Farming out jobs

[lakesidetire]

I don't do some things at my shop at the moment like timing belts. I would like to offer this to my customers also but I will have to farm the job out to someone. I'm friends with a ASE master mechanic that I trust but I really don't know how to work a quote up for my customer to see if is even worth my time and if I can make any money off this job even though I'm the middle man. From my past experience I'm thinking the belt the water pump and the pulleys. But I'm not sure. The guy I know says it'll cost me $660 to do it all. What would this kind of job cost at your shops? It's a 2004 Acura TL 3.2. And how should I take a payment on this when I have to pay the guy I know. Thanks for your input.

[HarrytheCarGeek]

Alldata for timing belt w/water pump service 5 Hours + 1 hour incidentals

Gates kit TCKWP329 ( WP+gskt, tensioner, rollers, belt) $205

Drive belt $22

Thermostat $19

Coolant 2 gals $26

 

Labor 6 x $110= $660.00

Parts $272 x 2= $544.00

Sell at $1204.00 +ss+tax=$$$

 

Nice professional job with quality parts.

[cdhowell]

A timing belt is not that difficult. Why would you sub this out? And how would you handle warranty? Would the work be done at your shop with insurance or your buddy's driveway?

[ncautoshop]

We shy away from timing belts and big engine jobs as well. We don't farm them out though - in my opinion that's a horrible idea lol - we avoid them for expensive failure possibilities. A volvo s80 came in this week with a broken belt - recently done at another shop. It's getting a motor on their dime. Some work just isn't as profitable or worth the possible cost down the road. This was 1 year into a 2 year warranty.

 

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[xrac]

We do timing belts all day long.

[ncautoshop]

We do timing belts all day long.

we do too, but avoid interference or engines where access is limited.

 

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[xrac]

We do them all: VW, Audi, Hyundai, KIa, etc. We always install complete T-belt kits and have shop foreman check before cranking. We might have had to do one redo and fix a head in the 16+ years I have been in the business.

[lakesidetire]

I have just never gotten into doing timing belts since I've been in the business. It has been a time thing for me. I've always been told it takes a long time as you guys said like 5 plus hours of work. I'm a 1 man shop so I've stayed away from them. At this point I stay so busy right now with all my other work and I don't have any experience in doing them so I would just feel better dining it out. Are they really that easy just time consuming?

[lakesidetire]

Would this job really sale for $1,200 ?? I'm thinking if it does I might just need to start doing them. What advice would you guys give me since this would be new to me? Like education, tricks and just what ever you can think of to help me feel more comfortable doing them. To me it's the uneasiness of the unknown.

[HarrytheCarGeek]

Would this job really sale for $1,200 ?? I'm thinking if it does I might just need to start doing them. What advice would you guys give me since this would be new to me? Like education, tricks and just what ever you can think of to help me feel more comfortable doing them. To me it's the uneasiness of the unknown.

 

I have sold this job for $1,600+ with some amenities thrown in like pick up and drop off, and car wash and original (OEM) parts. And have just done the belt for $650.00. The difference being I have profiled my customer, in the first instance, they are a couple that live in a condo, dual income no kids., he is an engineer and she a nurse. In the later instance single mom, looking to keep the car for just another year, very tight budget.

 

The couple received priority and the single mom, had to wait until the rush people were taken care of.

 

1. Define the expectations 2. Inform your customers. 3. Under promise and over deliver.

 

Risks? Charging too little (under pricing) for work.

 

If you use quality parts, you minimize the risks of comebacks and having to re-do your work.

 

If you train well and completely understand your work, you can do it well, efficiently and with minimize the risk of comeback - re-doing the work.

[xrac]

Sell a job. Farm it out. Let the master tech buddy walk you through the whole thing.

[alfredauto]

Timing belts are good money jobs if you have the staff and time to do them. Lately we've been so busy doing tires/brakes/gravy there's no way I would tie up a tech half a day on a timing belt. You really need to be firm about doing the job right. Example: VW 1.8 turbo 105k svc; you must replace the belt, tensioner, water pump, pulley, and a few bolts. If you let the customer convince you into doing just the belt or use cheap rock bottom parts you get to buy him a new engine in a few months if your unlucky number comes up. Put in cheap hydraulic tensioners and I'll bet you get to do it again.

 

I've condemned probably 50 dohc Subaru's in the last 5 years with blown motors with new timing belts on them from other shops. Broken cam pulleys, broken idlers, all caused by $299.99 t-belt jobs.

 

Back to the original post topic, risking your reputation on another shops work is risky. I sublet paint work only, everything else say transmission rebuilds I just send the customer to the tranny shop. I exclude myself from the profit and the warranty issues.

[HarrytheCarGeek]

Back to the original post topic, risking your reputation on another shops work is risky.

 

This is what is all about, one's reputation. The biggest obstacle in farming work out, is assuming the risk the contractor will do a quality job, because if any issues pop up, you will be the one answering to the customer.

 

Farming out could work, but sure enough it won't be easy money.

[ncautoshop]

Sell a job. Farm it out. Let the master tech buddy walk you through the whole thing.

Every timing belt job I've ever done was completely different than the one before and one after. Between access issues (2004-05 vw tdi's for instance), special tools for each job, tensioned side vs slack side etc - it's nearly impossible to show someone how to do it. Frustrating belt jobs I send to dealers - why? They do that exact job often, the tools are on the shelf and if it does come back, it's not as painful to them!

 

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