Some shops just replace parts while others will repair parts when possible. We recently had such a situation at our shop which saved our client a substantial amount of money.
The vehicle was a 2006 Nissan Murano with a broken driver’s seat. Our client was driving his vehicle when he suddenly heard a loud crack and the rear of his seat sunk.
Removing the seat and examining it revealed the cause: the cross bar at the rear of the seat had broken on the left side. Two repair options were available: one was to buy a new seat bracket assembly from a Nissan dealer and the other was to dismantle the assembly and weld the bracket back together. Costs for the new part with installation were over $1000.00 but repairs could be done for $350.00. Fortunately this is an all steel part and very weldable. Our client opted for the weld repair and during the process we added some extra metal to reinforce what was a very poorly designed and inherently weak part.
While some jobs require replacing a complete assembly, repairs like this, where possible can save hundreds of dollars and we love to do that whenever we can.
This is the kind of work that we used to expect … and that sadly (and conflicted-ly) as cars get more electron-ified and complex, is disappearing.
Stuff at most repair facilities just gets replaced. It adds to landfills, it adds to costs, it adds to global warming to transport parts all over the globe. Thanks for being so thorough!