Did I pay too much for this clutch replacement

Good morning everyone,

So I had my Eaton clutch replaced recently and all my O/O friends are telling me I paid way too much. I too believe it’s too much for what you get, but here’s the issue.

I have a ‘98 Volvo Eaton 13 Trans. I had a rear main seal fail and the oil saturation was burning out the clutch. I called 4 shops, 3 Arizona, 1 Las Vegas, NV. They all told me essentially the same thing “Volvo’s are much more labor intensive, 15hrs minimum.” They were saying this is because the transmission holds the motor up and they share mounts. I’m not a mechanic, but I don’t see how that makes it way more difficult. Long story short I felt I had to trust these people based on them all saying the same thing. Had to chose someone right? So I went with the Vegas shop. They replaced rear main seal, clutch, clutch brake (I supplied), slave & master cylinder, trans oil line, new turbo exhaust pipe, weld on other exhaust leak, clutch gear, a power steering line and had them reattached a hood latch that came loose.
Flywheel was good.

1’st quote $3,300
Oh it’s a Volvo
2’nd quote $4,000
New discoveries
3’rd quote $5,800
Arrive at the shop
$7,700

I honestly didn’t know what to say when I saw that except after he said “it’s a little more than we discussed” I said it’s a lot more in which he responds yeah, a lot more…

So I paid the guy and left and luckily had my most profitable week ever the 1’st week of January. Lucky me because that nearly broke me for the 3’rd time. Now I’m writing this on the side of the road because I somehow lost all the fluid out of my brand new Slave/Master Cylinder reservoir. Can’t find the leak and it’s a blizzard outside.

Like I said all my buddies telling me they don’t care it’s a Volvo I doesn’t take that long or cost that much more.

There you go

Thoughts?

 

It’s true they never have, they never had a clutch/transmission issue with the few that have owned one.

What do you think about that price. All those parts were pretty good on price, it was the labor that killed me. They only charges $125/hr which is hard to come by today. I am a bit suspicious why it was almost $2,000 more than my last quote, but mechanics are notorious for bad communication. It was good up until that last quote.

 

I’ll see if I have a digital copy of that, I just filed everything at home for taxes. Everything added up on it, it’s just a matter of believing it or not.

What is you experience with transmissions on an older model Volvo truck?

 

Thanks for the insight.

I’m not complaining about my bill, just saying I was a bit blindsided by it. For the most part I like those guys and I have since used them for a PM service as my oil shipment wasn’t going to arrive in time. I’m mechanical, but not a mechanic. The most I’ve done was replace my injector wiring harness, so as far as transmission work goes that’s not something I’m going at alone especially with the knowledge it’s more labor intensive than the rest. I don’t have the equipment for it either, transmission jacks and such. You’re explanation sums it up I couldn’t picture it exactly before.