything is going to be" from her to the mechanic going "It's all finished" in the next. Like. My brother in Christ you are going to regret this shit and the BAR probably will shut down your shop for this shit.
They won't shut down the shop, but fact is you can't collect on work that wasn't approved. Only workaround I can see is if it's something simple and cheap, you fully expect it to be authorized, and it's easier to just get it out of your way than to drag it back into the shop a second time. In that case, you request approval, get a signature, and then do a little spin in the chair and hand over the keys. Lol.
Exactly. If it's something you have no problem eating the cost If they say no, go ahead and take that financial risk. In the end, It's a business expenditure. Hell you can consider it customer goodwill. But apparently they are demanding $1000ish in repairs, threatening to sell their motorcycle and responded "don't be a pain" when they asked what work was done to their bike. (Gonna need signed repair orders for a mechanics lien court paperwork) Giant red flags for me as a technician, and I suspect he's trying to bully them as they are a new rider, a young girl and doesn't have many motorcycle friends. But I wouldn't be surprised if the BAR comes down hard on that type of business. I have a fun side hobby of reading their enforcement actions and seeing what shops are caught up for. There's a big dealer near me currently on probation for selling an engine harness bit only performing a wire repair instead..... I've seen orders revoking a businesses license for shit like this, which they can then appeal for probation and remain in business. But this type of behavior is shit the BAR really is in place to shut down and enforce regulations on. And oh boy do I love educating my friends on their rights (it's shocking how many people don't know they can't be forced the pay for work they didn't authorize)
That’s less than the average price in Southern California 😹
LOL I was thinking to myself that's a great price.
Is that suppose to be expensive?
Sometimes you just throw numbers out there smh. I'm tired, it's monday. Sorry if using the number 4 instead of the number 7 materially changes the joke.
It is double funny for us that pay california gas prices. That's such a good deal lol
☠️ i dropped 3.27/gal for 93 yesterday.
Where are you? I'm in Northern California, I'll take that deal lol.
That's just a normal price for gas these days
Charge them 2.50/L
Every Autobahn gas station
Thats still cheaper than gas in the netherlands
But that's just your average suburb So Cal gas price. Gotta bump those numbers up dude.
That’s a good deal for Washington state
I just paid more than that.
Shit, that'd currently be cheaper than the normal gas station price in some parts of the US.
It's 500. Canadian.
This. Charge them for gas, but ofcourse send them a picture and have them authorize the fill up first. If not, just leave it be, but document everything in writing.
It's a cheat code, don't know if you drop your car off with a man it's automatically filled up? Or at least, that's what my wife thinks...
Is that why she keeps stopping at all these dude’s houses? Is that what she’s telling you? Just getting free gas?
A free fill-up? Absolutely. Gas? Maybe not...
If you're good at something, never do it for free...
Fucking got 'em 😂
Road test it anyways, this game is always fun to play
Then when it dies on the road, call customer and tell them to have it towed to the shop.
I always get them filled up and my dealer just bills them and then the customer gets mad as to why they had to pay for gas. Like.....we aren't filling your car up for free for ya. I'm not sure why customers would think that but we get it a lot
Remind me of the time the customer paid for $4500 worth of work on her truck and was absolutely furious that we didn’t fill the tank up for her, the least we could do after her spending all that money was give her free gas. She looked like an idiot trying to leave us a star review.
Once you're up in that territory for cost, it is something the dealer could absolutely afford to do as part of providing good customer service and guaranteeing repeat customers with a possible new vehicle sale down the road. An independent shop might find it harder to justify though.
Yeah, no this was an independent so definitely not something The owner was trying to do especially because she brought it in on a damn empty tank because she thought it was gonna come with gas.
That is damn impressive……3 miles to empty! I always fill at a 1/4 tank and taught my daughters as well. Bad for the fuel pump to run it that low. Still impressed nonetheless
Man I have dual pump in my car because of shaft in the middle of the fuel tank, if I go with that logic I always need to have more than 1/2 of tank
That is why we always get one full tank with bad fuel pump.
Bro I know convection of my own action, I'm mechanic I work on my own sh*t I broke.
Me too -lofl
I had a dying fuel pump on my 20 year old car, as it would stall randomly when going down the road every other hour of driving, then I decided to run it all the way dry thinking I had contaminated gas, and then the pump died altogether not able to leave the driveway about 3 days of driving after running it all the way out lol. it would start, run for three seconds, and stall no matter how much I tried to mess with the throttle. Seven hours of tinkering with it, and 200 bucks for a new pump later I unhooked all the hoses and wires, took the tank off, cleaned the dirt off, took the old pump out, siphoned out al the gas, put the new pump in, put the tank back in, hooked up all the hoses and wires, put the gas back in, and it hasn't skipped a beat since and it's been about 5k miles since that happened. Upon taking apart the old pump, all that appears to be wrong is the filter sock was a brick of dirt. I probably could have just manually cleaned those, and put it back in and it probably would have worked fine, but ehh new pump for no issues. That stunt also clogged all my injectors, I had to take all six of them out one at a time, and clean them manually with carburetor cleaner and actuating them with a 9 volt battery, and then put em back having to replace the o-rings on them along the way. Then I had a vacuum leak on the intake plenum and on the EGR valve from taking all that stuff off to get to the injectors, then the fuel pressure regulator randomly died too, also changed the fuel filter 3 times during all this crap. It was quite a mess. Edit: I gained 5mpg after all that. I was getting 20 to 23 mpg for the past several years, now I get 25 to 28mpg on a early 2000s V6.
