3

Because the cost of labour varies dramatically from country to country, region to region, city to city and sometime even suburb to suburb it doesn’t make much sense to ask how much the labour portion of a clutch replacement should cost, but it does make sense to ask how many hours labour would be involved. There are probably 4 different setups that may (or may not) have dramatically different answers.

  1. Front Wheel Drive
  2. Rear Wheel Drive
  3. Transverse Engine All Wheel Drive
  4. Longitudinal Engine All Wheel Drive

So for each of these setups (and any others I might have missed), Approximately how many hours of labour would a professional mechanic be charging for when doing a clutch replacement?

Obviously there will be a fair amount of variance between different vehicles, but I’m just looking for some approximate guidelines.

Improve this question
6
  • 5
    Without a specific model,transmission,year etc, in mind I believe it is unanswerwble.There is just to many variables to consiser.
    – mikes
    Commented Mar 8, 2012 at 11:11
  • 1
    @mikes I don't agree or I wouldn't have asked. From my own limited experience I know the rear-wheel drive setup is easily answered to within an hour or two. The front-wheel drive may have a little more variance but I have less experience with them so I might be wrong. I have no experience with either of the all-wheel drive setups, so perhaps the variances here might be too large to give a useful answer but I doubt it. I'm not looking for a down to the minute answer here, just a very rough guide to show just how much (or little) labour is required to change a clutch.
    – Scott
    Commented Mar 8, 2012 at 11:43
  • 1
    @mikes, if Scott's intention is to create a reference with annotated examples, the generally accepted approach is to turn the whole question into a community wiki. I believe that that would address your concern (mike's) while also helping Scott to put together a reference.
    – Bob Cross ♦
    Commented May 3, 2012 at 11:53
  • Scott - when I clicked "edit" on the question, community wiki was a checkbox to the lower right of the text entry area. This question is a good one to think hard about during the beta, although we might want to put the discussion on meta rather than here.
    – Bob Cross ♦
    Commented May 9, 2012 at 1:02
  • @BobCross thanks Bob. That checkbox wasn't available for me. Must be only for Moderators or possibly people with more than xxx reputation points.
    – Scott
    Commented May 9, 2012 at 1:05

5 Answers 5

Reset to default
6

As mike mentioned in the comments without the specific make model the numbers won't do you much good. Professionals use a labor time guide to look up the amount of labor time to charge for a job. Labor time guides are used because times for a job vary wildly from on year to the next, engine size, make, model etc. Some vehicles will require the sub-frame and engine to be removed while others simply need the transmission slid back to replace the clutch.

Off the top of my head Two rear wheel drive examples 2000ish Chevy truck 3-4 hours, 1989 Porsche 944 14 hours. Now I realize those are extreme examples but this is why you need to know the make model year, engine size etc to get a number that will do you any good.

Improve this answer
1
  • Thanks Larry, that last part is exactly what I was asking for: an extreme example for each category and a sensible middle ground example as well. So we've made a good start, now we just need examples for the other 3 categories.
    – Scott
    Commented May 3, 2012 at 2:25
5

This is a community wiki answer so anyone is free to edit it.
So if you know a sensible answer to any of the unknown parts below, please feel free add some useful information.

Front Engine Front Wheel Drive

Minimum Time: 2 hours Example Vehicle: SAAB 900 (original, not the "new 900")
Average Time: 6 hours Example Vehicle: 1991 Eagle Talon
Maximum Time: 12 hours Example Vehicle: 2002 Audi A4 FWD

Front Engine Rear Wheel Drive

Minimum Time: 3 hours Example Vehicle: 2000 Chevy Truck
Average Time: 5 hours Example Vehicle: 2008 Holden Commodore
Maximum Time: 14 hours Example Vehicle: 1989 Porsche 944
(from Larry’s answer)

Transverse Engine All Wheel Drive

Minimum Time: xx hours Example Vehicle:
Average Time: xx hours Example Vehicle:
Maximum Time: xx hours Example Vehicle:

Longitudinal Engine All Wheel Drive

Minimum Time: xx hours Example Vehicle:
Average Time: xx hours Example Vehicle:
Maximum Time: xx hours Example Vehicle:

Longitudinal Engine 4 Wheel Drive

Minimum Time: 4 hours Example Vehicle: 1997 Jeep Cherokee
Average Time: xx hours Example Vehicle:
Maximum Time: xx hours Example Vehicle:

*The above data would be better formatted as a table, but unfortunately the Stack Exchange implementation of Markdown doesn’t support tables at this time. If and when it does, feel free to re-format into a table.

Improve this answer
3
  • Are you intending to make this a community wiki question (i.e., not just this answer)?
    – Bob Cross ♦
    Commented May 3, 2012 at 3:01
  • @BobCross I hadn't considered it, but sure, if that's the done thing. Let me know if I should and I will.
    – Scott
    Commented May 3, 2012 at 5:44
  • I'm not sure if e.g. "2 to 12 hours" is useful information. Around my area that's a $220 to $1320 labor cost, not a good range for estimating a cost.
    – Jason C
    Commented Jul 28, 2016 at 2:16
3

Look, my father is a certified mechanic, and in most cases it only takes about six to eight hours to do the job. Unless of course you own a Porsche, then 14 hours may seem like a reasonable amount of time.

Improve this answer
2

It depends so much on the design of the vehicle, for example the original SAAB 900 (don't know about the "new 900") was built so that you just pulled off the cover over the clutch (which was in the front of the car, the engine was in backwards), removed another cover from the front of the transmission and popped out the clutch shaft, pulled a few bolts and dropped in the new clutch. It was a beautifully engineered set up. It's been a while, but I don't think the job took even two hours, start to finish.

Improve this answer
2

In INDIA, it takes around 6 hours at a local mechanic and around 6-8 hours at an authorized workshop, for a TATA indica V2 model.

Improve this answer

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .