w203 - c180 air mass sensor £400+??!!!

[patrickyuis]

while driving back from uni,my c180 sport coupe just started shuddering a lil then i noticed that one of the warning lights came on.
i stopped and decided to read what i had to do in the manual,it said that it maybe a fault with the ignition or exhaust and to take it to a mercedes dealer asap.

so i drove to a north west based mercedes dealship,waited about 30 mins for a diagnostic,and the guy came out and told me that its gonna cost £259 for a new "air mass sensor", so i thought that was ok.

then i asked "but what about fitting it?" and he went back into the office for a few mins,came back out and bought out the invoice for around £450!!!
i said how come its changed that much,he said that it did not include VAT.so i added a 17% on the price of the air mass sensor which comes to just under £300.....and then i saw that i was gonna get charged about £150 for LABOUR!!!

i asked how long will the job take and the guy said about 30-45mins!!!
so i would of been paying these guys £150 for a 45 min job,i thought that seemed a rip-off.

but does anybody know if i can just take it into another garage,they get the parts and then they install them.
as i dont want to pay excessive amounts of money for a job which could be done equally the same for i think around 50% cheaper.

thanks

 

[jberks]

Sounds like a rip off to me. It is a 30 min job (if you take your time) and the part price is about right. Labour charges are around £90 per hour so I would have expected £50 ish for fitting. I suspect they included the diagnosis charge in the cost.

In any case, its a doddle to fit for a DIYer, so any garage could do it. I had mine done at a local MB specialist and paid about £500 for the air sensor, an o2 sensor (£125 worth) diagnostics and fitting.

Don't leave it too long though as it guides the ECU on how rich to set the mixture and if its gone, you could be running rich which will kill your o2 sensor and possibly the cat.

 

[jon_harley]

It is a 30 min job (if you take your time) and the part price is about right. Labour charges are around £90 per hour

That sounds a lot to me, the air mass sensor is easily accessible?

And yes, £150 sounds like a rip-off for the labour. Even £90/hour sounds high, I thought typical main dealer rates were around £75/hour so even a half hour job should only be around £40 labour. (Though I do know garages who charge for a minimum of 1 hour.)

Please do tell us which MB dealer this was so we can avoid it!

 

[jberks]

the air mass sensor is easily accessible?
Even £90/hour sounds high, I thought typical main dealer rates were around £75/hour

As I understand it, the air mass sensor is located on the air intake pipe between the air filter box and the injection system. Its just a simple unclip the old one, disconnect the electrical plug and pop in a new sensor housing. It simply measures the air density flowing through to the engine by measuring how quickly a heated metal grill is cooled by the air passing through. Commonly, muck gets to the grill causing the readings go out of spec.
You can also get reconned ones or even clean the old one with carb cleaner, though dealers wouldn't do this!

Most Merc dealers do charge £90+ per hour - the Leeds one is about £95 from memory, hence the local specialist at £45 is a bargain!

 

[jon_harley]

Most Merc dealers do charge £90+ per hour - the Leeds one is about £95 from memory, hence the local specialist at £45 is a bargain!

Well, that's a rip-off. Our other car is a Renault and our local Renault main dealer charges £68/hour. No doubt the engineers at Renault and at Mercedes don't actually earn any more than the local specialist! All you get for the extra money is a posh waiting room and free coffee.