Hey there,

I am new to the site. I just had some work done on my 1993 F150. I had the fuel pump replaced. I guess what I would like to know is if I got swindled in the charges. A fuel pump I could buy myself at Advance would be 139.98 but this repair shop charged me 289.99. Also, how long would it take to replace the pump. My labor came out to be 340.00 for 3 hours. Is this correct? Btw, it is 4.9L 300.

 

Replacing a fuel pump should only take about an hour or 2 at the most. Me and a friend did mine on another car and it took us right at an hour and a half.

 

The pump you got was probably better and more expensive than the one you would have bought. Also I'm guessing replacing it involved dropping and replacing the fuel tank. 2 hours labor maybe. And you have your guarantee you wouldn't have if you did it yourself. I don't see that as out of line at all.

 

dropping the fuel tank doesn't take more than a few minutes. The one we did took about 30 minutes and I'm sure was more complicated than doing an older Ford pickup.

 

You and a friend took 1.5 hours. Two times 1.5 = 3 sounds like what he was charged. Also don't know where he is located but in my part of the country working on a 1993 would be a major fight with rust.

Not trying to argue here just add a second opinion.

 

I replaced mine in two hours and $140 for the pump. I unbolted the bed and had a friend help my lift it off. After the beds off I sat on the tire and took my time and easliy put the new one in. Very easy job with the bed off.

 

I know that a lot of people replace the whole sending unit and all but you should be able to replace just the fuel pump itself. I did it with the neighbors explorer and it costed him $75 for just the pump.

 

Service centers & mechanic shops use a book (or a pricing program) to figure how many "hours" (units used for pricing, not actual time) of labor to charge for a particular service. If you think you got ripped off, try doing it yourself next time and see if your time was worth the savings.

 

For critical or hard-to-replace parts like an in-tank fuel pump, clutch, timing chain, etc., I try to avoid the chain parts store unless I know that I can get a well-respected name-brand part.

Had my go-rounds with AutoZone parts, back when they offered lifetime replacements on just about everything (10-15years ago). It got to the point where the liberal warranty just wasn't worth the time involved replacing everything again, and again.....

Haven't had any shop work done in several years, but even so, it appears that your shop's hourly rate was in excess of $110/hour - seems quite high, I was thinking it should be in the $60-75/hour range by now??? Perhaps other members can offer their knowledge of actual, current rates.

You didn't mention where you had the work done - whether it was the dealership or a local garage. At any rate, the ticket from the parts store I frequent lists the price I paid, and also lists a 'retail' price that is usually anywhere from 50% - 100% higher that what I paid.

This is typically more toward the 50% number for higher dollar parts, and approaches the 100% number for lower-cost items like belts and hoses.

I'm figuring this retail price is what the shop would charge for the parts to cover expenses with obtaining it, and mark-up / profit margin. Remember that a shop is not your buddy coming over to help out for a few beers, they have overhead and other expenses to cover.

So, using the 50% number would put the shop's cost around $190, so I agree that if this is the same process and markup system your shop used, you probably did get a better, higher quality pump than that from Advance.

Overall, I understand your frustration - it appears you paid around $650 for a relatively simple replacement on a 14-year old vehicle. But, what were your other alternatives at the time? Walking or bumming rides is certainly a consideration when deciding on repairs.

*Edit* - geez, gonna have to start looking at the dates of the original posts. May end up trying to answer questions about whether disc brakes, fuel injection, electronic ignition, and motor vehicles in general can ever be as good as drums, carbs, points, and horses :-)~

 

I had to replace a fuel pump on a 93 Dakota about 2 years ago.
The local repair shop wanted $500+ for parts and labor. The fuel
pump alone, from them, was $325. I got a Bosch fuel pump online
from rockauto.com and it was less than $200.

The fuel pump on the Dakota was in the tank itself and their labor charge was about $200 bucks.

Not sure what the labor differences would be from a Dakota to an F150, but the labor seems a little high to me.
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