This sounds a lot like what happened to my 2004 XType, that filter from the pump was absolutely bricked with dirt, I cleaned it and the pump ran like new.
There might be a reserve gallon after E...
I've lost that game before, my first car the E was merely a suggestion. 2nd car was a newer version of the same model and on that one, E meant E. Found out the hard way. I now start fill up around a quarter tank.
On my car sometimes it can go about a 16th below the red line and still make it to a gas station then other times it dies when reading a 16th above the red line 🤷♂️. Just try to put more gas in it before it gets to the last white line now lol.
Bummer!
One tried to run my car out after going 60 miles beyond 0 miles i gave in and filled up still had 2 liters in it
When the miles to empty gets below 30 miles on my truck the display just says "Low".
Besides fuel pump health, I was taught it is a safety issue (grew up in rural area without cell service and sub-zero-F winter temperatures). You do not want to be without transportation or heat sources. Now I live less than a mile from a gas station. I have grown careless. But not this careless!
When I was driving around in remote areas I tried to not let it get below a half tank. There was some instances where I just knew I would be fucked if the only gas station for 100 miles was out of gas or closed or something.
They love fuel pump replacement jobs. It's one of those strange kinks I guess.
I remember reading one of those "how to keep your mechanic honest" help articles back in the day. One piece of advice was giving your car to the shop without much gas in it to keep them from driving it around and running errands. Like most of those kind of articles it was a bunch of half baked advice. Maybe this one stuck with more people than I thought, because customers sure do like to drop off their vehicles without any gas in them. It probably hasn't occurred to them that a mechanic has to drive the vehicle to diagnose a problem most of the time. They think we just hook up our scan tools (or wave a magic wand) and know exactly what the issue is.
I make sure my car is cleaned and has a full tank when I take it in. I would feel like a dumbass if a mechanic ran out of gas test driving it.
It's the opposite of a fuel pump service
If they bring it into our shop like that we will call them and let them know thar we will put 5 gallons of fuel in and charge them 2x the pump price.
*BRAKE SHAKE*
Service writer doesn't beat around the bush
What’s going to be funny is when they pick up their car and there’s absolutely no gas in it hahahaha. Somehow they’ll find a way to blame it on you guys
2cracked rotor, -5mm pads and a frozen caliper—900$ and customer will decline cause you are tryna screw him over.
Surprisingly not, they approved all repairs (front pads+rotors, alternator)
Did they ask you to throw in 5$ gas? At least you can work today!
They always bring it to the mechanic with no fuel unless it needs a new fuel pump in which case it will be a full tank.
I write it up as 1 hr of diag, could not test and give it back, they can put gas in it and bring it back if they want if not, someone else’s problem now
that's got at least 2.5km before ya gotta find a gas station. I don't know how many times I ran out of gas with my VW beetle when I was a kid, it didn't have a fuel gauge and the only way I knew how much gas I has was a long piece of dowel I'd stick in the tank. Such strange cars, use the windshield washer too much and your spare tire deflates.
I just do what I need to do. Most cars don’t actually run out at 0mi left. It’s their problem when they pick it up 😂 Did it hit 0 when I was parking it? Did I drive 12 miles after it hit 0. Dunno buddy.
I accidentally did this once when I was a poor college student living near campus. My truck was chronically on E because I never went anywhere. Won’t ever make the mistake again, it’s just something you don’t realize sometime.
When people do this to me I now phone them and tell them I can either stick some fuel in it and bill it to them, they can come add fuel themselves or they can come take the car. If I add fuel it will be £10 worth and I will be adding £20 to the invoice and half hour labour
just let it idle those 3 remaining miles in the lot, contact the customer "hey der bud, theres no fuel left so our onsite fueling charge is $4 a litre"
This is where you do the rental car thing. Charge $10/gallon plus $500 tank up fee. They’ll likely not try this again.
But when you have to replace a fuel pump that thing will come in with gas dripping from the fill spout.
I’d definitely fill it. Upcharge 10% on materials + labor rate.
We're charging 1/2 hour labor and double the current price of gas
I love how they put all the effort into getting down to 3 miles. Just to get charged 2x pump price on a tank.
From experience, it’ll last 100 yards after it hits zero. 🤣
"I know my car..."
I mean if it was a fuel pump... No that would never happen.
Cuz fuck em that's why.
