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jontss t1_j243ran wrote

Reply to comment by DragoonXNucleon in ELI5 why do electric vehicles have one big battery that's hard to replace once it's expired, rather than lots of smaller ones that could be swapped out based on need (to trade off range/power/weight)? by ginonofalg

There are multiple YouTube videos of people fixing battery packs for free or nearly free where the dealers insisted the whole thing needs replacing. In one case it was just a dirty connecting plate.

But this applies to most car repairs. $3 microswitch on the lock assembly failed? Sorry, you need a $300 lock assembly. Oh your turn signals stopped working because of some oxidation on the column contacts? Well we could spray 20¢ of contact cleaner on it but instead we want $1000 to replace the stalk assembly.

Could go on and on.

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danielszajkowski t1_j248o2h wrote

There are multiple reasons why you can only buy things as assemblies.

Including having few parts to keep in stock. And some of these parts are not designed to be taken apart. Plus the labour to change the failed part of the assembly can be cost more then then new assembly. Assemblies are designed to reduce the overall cost. Especially with parts the rarely fail.

And as for you oxidation example. If you would take apart the column, clean the switch contacts. Charge the customer.

Now a week or year goes by, and the switch doesn’t work again. Either the contacts are still corroded or a spring broke inside. The customer would expect this to be covered. But since you didn’t replace any parts, there is no warranty. So either the tech or the shop does it for free. Or you loose a customer because they pay for the “same repair” again.

But if you replaced the switch, the odds of it failing again within the warranty period are much lower, because every component is new. And if something does go wrong, both the parts and labour are covered.

Now if you DIY, and don’t value your time. Then go ahead go for it.

Or if it’s an older vehicle and parts are discontinued, it may make sense to try and repair the part.

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jontss t1_j263lz1 wrote

The labor for the column was near zero. Spray WD40 in the column. Fixed for another hundred thousand km.

The switch replacement was literally remove the assembly, unbolt the switch, bolt a new one on. About 5 minutes of extra labor vs replacing with a new one. No way that adds up to $300.

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danielszajkowski t1_j26o5lp wrote

WD40 is not a contact cleaner.

Diagnosing a problem at a shop is usually at minimum 1hr. Currently the shop rates are about $150/h

Book time on replacing the switch would vary from each make and model. But I would expect it to be no less then 1.0h

Then to take apart the switch, inspect what is wrong. Repair the corrosion. (Which is more then just spraying “wd40”). Test the switch. Verify the repair. Reassemble. Document the repair. I would expect 1.5-2.0 hours.

So your probably just about 4 hours, which is $600 plus taxes. With no one covering any warranty.

There is no way a licensed tech is doing that, if they can just replace the assembly. And have the repair covered for parts and labour.

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jontss t1_j26uarv wrote

Fair. It worked.

I'll take my $3 worth of repairs over $600 any day (that didn't include labor btw). But you do you.

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