Clio II 1.2 steering rack replacement

[Mostro]

A friend has just been quoted £730 to have her steering rack replaced - insurance company dispute over whether it is accident damaged related or not - are they taking the pi$$ or is it really a big job?

How much for parts / how many hrs labour?

Anyone in the trade able to confirm/deny?

cheers
M

 

[Fred@BTM]

yes they're taking the piss, a recon rack (assuming its electric PAS) is under £100, new rod ends are £10 each roughly and its no more than 2 hours to bolt it on

 

[Mostro]

Cheers Fred - suspected as much. How much is a new Renault rack, roughly?

 

[Fred@BTM]

if its an electric SMI rack (there are 4 different ones listed) its £292+vat

 

[Mostro]

Cheers. In which case, with a couple or 3 hours of labour (it's a Ford delearship, approved repairer) + VAT you can see see how they are getting to north of £700!

 

[Fred@BTM]

as i said though, recon rack sub £100 winner! i use one on my track car

is the existing one bent etc?

 

[Mostro]

I don't know the full story - think it's 'clonking' and they think something 'has broken inside the sealed unit'. Started after minor scrape where a car pulled out of a side road and scraped all down the side of the Clio, including wheels & tyres, so logic says it is accident-related but insurance company are arguing that can't be proved.....