QUA-IN Services — workshop, Guildford NSW

BAY 01

Servicing

The job that prevents the other jobs. Most of what arrives here as an expensive repair started as a service that got postponed twice.

A minor service is oil, oil filter, and a proper look at everything that wears — belts, hoses, brakes, tyres, fluids, lights. A major adds the filters that live on longer intervals and the fluids that quietly degrade. Which one your car is due for is written in its logbook, and if you have lost the book we will work it out from the odometer.

        
        Minor / logbook serviceOil and filter, fluids topped, full safety inspection, logbook stamped.
        $180–260most 4-cyl cars
      
        Major serviceEverything in the minor, plus air, cabin and fuel filters, spark plugs where due, and a brake fluid change.
        $380–650varies by engine
      
        Oil and filter onlyFor cars on a short interval, or between services on a hard-working ute.
        $120–170oil grade dependent
      
        Written quote before anything startsAlways. It is not a line item and it is not charged for.
        $0included

Why the range. A four-cylinder hatchback takes four litres of oil; a V6 four-wheel drive takes seven of a different grade, and some European engines take a specification that costs twice as much per litre. The spread is the oil and the filter, not the labour.

BAY 02

Brakes, tyres and alignment

The three things that decide whether the car stops where you expected it to.

Pads are a wear item and they are cheap. Discs are a wear item and they are not, which is why pads left too long become a bill four times the size. If you hear a steady scrape rather than an occasional squeal, you are already into the discs.

        
        Front brake pads, fittedPads, machining the discs if they are still within tolerance, and a road test.
        $240–420per axle
      
        Pads and discs, one axleWhen the discs are below minimum thickness and machining is no longer legal.
        $450–890per axle
      
        Four-wheel alignmentPrinted before-and-after readings, so you can see what moved.
        $85–130most cars
      
        Tyre fit and balancePer tyre, fitting only. The tyre itself is quoted separately once you choose it.
        $35–55per tyre
      
        Rotation and pressure checkCheap, boring, and the single easiest way to get more kilometres out of a set.
        $45–70four wheels

On tyre prices. We do not publish a tyre price list, because a tyre is a size and a brand and a load rating, and a number without those three is meaningless. Tell us the size on the sidewall and you will get real figures the same day.

BAY 03

Diagnostics and electrical

A warning light is a sentence with the verb missing. The scan supplies the verb.

Plugging in a scan tool takes ten minutes and produces a code. Working out which of the four things that code can mean is actually happening to your car takes longer, and that is the part worth paying for. We charge for the diagnosis, and if you go ahead with the repair, it comes off the repair.

        
        Diagnostic scan and written reportCodes pulled, live data checked, and a plain explanation of what we think is wrong.
        $95–160credited against repair
      
        Battery, supplied and fittedTested first. A flat battery and a dying battery look identical on a cold morning and are not the same bill.
        $190–340size dependent
      
        Charging and starting system testAlternator output, starter draw, parasitic drain. Free if you are buying the battery from us.
        $60–90waived with battery

What a code is not. A scanner that says "replace sensor" is reporting the circuit the fault was seen on, not the part that failed. Replacing the named sensor fixes it perhaps half the time, which is why we test before we order.

BAY 04

Air conditioning and cooling

Two separate systems that people merge into one worry every February.

Air conditioning cools you. The cooling system stops the engine destroying itself, and it is the one that matters at forty degrees on the M4. Both lose fluid slowly and both give you warning if you are paying attention — the air con goes lukewarm before it goes warm, the temperature gauge creeps before it climbs.

        
        Air conditioning regasEvacuate, leak test, recharge to the plate specification. If it leaks out again, it is a leak, not a gas problem.
        $180–280R134a systems
      
        Cooling system flush and refillCorrect coolant for the engine. Mixing types is a surprisingly expensive mistake.
        $120–190most cars
      
        Cooling system pressure testFinds the slow leak that only shows up as a smell and a slightly low bottle.
        $80flat

BAY 05

Inspections and registration

One of these prices is not ours to set, and we would rather say so than let you assume we chose it.

A pink slip — formally an eSafety inspection — is required before you renew registration on most vehicles over five years old in NSW. The maximum an authorised inspection station may charge is capped by the state, and the current caps are below.

        
        Pink slip (eSafety), light vehicleThe NSW maximum fee, not a workshop price. Nobody may legally charge you more.
        $52state maximum
      
        Pink slip (eSafety), motorcycleAlso capped by the state.
        $29state maximum
      
        Pre-purchase inspectionBefore you buy somebody else's car. Written report, photographs, and a frank opinion.
        $180–290on site or here

A pink slip is a safety check, not a service. Passing one means the car met a minimum standard on the day. It does not mean nothing is wearing out, and a shop that tells you otherwise is not doing you a favour.

BAY 06

The heavier jobs

Where the ranges get wide, and where an honest workshop says "we will know more once it is apart" instead of guessing.

These are quoted individually after an inspection. The figures below are the band most cars land in, published so you are not walking in blind — not so you can hold us to a number we have not yet earned the right to give you.

        
        Timing belt, tensioner and water pumpDone together, because doing them separately means paying the same labour twice.
        $650–1400engine dependent
      
        Clutch replacementKit, machining or replacing the flywheel, and the gearbox out and back.
        $950–2200quoted after inspection
      
        Struts or shocks, front pairReplaced in pairs. One new and one tired is worse than two tired.
        $420–1100per pair, plus alignment
      
        Inspection and written quote for heavy workCredited in full against the job if you go ahead.
        $140credited

The rule we actually run on. If a job turns out to need more than was quoted, work stops and somebody rings you with the new figure. You will never collect a car and discover the price changed while it was on the hoist.

Also made here · small section, deliberately

Vantor Fuel Consumption

Customers kept asking the same question across the counter — has the car started drinking more? — and the honest answer is that nobody can tell without records. So we built an Android app that keeps them: you log the fill-up, it works out the litres per hundred kilometres properly, full tank to full tank, and shows you whether this one beat your usual figure or not.

Honest methodFull-tank to full-tank, with partial fills carried forward and missed fill-ups flagged.

What it costs youCost per kilometre, spend this month and this year, and the average price per litre you have actually paid.

The garageEvery vehicle in the household, each with its own history, fuel type and tank.

RemindersNext service, rego renewal and tyre rotation, by date or by odometer.

Your fuel log is a record of where your car has been and how hard it has worked, which is worth more to other people than most drivers realise. What the app keeps, where it keeps it, and who has been known to want it is set out in the Vantor privacy notice — written as a list of everyone who might come asking.

Leave an enquiry

Tick whatever you think you need as you read down the page, and this builds the message for you. Nothing is sent until you press the button, and nothing is stored on this website — the button simply opens your own mail app with the text already written.

Open my mail app Clear the list

Prefer to write it yourself? workshop@qua-inservices.site. Tell us the car, the year, the odometer and what it is doing, and you will get a real figure back rather than a request to call.