Shop wants to charge me $1700 to replace battery, fuel pump, fuel pump relay, strainer and drop the tank to drain it.

Does this sound right? Fuel pump and battery were replaced 4 years ago but it's been sitting since then.

 

Can you do the work yourself? Are you sure the four year old pump is bad?

 

not to me

 

I would not pay that. Hell, I'd do all that myself. Why do you need to drop the tank to drain it? Why are you changing the fuel pump? A relay is typically plug&play.

The whole thing and price sounds ridiculous.

 

What model C3?

 

That is very high. Take it to a Chevrolet dealership for a second opinion. Even there it would be cheaper.



It is a 1982, though, so the pump is in the tank. Still, that is very high.

 

$1700.....so $125 battery fuel pump $90 fuel pump relay $25 so that leaves $1460 for labor....divided by $90 and hour whats that guestimating 15 or 16 hours...

that seems like about 8 hours too much labor. I have dropped the tank on a 69 and 77 it is work but I don't see 15 or 16 hours

 

Here are the numbers:

Most shop rates are at about $100/hr. Specialty vehicles and dealers run at about $120/hr. So let's assume the higher standard accepted shop rate at $120/hr...

Flat rate for draining the fuel tank and dropping it out on a 1982 Vette is 2.5 hours.

Flat rate to replace the primary fuel pump relay is 0.5 hours.

Flat rate to replace the secondary fuel pump relay is 0.6 hours.

Flat rate to replace the electric in-tank fuel pump is 1.0 hours, but should be discounted if the charge is already taken for the tank R&R above.

Flat rate to replace the battery is 0.5 hours.

Total combined maximum labor: 5.1 hours. At $120/hour, the labor to do the work has a fair market value of $612.00.

Parts cost:
Premium Battery, list price, $150.00
Fuel pump, in-tank electric, OEM quality, List price, $82.00
Fuel pump relay, list price, $54.00
Fuel tank strainer - comes with the fuel pump - no additional cost

Total parts cost at list price: $286.00

Total cost for the work quoted, parts and labor: $898.00

That's the fair market price for that work and the parts. That's not to say that you actually need that work done... you have to be the judge of that. If your car has rust, I'd add about 4 more hours of labor onto the quote if I were doing the work, which brings the cost up to $1,378.00.

Lars

 

I was doing a quick mental computation about hours involved and cam up with the same: it seems very high.

 

Seems high and they could be padding the price for unknown/unseen work.
Were you able to drive the car in or did you call or walk in and ask for a price?
With the help of the forum, the AIM or shop manual and some simple hand tools you could do the work yourself.

 

Was there diagnostic time involved?

 

Those dont all go bad at the same time.
What is the symptom that they are saying "replace everything"?

Take it to a shop that will find THE problem, siphon the tank out...unless its rusted up you should be done.

harbor frieght or any auto parts stores sell a handpump for $12 you can empty in minutes no mess or swallowing that crap.

 

You forgot the standard corvette upcharge....LOL

any shop that sees the word corvette, the price goes up by 20%!

 

I'm willing to bet that if you started a post here detailing the issues you are having with your car, the experts here could help point you in the right direction.

For example, you don't need to drop the tank to replace a fuel pump. I'm assuming you have an 82, that wasn't specified but the on!h year with an electric fuel pump. There are great step by step write-up on this site detailing how to do it. I did last year on my 78 when I switched to fuel injection.

Again, that's just an example. There are ways to bench test the fuel pump relay to find it that is your culprit (where is start first as easy to get to).

Great group of guys here that can help if you can provide more info.

 

And look on this forum for the way to remove and replace the fuel pump without dropping the tank.