freegdr

To me he did great price wise. Theres no arms on my creaper ...lol..

red4dr

if you think you did bad on price, take that list to the dealership and ask how much. i bet their price would be more than the value of the jeep! you seem to be upset about the ac work, but from working with ac systems, sometimes you dont get it the first time. or it could be multiple things. you said that the ac hasnt run in 7 years. at that time frame, all kinds of things go bad since the lube for seals and moving parts is in the r134 that needs to be circulated.
in all honesty, if i had all of that to do to my jeep and someone that i knew would do a good job said they would do it for 500, i would run to the bank to get them the money!!!!!!!!!!!!! that was a lot of work and for how fast i work, it would be more than one days worth of work for me as well. all that would prob be a month of weekends for me. so i think for 500 you did great!

Firestorm500

Guy did a 1/2 ***ed job on A/C. Didn't replace filter/dryer. Now the OP's warranty is void on the new or reman compressor. The guy is just throwing parts at it. Now the OP is out Freon X 2. Guy didn't check anything apparently. He didn't know why the A/C wasn't working. Was it flushed? Probably not. For it to leak down overnight, it has a pretty big leak. Guy should have pulled a vacuum for 30 minutes. Then let it sit for a couple of hours while he was mucking around with the radio & back up camera. It would have leaked down some. Maybe he could have found the problem and fixed it 1st time instead of spending more of OP's money.

You don't fix exhaust manifold cracks. They will return. You replace the exhaust manifold. It's a lot of work to pull and put. Cheaper to do it right the first time.

I don't ask my customers to bring me drinks and eats, and run parts, and put up deposits on Loan-A-Tool. Use their bathroom. Then do shoddy work. And run an open-ended ticket. What if the guy told the OP the bill would be $1000-2000 after he finished? If the OP refused, then the guy could place a lien on the Jeep, then go to court and get it awarded to him for the mechanical bill. If you don't think this happens every day, then I have some nice Florida swampland I'll make you a deal on.

mentalbreakdown00

I use nitrohen and dye to find leaks on a/c. Usually charge up about 150 lbs and then doodle around with something else for about 30 minutes and go to checking with my black light, works best for me. You paid a good price if all the work was actually done....

Firestorm500

Assuming the radio plays, the speakers speak, and the windows go up and down...

That's about all he got for his $500.

Not counting the frustration of hot A/C and inop back up camera. Probably a future exhaust manifold with double labor and gaskets.

red4dr

breaks, new lug, radio, speakers and windows would be more than 500 all together if taken to a shop! i still say that for the work done, he didnt do so bad.

rgs80074

i just got home from going out and checked with the uv light and glass's to try to find a leak.

i can not find anything that indicates a leak anywhere. i tried to look in the dash behind the glove compartment and from the bottom but those area's have virtually no visibility to find stuff.

i ran the uv light down where the stuff connects to the back of the engine compartment before goign into the dash, all around the accumulator, compressor, lines and alone the radiator area where the condenser is but i could not find anything.

perhaps there needs to be more freon with die put in i don' t know but at this point i just can't find anything for leaks.

as for the price i paid,

i was not even thinking of considering comparing it to a dealer, if i did that then i would have thought about taking it to a dealer to begin with, i was more trying to find out if i got a good price (which i thought i had) for a mobile mechanic with no shop over head.

oh you also forgot to mention the rotors and break bads, assuming they will stop the vehilce, although i get the feeling they may need to be bleed but i've not driving it to test them out really yet.

the mechanic is supposed to come over tuesday and wrap up the back up camera, see what and where that leak is (engine or transmission) and possilby test more on the ac system.

other than getting some of the can with die and trying it again i can't think of anything else to do to the ac system to find the leak, perhaps i can find one of the shops doing free ac checks after the summer ends and their business starts to drop.

and how is the swamp land? maybe i will get some i was digging shelby's new pirate ship house

Firestorm500

Shelby is in the Louisiana bayous.

