How long to change alternator?

[Mike_SE]

Dropped my car off at my local garage this morning at 11, just phoned up now and apparently its been a massive job, and they only just realised they need to take the bumper off? Sounds ridiculous to me!

 

[Gandi69]

would not be trusting those guys to do it, considering what an FF 182's aux belt is like and how much can be fucked up by incompetence

 

[Budgie]

Yep. Sounds a bit of an excuse to me.

At a guess, I'd say an hour and a half's work.

 

[Mike_SE]

Yeah doesn't sound good to me at all. Always used this garage in the past, and it wasn't possible to get it into the places I would have preferred ie. Birchdown

 

[jesus]

Taking the bumper off takes 2 minutes. It does need to come off but isn't that big of a job.

 

[Mike_SE]

Yeah its only a few screws isn't it. Wish i'd tried to do it muself now

 

[jesus]

Jubilee clip comes in handy btw

 

[Mike_SE]

Man, I'm in a right shitty mood now. It's so annoying not having a garage you trust nearby.

 

[James28]

I did mine the other day. Fairly simple. Just fiddly. You live and learn.

 

[Djw John]

Man, I'm in a right s**tty mood now. It's so annoying not having a garage you trust nearby.

​Is Birchdown not quite close to you?

 

[Mike_SE]

Its about an hour and a quarter from me. But I don't think I would have made it with the alternator as it is. Was booked in to have my new exhaust fitted there this afternoon but had to ring up and cancel that because of this as well.

 

[Mike_SE]

And it won't be ready tonight... my god

 

[Plodwyn]

Did mine a few weeks ago, as said its fiddly you dont need to take the bumper off despite what everybody says, you can easily access the removal of the alternator just by removing the grill

 

[Budgie]

Did mine a few weeks ago, as said its fiddly you dont need to take the bumper off despite what everybody says, you can easily access the removal of the alternator just by removing the grill

Bumper off is just as simple as removing the grill. Actually, I'd say easier.

 

[Mike_SE]

Can't wait to see what the fecking labour bill is going to be

 

[Dan@SJM]

I'd certainly remove the bumper. It's so much easier.

 

[Dan519]

1.5 hours Max for that. More and its their fault for not knowing the job

 

[Mike_SE]

I think judging from hows its done, I would have been able to do it faster

 

[Gibbo4k]

I put a new one in mine yesterday thought I'd chance a s/h one from here had it tested first all was on but put it on the car and it whines. Back to the alternator repair place and said bearings fine charging fine not much he can do so think I'm going to buy a new one Monday. Was expecting a nitemare job to do this and the aux belt but was dead easy. Only took 20 mins to get it all back off the car. The worst bit first time round was finding a tool to get the idler off the bottom.

 

[Fred@BTM]

absolute tops (doing it on the floor) is 2 hours

Autodata quote 2.2 from memory, if they charge more than that then they're going Jimmy on you

 

[Mike_SE]

Least I have the car back. Charged me £100. And Fred is back, great! Need a few things doing

 

[hipwell]

£100 labour to change an alt ?!

 

[Mike_SE]

I know yeah, shocker. Basically, I don't think the bloke who did it had a clue. Lesson learned anyway!