Anyone know the book hours for oil pan R&R?

Hey, could anyone tell me the book hours for an oil pan remove and replace? I think was reamed. My local shop charged me $409 for this, which I believe is about 3.5 - 4 hours. I don't feel that's correct.

Any thoughts?

I'm hoping for some detail/ammo to talk with them about it.

linksvu said:

Hey, could anyone tell me the book hours for an oil pan remove and replace? I think was reamed. My local shop charged me $409 for this, which I believe is about 3.5 - 4 hours. I don't feel that's correct.

Any thoughts?

I'm hoping for some detail/ammo to talk with them about it.

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That does seem pretty steep. Probably charged you at least $100 for the gasket set and shop materials. It can be a bitch to get the pan out if it's not lifted and the don't realize letting the front axle droop all the way actually makes it worse. The labor would add up if they decided to unbolt the front suspension to get enough room.



I'd call the dealer and ask for a quote.

That's pretty good. Most shops are in the $100-130 per hour range. Last I checked your labor estimate is pretty correct.

trippled said:

That's pretty good. Most shops are in the $100-130 per hour range. Last I checked your labor estimate is pretty correct.

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You’re thinking it fair time then? The $409 was without material. That was another $85.

Is the jeep lifted? That makes a huge difference, otherwise you have to droop the suspension out, disconnect shocks, etc.

markw said:

Is the jeep lifted? That makes a huge difference, otherwise you have to droop the suspension out, disconnect shocks, etc.

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I got mine out and in on a 95 with just taking he tires off and letting the axle drop. I had to remove the large bolt on the flex plate inspection plate on the lower passenger side and the starter to get enough clearance but it came out.

When I did my 00 though I wound up unhooking shocks and LCAs to get the pan around the girdle.

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It is stock but with the Up Country. I know it can’t be a challenge but I was looking for what the books say it should take a shop because I feel they charged more than it should.

I believe its around 4.3 to change the RMS. The labor they charged seems reasonable to me even if they only changed the oil pan gasket. The days of $45 or $55 an hour labor rates are long gone.

linksvu said:

It is stock but with the Up Country. I know it can’t be a challenge but I was looking for what the books say it should take a shop because I feel they charged more than it should.

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The only affordable way to own a old Cherokee is to do the work yourself
When you have others work on your rig, you have to pay the price.
The "Book" price is what the Factory will pay a mechanic to do a job. It is always the lowest possible price assuming the mechanic has done the job before and already knows the secrets to doing it quickly.
Any delays will exceed the "Book" allotment of time. With shop time running $125 and hour and up, any shop work is expensive.

Until you have done one yourself, you have no idea of the time and effort involved.
There are few other jobs, working on an XJ, that I like less than pulling the oil pan to do a RMS. The rain of dripping oil can go on for days.
For what you spent, you have bought a set of tools and learned something.

FWIW it took me about 4ish hours to do it in my concrete floor garage with jackstands and handtools to do a full RMS and oil pan R/R, and I've done it in the past. I was being lazy and not wanting to do it so I called and got a quote from the local Chrysler place. 1300 dollars. The shop foreman claimed they had to drop the transmission to R/R the RMS. Uhhuh.........

Like stated above the only low cost way is to do it yourself. There's not a whole lot on the XJ that can't be fixed by your average shadetree mechanic and a decent set of tools. Sometimes though I feel lazy and am willing to pay a bit more to have a local independent shop do it.