In my area, new pads and rotors labor runs about $50, the stud maybe about another $10 if they are already in there. This is a 20, maybe a 30-minute job tops at an equipped shop.

This shadetree guy working out of his car trunk, with about $50 worth of tools from Harbor Freight, should be charging $20-25/hr max, and that is stretching it.

Especially with free food, drink, and cash on the hood so to speak.

freegdr

Heres away to estimate you future work.....http://www.napaautocare.com/estimator.aspx

mentalbreakdown00

I charge $30 an hr to do side work, and will warranty most anything I do. I go by flat rate, but will sometimes give the customer a break if it pays 3 hrs and i'm done in 20 minutes, and charge $30 minimum to help pay for fuel to show up. I would have charged $20 on the brakes like $10 on the stud while I was there. The manifold would have been about 3 hrs if I remember right. The A/C would have been a couple hrs to replace the compressor, dryer, and O/T, maybe 3 with vacuuming and charging and leak testing etc. Then an hr on each door window... Just to give you an example. I Try to keep track and only start what I can finish in one day so I don't have customers getting upset like you have...

Firestorm500

Paying that shadetree the equivalent of at least $630 plus benefits for his slow, unprofessional work is much more than a college professor makes in his work day. More than some lawyers clear. And he doesn't have any overhead to speak of. Maybe $10 worth of gasoline?

Incredible.

The OP better hope this guy doesn't slice his arm open and bleed out all over the driveway, or cut his finger off. The OP better have good homeowner's insurance.

mentalbreakdown00

I dont carry insurance on me either, but wouldn't claim it on the persons insurance since I have my own through my work. I usually end up working at a friends house, my moms etc anyways.

Firestorm500

If you personally had no insurance, no steady job, and you're laid up in the hospital with $50,000+ worth of medical bills---

Yeah, you're going after the guy that you were doing work on his vehicle at his house.

He is not your friend or your mom.

mentalbreakdown00

Yeah, I know. I am going this afternoon to work on a ladys old 300D Mercedes, and she has me sign an ins waiver everytime, but also always tips me, so, lol I dont mind at all...

rgs80074

hahaha so firestorm had he done that i would be better off taking his vehicle to swamps for the gators.

anyways he didn't hurt himself i guess thats good. but given he presents himself as owning/running his own mobile mechanic business i would think i would have some grounds on that if something should have happened.

anyways i don't think he's showing back up at my house to do more work right now, but he might come to where i work early in the morning to try to find the leak with a uv light when its dark outside.

as for his tools, he's got a lot of tools in his truck

but your right he's missing some and i guess not being used to florida he didn't really need some of this enough where he was from but in florida he really needs to have the stuff for ac work without having to resort to having someone buy it or rent it (well really an loan since i get all my money back upon returning it)

he has a welder not sure how many mobile mechanics cart those around but he had a lot of tools and they looked like good ones but i am not a mechanic to know for sure.

i do like that waiver thing though next time i get someone to do some kind of work like that i'll get them to sign a waiver like that, not sure how that would hold up in court but it couldn't hurt.

if he can't find the leak tonight/tomorrow morning i might take ti to firestone they have a special going on for the ac system checks.

going from the website for estimate what he did replace and fix would have cost me 3times as much as he charged, but i thinks that more if you are taking your vehicle to a shop.

i don't know maybe florida is abnormal i've noticed a lot of mobile mechanics all of a sudden popping up. before when i needed work done i usually had to get the vehicle to where ever they was at having them come to me or whomever would sure be a lot easier for people.

on if i use him again or recommend him i am not sure yet but i i did i'd tell them to get a firm price ahead of time as i know about five people waiting on my outcome to see if they want to use him or not and he is aware of this as well.

anyways i have not been a member long here but i am liking it here and if i had a backup vehicle with this boards help i might be more likely to try some of this stuff on my own (nothing major though not that brave) but i might have tried the rotors on my own, i already can do the break pads i've done them multiple times on various vehicles.

anyways thanks everyone for your help and comments

everything is a learning experience and you all raise some great points and concerns and comments on everything.