Mechanics Question?
 

Hello

Just a quick question about how mechanics work.

Let's say your getting a new gearbox put in, will the mechanic put a new clutch provided by me in for free while he's down there?

Cheers!!

Unless he's a friend, it won't be free. :D
You'll be charged for labor by the hour.

You won't get a new clutch if you didn't pay for the part. If you're in doubt, just ask.

I wouldn't expect it for free because you don't need to touch the clutch when you're replacing a transmission. The only thing related to the clutch is the throw-out bearing, which will need to be transferred over from the old transmission, or a new one installed.

He should charge you a minimal fee to replace the clutch, maybe a bit more if he opts to resurface the flywheel, even more so if he chooses to replace the flywheel. I wouldn't expect more than an hour of labour on top of the transmission replacement to re/re the pressure plate and clutch disk once the transmission is out.

That being said, you should have him look at replacing the RMS (rear main seal) and maybe even the IMS bearing since he will have done 80% of the work for those jobs in replace your clutch and transmission.

It depends on the mechanic. Some will, some won't. Remember they're making a bit of money on the parts they sell you. They buy them at wholesale and charge you retail, so by supplying the parts you're cutting into their profit. They will certainly charge you for the labor to install the parts.

That said, my Porsche dealership installed Tarett bushings for me that I supplied. So you won't know until you ask.

In regards to labor - I definitely wouldn't expect it for free - but the clutch install should come at a very reasonable hourly fee since everything is already opened up. If you're a good repeat customer, you'll have a better chance of getting the labor reduced or free. Being nice helps as does not negotiating the mechanic down on his original estimate (so he might have a little extra labor in the bid to throw at the clutch install and not hurt his profitability). If you're a difficult customer or negotiated the original estimate, your chances of free are fairly low to no way in hell.

As to whether the mechanic will install parts that you provide - it depends on the mechanic. Some will, many won't. First, as Husker explained, the shops make money on the parts they sell and they get better pricing from their suppliers on quantity, so the more they buy, the more profit they make. Second, they don't want to be blamed when the cheap part that an owners supplies fails and the job needs to be re-done.

I highly suggest becoming as friendly with your mechanic/local shop as you can. Stop in and say hi even when you don't need service. Build a relationship. Go grab a beer and talk Porsche's. Then when you need a favor, you're be in a position to ask as a friend and not come across as just another jerk with a Porsche who doesn't want to pay full price. :)

If..If..If..
 

As stated they make money by selling parts as well as labor. If they are willing to do it with supplied parts and If the clutch went in with no problems I would expect to pay an additional hour or hour and half of additional labor since the gearbox is going in at the same time. How as the great advise you already have make sure of everything before you go into this. get it in writing and understand that sometimes things do not go as planned.

From a shops view you have to look at this situation a little deeper than you just providing the parts. Yes it shouldn't take more than an hr or so to replace but there are other consequence the shop has to reconsider. If the parts didn't install as planned because of defects who will pay for the extra hrs spent on troubleshooting? If the parts break after 3 months of use who is responsible for the work to be done again? Simple things most shops won't mind doing for free or reduced cost but clutch is a different story.

Imagine this scenario: Mechanic gets the car up on the lift, starts to do the job and finds out there is a problem with one of your supplied parts. Now who becomes responsible for ordering the parts? Who pays for the extra time the car is on the lift, the transmission hoist is in use? The shipping expense and time to box the new but bad parts?

As an owner, I never tried to save the last dime. I tried for the best outcome for both of us. I wanted to be welcome the next time I needed something done for the car.

(I also used OEM parts, not Porsche parts, when I could find an exact equivalent. So it isn't like I didn't want to save when the risk and expense was on me.)

Exactly, I supplied an aftermarket clutch for a Tacoma and after the shop.installed it, it didn't work. Took to Toyota, replaced with OEM clutch, all was good, but I paid twice. I won't supply parts again, if the first shop had ordered the clutch instead of me, they would have been on the hook. Rockauto did refund my clutch but that was a small recompense.

You are supplying the parts but FREE is a big word.
All prior points are very valid. Beyond the time to have the mechanic R/R your supplied clutch, are you reusing your flywheel? Gonna have it checked? If you pull the flywheel, would you like mechanic to inspect or replace your RMS and IMS?
Mouse and cookies.....

After my Son and I were unsuccessful on replacing the starter on his 2000 323ci (one bolt we could not break free after 5 hours), I took it to a trusted shop in town, I could get a starter for $125 and the shop was quoting $175 for Bosch OEM replacement, If the shop used their part, the job had a 5 year parts/ labor warranty. If I supplied the part, I had a 1 year labor warranty.

Given our failure to do the job ourselves I was good with the extra $50.

A repair techs worst nightmare is the guy who sources his own parts on eBay and wants you to install them for free. They might be the wrong parts, an incomplete kit, or just of a quality the tech would never use on a good customers car. I am not saying this is you, but your tech has probably seen this scenario many times and it usually goes badly. He will be uncomfortable doing this unless he is confident tha parts are complete and everything will go well. Most techs will charge more to do this due to all the unknown unknowns that might bite him later.

While the gears are out, have them do the ims retrofit, check the clutch and flywheel for viability, and pay him for his valuable time and expertise. This is how he feeds his family.

I'm also uncomfortable doing this although I have done it in the past.
If you give a tech your part to install, and something related to that part or the part itself fails, the shop loses liability.

I bought all new suspension with the intention of doing it myself, then decided I didn't have the the time, space or the tools to do this right so I brought it to a shop. They installed everything and the alignment was a bit off so they fixed that right away and I was home free.
100 miles later and the car was pulling again. Brought it back to the shop and they couldn't align it and told me the control arms were worn out so I parked it having exhausted that years budget already. I didn't buy cheap parts so I know the shop screwed up, but what could I do except start arguing which would probably not get me anywhere.
Next year, I moved and brought it to a new shop. They told me a couple bolts weren't tightened to spec and I was all fixed up for the cost of an alignment. Lesson learned.

Asking a shop to forgo the margin that they normally earn on a given project (parts & labor) is inappropriate for the reasons already mentioned. Many shops set their target margins on a given project, say a clutch replacement; and when asked to install customer supplied components, they do two things: They get a "hold harmless" release from any liability if the parts are wrong or defective, and secondly they charge you an amount equivalent to that expected margin they would have made, so you still end up paying them what you would have done if they supplied the parts. There is no such thing as a free lunch, and if there was, you wouldn't have time to eat it.

The classic response is ... do you take your own eggs to a restaurant?

I stop by a friend's shop on my way home from work regularly, he runs into this problem regularly. I was there last week and a customer had a 2000 Jeep Cherokee for a cracked exhaust manifold. The customer provided an Ebay stainless replacement that they wanted put on. It fit until you tried to put the intake back on as they are on the same side on the inline 6 and share some of the same mounting bolts. He had the intake on and off 3 times and had to shave it in a couple spots to fit over the new header tubes. Customer was furious with him and he only charged an extra half hour even though he had 2-3 into it. Shops hate customers who supply their own parts and incomplete at that most of the time.