What's your biggest repair bill?

Page may contain affiliate links. Please see terms for details.
£4000 on a rover 400 diesel back in 1999. Drive through a very large puddle and ended up needing a new engine. Luckily my insurance coughed up 75%
 
I take it we are talking of the biggest repair bill i.e something that failed as opposed to a routine service or wear and tear item.

In 21 years of ownership with a 1989 190e that would be £70 for a new water pump in 1995. New coolant was extra.
 
Any Maser bill is often pretty large....mainly thousands bit hundreds.

Had quite a few 2-5k bills over the years. Mainly on cars I bought that needed some work though so the spend added value.
 
£5,200 on a new gearbox from Mercedes for my CLS63.
 
I take it we are talking of the biggest repair bill i.e something that failed as opposed to a routine service or wear and tear item.

In 21 years of ownership with a 1989 190e that would be £70 for a new water pump in 1995. New coolant was extra.

Jeez I hope they offered a payment plan haha.
I had a 190e many years ago.. 200k miles, that thing was bullet proof!
 
Although I didn't pay it as it was under warranty and damage caused by the dealership, I suspect the biggest repair cost was on my Clio 172.

I reported that the seat felt like it had some play in it so it went in to be checked under warranty.

Well whoever checked it took the seat out or I assume they did by the fact that every piece of interior trim around the seat was damaged, probably 5-6 pieces. What must have really cost was the leather steering wheel which I insisted was replaced as they'd managed to gouge that too.

At a guess probably £1k+ all due to someone being an ape! :wallbash:
 
£6,000 for M156 rattle warranty work and head bolt change done at the same time, though MB covered the warranty bit at £4,800.
 
If we're talking bills you haven't had to pay, than easily our biggest is the replacement CVT box on our Juke back in 2015.

£7000!

Bargain.
 
If we're talking bills you haven't had to pay, than easily our biggest is the replacement CVT box on our Juke back in 2015.

£7000!

Bargain.

That's a known fault in those - ask hard enough and it is still covered.
 
Well I'm feeling pretty smug with my £1855 last Friday, after my R129 had some remedial work done for the MOT, after reading some of these. It wasn't even that bad as such, two new headlamp wiper motors, two front springs as a whole 2 inches had snapped off the end of one, two rear discs and pads and I had both rocker cover gaskets and the oil sensor seal replaced while it was there. :)
 
That's a known fault in those - ask hard enough and it is still covered.

Yes, the first generation of CVT box was a duffer. When I looked at the time, a lot had failed and they weren't fitted just to Jukes...

They can only fit a revised version as a replacement allegedly rather than the newer generation fitted from the facelift onwards.

Early next year, the replacement will be as old as the original when it went and on similar miles too (c20k).

I will be interested to see what happens although despite they can be reconditioned for £1000 > £1500, I'd be giving Nissan some sheite as it has a FNSH (which is why I stuck with them for the service - that and the fact you don't save a huge amount with an inde on this sort of car what with the Nissan dealer being close to where I work).
 
My Rear Axle imploded on my CLK63 Blackseries 12 months after the warranty ran out.

Because the car was maintained correctly, and due to it being so rare, Mercedes covered 90% of the price of a new diff, which was just a little under £9,000

So I was left with a bill of just under £2,000 for Labour, my 10% and a new heat exchanger which was also discounted.

I will let you work out how much that would have cost without Mercedes being so generous.
 
I wonder what the actual cost to Mercedes would be. Would be interesting to see. How much would the difference actually cost them?
 
Cost of parts and a fee to cover the wages lost to the dealership.

They won't repay retail charge out or chargeable labour rates that we have to pay.

Our £140 plus VAT per hour equates to about £13 + NI and pension contributions

Your £9k bill could be well under £500
 
Reading this makes me cringe--I forget these days about VAT!!!!
In my shop and in most places there is no tax on labour.
Now varying from area to area there is some differences in sales tax.

On direct parts sales content the tariff is 4.6 percent.
As yet no tax on internet sales of parts.


Gotta love no taxes and states like Wyoming and Montana that don't have income taxes either.
What is it? No representation without taxation.
BUT unlike the Inland Revenue you can be a pig with the IRS but not a hog--'cos they get slaughtered--gives rise to the expression Pigs will be fed hogs will be slaughtered!
Tuercas Viejas
 
Biggest I've paid was just over £3k for repairs on my old e36 m3 saloon.

At one point I was looking for a stupid but comfortable estate car. I was eyeing up a near mint Passat W8, but it had a slight crunch from 1st-2nd-3rd gears. Phoned around a few specialists and was told if it's just the clutch the cheapest your talking is £500, but if it was synchros or the box needed replacing I was looking at around £5k.

Needless to say I passed. Seen it advertised 3months later down south in worse nick with the same fault!

Instead of the w8 I bought an Audi S6 avant 4.2 v8. After a couple of years it needed a steering rack. I had a mate who worked at Audi give me a quote for just the rack, with discount at £1000! The funny thing was even Audi didn't know which rack was on it as there was four or five available for that model. I cut my losses with that too!
 
Last edited:
Reading this makes me cringe--I forget these days about VAT!!!!
In my shop and in most places there is no tax on labour.
Now varying from area to area there is some differences in sales tax.

On direct parts sales content the tariff is 4.6 percent.
As yet no tax on internet sales of parts.


Gotta love no taxes and states like Wyoming and Montana that don't have income taxes either.
What is it? No representation without taxation.
BUT unlike the Inland Revenue you can be a pig with the IRS but not a hog--'cos they get slaughtered--gives rise to the expression Pigs will be fed hogs will be slaughtered!
Tuercas Viejas

You're an enigma. :dk:
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top Bottom