So mum drives a 2003 Nissan pulsar, n14 I think.
The new mechanic round the corner wants $250 for spark plug change and $400 for front brakes, which I hope is pads and rotors for that price.
I’ve only worked on old hiaces, spark plugs were $6ea, front pads were about $40 and rotors were $60ish. That totals about $125, double it for modern price gouging to $250, that leaves $400 for labor, which seems high to me.
Whaddya reckon?
Depends what his labour costs are. I wouldn’t think they’d be below $100/hr, most nobody is these days. Did he say if he was quoting genuine or aftermarket parts? Genuine pricing of $10-$20 a plug and $150 for pads and suddenly the labour cost doesn’t seem so high.
Labour is always the biggest cost. When changing spark plugs damaged coils/ electrical plugs could end up being a hidden cost, especially on older vehicles from the 2000s. Some mechanics will absorb this cost, especially if they are honouring an original quote for a little old lady. They also need to warrant their work. This makes $100/h a very reasonable price for skilled and experienced labour.
If you want to get a ballpark price for aftermarket parts, put your mums Rego into one of the online stores.
I’m not going to endorse these stores or provide links but Automotive Superstore, Repco and SuperCheap websites are very online-retail-friendly (unlike SparesBox or AutoBarn). Mechanical workshops will (of course) pay less for the parts and often trade price on genuine is cheaper than aftermarket.
Spark plugs just do them yourself. It’ll take 5 minutes. They might be trying to sell you the fancy iridium plugs, which are pointless in a 21 year old car. Brakes, if you don’t know how to to it, get a mechanic. It’s not hard, just takes a few hours if it’s you first time. Thousands of good YouTube videos if you want to do it yourself.
Iridium plugs are much cheaper than they used to be and are a great way to get more life out of older vehicles.
The 2.0l SR20DE and the 1.6l GA16DE in Australian-delivered N14 pulsars actually required Iridium-coated plugs for efficient fuel usage. If you fit other plugs, you will be using more fuel.
That said, the N14 finished production in 1994. OP’s mum probably has a 2006 N16 which would gave the finicky VVT QG18 engine and would require Iridium Plugs at a minimum.
One thing you need to keep in mind with modern cars with electric-actuated park brakes is that the Actuators need to be disabled prior to doing rear brakes, otherwise you may need to replace the entire caliper. Even vehicles with mechanical park brakes may require special tools to wind back the park brake piston.
It’s defo a 2003, might be an n15. Thanks for the info. Seems like the price is reasonable. Also like computers, if I start fixing things I’ll probably never get to stop. My old hiace parts are cheap as and there’s no computer to have a sook about things.
chrisfix on YT all looks very straight forward. I’ve done pads, rotors and spark plugs on my old hiace. But, it seems the price is reasonable and as I mentioned elsewhere, I don’t have to pick up the ongoing support for the car like I already do with IT.
