Last weekend our 2005 Ford Ranger (3.0 4x4) let us down for the first time in its life by deciding to go "click" when I turned the key.

 

Of course it did this in Tesco's car park, got a taxi home with the shopping and returned with the other car and step-son to tow it home, of course it was pissing down, dark, busy, I lost count of how many vehicles tried to get in between the two cars (25' tow rope). Ford started from a bump on the tow.

 

It needed a new battery anyway, so I bought one, but still it went "click".

 

Took it to our local man with a spanner today (Sunday) at 9.30AM (tow start again), got a call at 3.30PM, it's fixed.

 

Cost 1,800 Baht for a new starter solenoid and starter brushes (got the old bits).

 

Just over 40 Squid for same day fix, parts and labour. No way in heaven or earth would that happen in the UK (and on a Sunday? You must be joking), but was it a good price for Thailand?

 

Comments welcome of course or I wouldn't be posting.

 

It's pretty close....Had our Toyota starter do about the same, only could keep cycling the key & eventually the starter would turn without the click/raspy noise....

Took it to my normal shop &, of course, we could not duplicate it...They pulled the starter & replaced the contacts while updating on Line with pics.....

I believe it ran about 1600B and it's been about a year and a half with no further starter problem.....

Also received the old parts, as this shop routinely does when practical....

I'd say you did ok.....

Agreed. Good deal.

I would have charged 39 quid plus beer, so l reckon you came out on top...

PS...Aging starter brush dust is usually the starters thorn..

Yes, good for there.

 

x10 over here, and no, never at a whim on a Sunday... one would have to book it in well in advance for a start unless you knew the mechanic well. Some things just get done so well over there and I hope it never changes.

The beast actually spins over far better than it has for a looong time, so evidently, the solenoid contacts have been on the way out for a while.

 

But of course, as an engineer, I subscribe to "if it ain't *****d don't fix it", so never really looked into it.

There are a few cost benders living in Thailand and this is definitely one of them .

HA!!!  You should have taken it straight there & maybe put the new battery off for another 6 months or year. 

So did you DIY shoot your self in the foot???  Maybe, Maybe not.  555

Please make this a special note for all the Thai haters out there who say they never do anything right.

They do get a lot of things wrong but some of these guys are just magic.  And on a Sunday too.   Great. I would have been v. happy.

 

I have had good experiences with local mechanics but Toymotor servicing is so cheap that 6 years and 130k later we still have our truck serviced every 10k km by Toyota.  Hopefullty they will do things by the book and save breakdowns.  They already saved us of a possible breakdown with the battery nearly out of time (I knew it was on the way out but they picked it up at service & thereby passed my test.)

6 minutes ago, The Deerhunter said:

HA!!!  You should have taken it straight there & maybe put the new battery off for another 6 months or year. 

Indeed, but the battery was at the point where it needed a charge on Friday night to guarantee a start at 5.30 on Saturday for a trip to the market and Makro, it was going to need replacing soon anyway.

I don't think the price is out of the way at all. Certainly not for same day service.

 

Our cars are often missing for a few days at a time when they need to be repaired.

3 hours ago, Crossy said:

No way in heaven or earth would that happen in the UK (and on a Sunday? You must be joking), but was it a good price for Thailand?

 

You should have started a thread just asking what would be a good price for the job, without mentioning that you paid already.

3 hours ago, Crossy said:

Indeed, but the battery was at the point where it needed a charge on Friday night to guarantee a start at 5.30 on Saturday for a trip to the market and Makro, it was going to need replacing soon anyway.

Talk about getting them last but out of it........

11 hours ago, The Deerhunter said:

Talk about getting them last but out of it........

Damn Gppgle spell checker.  I am sure I typed "getting the last bit out of it."  555

4 minutes ago, The Deerhunter said:

Damn Gppgle spell checker.  I am sure I typed "getting the last bit out of it."  555

Gppgle is a dodgy site to use....

