Garage tried to “flex their years of experience" at me into a gearbox repair for a W204 ABS issue. Am I being ripped off?
Hey guys, looking for some perspective on a situation with a local garage in the UK. I drive a
2009 Mercedes C200 CDI and the issue is a classic ABS/ESP lights, and the car dropping into "Ghost Neutral" (disconnecting drive). I’m a student, so I did my homework. Based on the symptoms and the data link between the ABS sensors and the Transmission Control Module (TCM), I’m 99% sure it’s a corroded rear ABS reluctor ring sending garbage data. I took it to a "Bosch Approved" garage. I explained my diagnosis, and the guy at the desk immediately dismissed me, saying "We don't work on automatic gearboxes" and assuming it was a transmission failure. When I explained the technical logic (ABS ring failure causing the TCM to fail-safe), he pulled the "35 years of experience" card. He literally told me: "I won’t have you teaching me my profession."
The Quote (so far):
£245 for a Major Service/MOT bundle (Agreed).
£79 EACH for front drop links (including labour).
£180 for handbrake shoes (including labour).
£60 just for a "diagnostic" to confirm which ring it is, even though I told them.
AND he’s saying the reluctor ring is "part of the driveshaft" and he needs to replace the whole driveshaft just to repair the fault, and i forced him to do a diagnostic check to find which side the fault is coming from.
My concern is hes acting like replacing the shoes is a totally separate labour charge, even though he has to strip the hub and remove the discs to get to the ABS ring anyway. I feel like he’s "double-dipping" on labour and using his experience to bully me since im a student.
I told him I have a £500-550 limit for the whole repair since im aware that the parts don’t cost much and with labour this only adds up to £500-550. He’s calling me back tomorrow with the "final" quote for the ABS fix.
Am I right about the overlapping labour? If the disc is off for the ABS ring, aren't the shoes a quick swap?
Is £180 for handbrake shoes while the hub is already apart as insane as it sounds?
Should I just pay for the Service/MOT and take the car to a specialist for the actual repairs?
Edit - The Garage was actually trying to rip me off my doing a diagnosis of their own for the park brake shoes and ended up quoting me £400 for 2 rear brake pads and discs and brake shoes, and when I told them about the ABS ring initially he told me there were no fault codes stored then they told me that they need to remove the whole driveshaft and when i refused they told me to come down and do the repair on my own being really rude, hence I told them I wont continue the repairs there and they wanted £60 IN DIAGNOSTIC FEES…still looking for other local garages who are genuine enough not to rip u off.