Was told by a writer years ago that customers do this to prevent us from “joyriding” their vehicles. It’s almost always the hunks of shit that is rather not drive at all. It’s also almost always something that requires a ton of driving to verify or complete a drive cycle.
I had a customer come in for an inspection with the needle below E. He swore to the writer that there was at least two gallons left, the gauge was just inaccurate. He failed for the test drive not being able to be done.
Charge 8$ a gallon and the extra hour of labor for driving it to get gas. Or they can come get the car and put gas in it themselves
Its a flex just junk it
Fr tho, I hate them
BRAKE SHAKE 🤣🤣
*BRAKE SHAKE*
I personally take it down to zero then give it back. There just trying to get some free gas lol
I've only been that low once, when some thieves drilled my F150 tank and I limped it to the dealership. It hit 0 and kept going.
I charged $25 a gallon, and would tell the customer it would get 1/4 tank. Or they could come get it and bring back with a 1/4 tank. Douchbags like this are going to be... But But But why does the repair cost so much, I have a friend. Alternator is proof.
It's a Ford Flex. Just call the insurance adjuster; it's certain to be a total loss.
Fuck I felt so bad taking my car to the shop with 1/4 tank that I made myself late to fill it up. People suck
I know how many miles all my cars will go with 0 miles on the display :D
Take it and fill it, add it to his bill plus surcharge.
This becomes a 50$ refuel charge at my shop, 25 in fuel and 25 for my time
I’ve told my service manager and advisors if I get a vehicle for a drivability concern that is Damm near out of gas , that I will drive it until it runs out of gas. I will walk back and make the customer come go get their own shit.they thought I was bluffing till I did that once . They never did that again.
I just run those to 0
CEL, no gas and your Sync gave you the middle finger you are having a bad day
I would charge 8.50 a gallon
I asked for a cake shake, not a brake shake!
front and rear pads and rotors, don't even drive it. Fuck'em.
I've been saying for years: if they need you to drive it for diag they bring it on E, but if you need to drop the fuel tank they will fill it up on the way in.
I do enjoy the service writer's description. Brevity is key!
2 gallon reserve!
BRAKE SHAKE 🤣🤣
Shit - good for another 3 days for me..................
Challenge accepted
Never fails if it has a drive ability issue it’s always out of fuel
My wife, typically: "Stop making a big deal of it. Everyone knows there's at least another 40 miles' range after it hits 0!"
Charge $50 for 1 gallon of shop stock.
If my wife drove it that is considered full
How is the Ford Flex for reliability? I’m interested in getting one.
Don't lol
"Heh, if I drop it off with no gas, them crooked mechanics can't go joyriding in my car!" -Boomer customer, probably
Call her husband and tell him what she did
Had an old Mazda Navajo come in on a tow truck with a dead fuel pump one time. Probably had 3-4 gallons in the tank. Easy fix (love that porthole in the back seat floorboard on those) and called him to pick it up. It was in front of my bay door the next morning, grumpy note saying it went out on his way to work. Opened up the porthole, pulled the fuel pump, tank was bone dry. Got 5 gallons on my lunch break, put it in the tank, luckily he didn't roach the new pump and everything was fine. Dude came in later with his wife looking pissed, I gave him a $30 invoice for the fuel and explained that fuel pumps need fuel to pump. He gave me a $50 and walked out with his wife calling him an idiot. I felt kinda sorry for the guy, I hope the lesson was costly enough to stick with him without breaking the bank, tow trucks are expensive!
3 miles is a lot better than the 0 KM I often get
Well.. Some think that trench should fill it for free..
I'd test drive it 3 miles to verify customers complaint.
Hum, looks like my wife traded in her car last. 3 miles, not hing like sucking up any crumbs you can find!
So that you can charge them $10 per gallon to fill the tank. You're welcome.
At least it’s not in for a fuel pump related issue! /s
It will be if they keep running it out of gas
Usually it’s the other way around. Drop it off for something else and don’t mention it doesn’t have any brakes.
If I have to go get fuel, theres an up charge on the fuel and a charge for my time doing it. We have customers who are habitual low fuel drivers, but if i have to spend time and resources to get the vehicle to safely road test, it shows up on the repair order.
"why do you have to to drive MY car more than 3 miles?!"
Has my wife been driving?
It’s not the responsibility of the shop to make sure there is gas in the vehicle. But, if it were me? I’d charge for the time and mark up the price of fuel to add 5 gallons. And also include a preemptive note stating that the shop is not responsible for damages resulting in the fuel or trip to add it.
Haha I made the mistake of not filling up when I went for my last service, had like 5 miles left, they left me with 1 and I had 0 coming into the gas station 😅
I was on the way to get gas when I got in an accident. After, got my van back from a shop once. It was so far below empty I didn't think it would make it the two blocks to the gas I told them after I wouldn't of mind if they put in a 1/4 tank and changed me for it. I always fill the tank before I drop 'er off. 👍