Technical Multiple issues with my bravo '09

[Hada1988]

Hey guys, i'm a new member so thanks for letting me part of this forum!


A couple of months ago I bought a second hand Fiat Bravo Dynamic 90 and now I found out that there's loads of mechanical issues and undone maintenance. My fault because I trusted the gentleman who sold it.

Despite of that, I've got the quote for all the jobs to be done and I found it a little bit pricey. I'm not going to fix anything of this right now because I'm skint (I've already change the cam belt and oil today).

It's my first car in the UK so I'll really appreciate if you can tell me what do you think about the price. Thanks a lot.

During the course of fitting the cambelt the auxiliary belt and
tensioner require replacement as tensioner is siezed - cost of
replacement - £103.00

Also Please find below additional work identified:-


--


Front Brake discs heavily corroded - replace discs with pads £184.00 inc vat

NSF Lower balljoint has excess free play - replace nsf lower suspension arm (inc wheel alignment) £216.00

NSR shock absorber leaking / NSR shock absorber corroded - recommend replacement in pairs £224.00

Exhaust front pipe blowing at flexi joint - rear exhaust bracket adrift exhaust corroded - replace centre and rear exhaust and mountings £300.00

Wiper blades catch on each orther when in operation - replace wiper blades / adjust as required - £38.00

 

[Malarky191]

Discs and pads are straightforward to do yourself if you have the tools though the price doesn’t seem so bad considering the price of new discs and pads.

Again you can save money by changing the wishbone yourself, it comes off by removing 3 bolts, don’t pay for alignment after fitting it go somewhere that offers free allignment check first.

Again with the rear shocks, these are really easy to replace yourself just remove the bottom bolt holding it to the axle then in the boot use a spanner on the nut while pinching the top of the thread with mole grips to prevent it spinning as you try to undo the nut. Once the nut is off the strut will drop out and you can fit the new ones in reverse, oem spec are pretty cheap.

So the flexi joint is blowing and the rear bracket adrift which means they want to replace all that?? £50 or so for somewhere to cut and weld in a new flexi joint. Rear brackets are £10 or a little more and quite easy to change yourself. Chances are it’s just the outer skin of the backbox that’s corroded, this is not an issue, the corroded piece can be cut off and the inner skin will be fine.

Try adjusting the wiper blades yourself first before paying out, the blades should line up with marks on the bottom of the windscreen.

Bottom line don’t get bumped, they are asking for nearly £1000 off of you!

Front discs/ pads: £70
Rear exhaust mount: £12
Rear shock absorbers: £66
Front wishbone: £46

If you can fit these parts yourself and get a new flexi joint welded in for say £50-75 then you are looking at a total price of £250-275

 

[Hada1988]

Thanks a lot, I’ll try to find some tools or maybe go to a different garage, this was Halfords and yes, I think it was a little bit pricey.

Thanks again!

 

[Crystalyne]

I can't speak for the other stuff on that list but I had my suspension arm done recently on my new (to me) '10 Bravo Sport - it cost me around £110, most of that being for the part (around £70 -£80) as I have a Bravo with factory-fitted HIDs and got some new brake pads at the same time.

Whoever you got that quote from is trying to rip you off.

 

[Malarky191]

this was Halfords

That explains it then

If you don’t already have tools make sure to have a decent socket set and a breaker bar for those stubborn bolts, depending how worn the front brake pads are you may need to use a caliper piston rewind tool to fit new pads. Aside from that the jobs are pretty straightforward.

If you’d prefer to get a garage to do it I recommend you buy the parts so you pay labour only to the garage, and haggle on the price. I wouldn’t expect any more than 2-3 hours on the front of the car to change the wishbone and front brakes, don’t accept anything above 1 hour to change the rear shocks, even 0.5 hours I’d expect from a competent garage.

With that in mind when enquiring at a garage I’d have a 4 hour labour charge in mind, where I am it’s around £45ph so that would be about £180 plus vat so about £210 all in

 

[Hada1988]

Hi, I’m back!

Finally today I went to a different garage and they fixed the exhaust for half of the price that Halfords was asking for.

So thanks a lot for your help! Thanks to your advices I saved a lot of money ?