Having jsut recently purchased a replacement steering wheel for my 09 Cooper D Hatch I would like some advice on the labour cost to swap them over (the steering wheel has no controls at all only the airbag unit). Swap is from the nasty plastic offering to the OEM leather)
The job (as I see it) would entail;
Disconnecting the battery /airbag and swapping the wheels over replacing the airbag and reconnecting the cables.
Have been quoted £90 for the work - having seen a video on youtube with someone donig this exact job in under ten minutes I think someone is taking the proverbial! Can anyone offer me some advice on this???????
Most shops use a parts and labor manual to determine the cost for each function in the repair of automobiles. The labor rate manual considers things the average customer doesn't think about. It takes into account the time it takes the technician to go out in the parking lot and get the customers car, bring it back into his stall and then walk over to the parts department to obtain the necessary parts for the job. Once the job is finished it allows time to pick up and put away his tools, return the car to the parking lot, etc.
One thing most customers aren't aware of is 'included operations'. When you have more than one function being performed the technician doesn't go out more than once to bring the car into his stall (for example) and the shop should be willing to shave a little off the labor rate shown in the parts and labor manual.
Thanks for your reply - forgot to mention that this isn't a BMW garage but an indie had it been a franchise dealer I'd have sucked up the cost as I think that's probably fair based on what you have said above - for an indie to charge this my feeling is it's a bit high.
Ten minutes is quite long to do this! I think I take less than five.
But the real problem is that the garage is probably quoting you a worst case figure, assuming it's going to be hard to do (and they haven't done one before) - I bet they've added a substantial margin for the occasional job like this that ought to be quick but ends up taking a few hours.
Are the wheels you're swapping identical - for example, three-spoke plastic to three-spoke leather? The reason to question this is that two-spoke and three-spoke wheels use different airbags and cannot be interchanged. JCW wheels use the standard three-spoke airbag.
I think you are probably right it will be a worst case scenario to be honest I'd be surprised if the charge came to much over £45 because no one in their right mind could say this is a job beyond 20 mins max! Yes the steering wheels are both 2 spoke.
If its never been touched since the factory fitted it the hardest job might be getting the wheel off its splines, Im not kidding you, sometimes its seems they fit them with a 40 ton press!
battery off wait 20 minites for airbag to charge down then take off steering wheel, new one back on battery back on 40 mins from start to finish
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