3 minutes ago, transam said:

Gppgle is a dodgy site to use....

That is why the 555 is there.   Clever of you to spot my joke.  You may be the only one.

New starter solenoid is 120 thb. Starter brushes cost 30 thb. Should not take more time than 2 hours to repair. 240 thb. Total ~ 400 thb. So at 1800 thb you will have been charged the Farang price... 

Compare this to Holland the above is very cheap still:
New starter solenoid costs € 36. Starter brushes replace not possible in Holland (due to guarantee), they will use a new Starter of around € 400.
2 hours to repair. € 120 each hour on a Sunday, so € 240 
Total ex TAX. € 676.

Had my d-max serviced (each 7500 km) at Isuzu 2 months ago. Oil and filters change, total checkup, rear brake shoes replaced, front wheelbearings regreased and adjusted. Sorry, but for 4800 thb total, I am not getting myself wet... ?
 

I am happy to live in Thailand, and I still do some repairs myself, just of the fun of it. 

Well it's a Ford and 13 yo, be prepared for more surprises.

2 hours ago, The Deerhunter said:

That is why the 555 is there.   Clever of you to spot my joke.  You may be the only one.

Does that put him a leg up?

New starter solenoid is 120 thb.

Are you sure ? 120 baht seems too cheap to me...maybe for a starter motor relay ?
Solenoid for my Toyota was 780 baht and starter relay 240 baht.

3 minutes ago, johng said:

Are you sure ? 120 baht seems too cheap to me...maybe for a starter motor relay ?
Solenoid for my Toyota was 780 baht and starter relay 240 baht.

 

2

To clarify, we are talking about the lump on top of the starter motor that pulls the gear into the flywheel and then connects the motor to the battery.

 

Oh, and no farang involvement, all dealings with k. Spanner were via my good lady and her son.

 

Ahh such fun I had doing mine[emoji30] .......not.

1 minute ago, johng said:

Ahh such fun I had doing mine .......not.

I did look at fixing it myself. But since I couldn't even SEE the starter motor, don't have any ramps and am too old and (yes) fat to get under even the 4x4 I was happy to pay the man.

If I had to do it again I'd pay someone else too !!!

19 minutes ago, Crossy said:

To clarify, we are talking about the lump on top of the starter motor that pulls the gear into the flywheel and then connects the motor to the battery.

 

Oh, and no farang involvement, all dealings with k. Spanner were via my good lady and her son.

 

Solenoid.....

1 minute ago, pgrahmm said:

Solenoid.....

Yes, but some, er, older, members (myself included) could refer to the starter relay as the "solenoid" which is associated with the Bendix type starter engaging thingy.

 

This chap.

 

 

20 hours ago, Crossy said:

Indeed, but the battery was at the point where it needed a charge on Friday night to guarantee a start at 5.30 on Saturday for a trip to the market and Makro, it was going to need replacing soon anyway.

it was your weak battery that created the problem in the first place . 

low voltage is the number one cause of pitting on the solenoid contacts . 

so ,yes you screwed your self .

I would never complain about the cost of any car repair in Thailand, because labor costs are so much cheaper than in Australia.

I have a mechanic in Chiang Rai that services my car every 5000 km, 900 - 1000 baht each time. Overservicing perhaps. However, my ageing car has never let me down.

57 minutes ago, Crossy said:

Yes, but some, er, older, members (myself included) could refer to the starter relay as the "solenoid" which is associated with the Bendix type starter engaging thingy.

 

This chap.

 

This, to me, is a starter relay....?

20 minutes ago, pgrahmm said:

This, to me, is a starter relay....?

It's a solenoid, and the pic looks like a remote one for a Mk2 Cortina...

6 hours ago, pgrahmm said:

This, to me, is a starter relay....?

 

6 hours ago, transam said:

It's a solenoid, and the pic looks like a remote one for a Mk2 Cortina...

 

Exactly my meaning above ?