No-start diagnostic estimate template for mobile mechanics

“It won’t start” is a call where it’s easy to end up working for free. You drive out, you find the problem, and the customer says “if that doesn’t fix it, I’m not paying” or asks you to take the diagnosis off the bill. The fix is two estimates: one for the diagnosis, approved before you open the hood, and one for the repair, approved after you know what’s wrong.

Estimate 1: the diagnosis (copy this)

Your business: name, phone, email
Estimate number and date:
Customer: name, phone, email
Vehicle: year, make, model, engine, VIN, odometer
Where the car is: street address of the driveway or lot

What the customer told you: (cranks but won’t start, no crank, clicks, starts then dies, warning lights, when it last ran, anything done to it since)

Line items:

Type	Description	Qty or hours	Rate or unit price	Line total
Fee	Mobile service call	1	$___	$___
Labor	No-start diagnosis, first hour	1 h	$___ per hour	$___

Total for the diagnosis: $___

What this covers: finding the cause of the no-start and writing a repair estimate. The repair itself is a separate estimate.
If the diagnosis runs past the first hour: I’ll stop and ask before going further.
Customer OK to proceed: name, date

Estimate 2: the repair (copy this)

Diagnosis result: what you found, in plain words the customer can repeat to a spouse
What you checked to find it: (battery and load test, crank voltage, fuel pressure, spark, codes, security light)

Type	Description	Qty or hours	Rate or unit price	Line total
Labor	Repair: ___	___ h	$___ per hour	$___
Part	___	___	$___	$___
Part	___	___	$___	$___

Subtotal: $___
Tax: $___ (on the lines your state taxes)
Total: $___

Customer OK to proceed: name, date

What others publish for a diagnosis

Published diagnostic fees and call-out practices, read in October 2026. No publisher we checked states how long a no-start diagnosis takes, so this page prices it by the hour and leaves the time to you.

Source	Published figure
Airtasker (mobile mechanics), diagnostic row	$80 to $150
Supercanic, Southern California	$90 to $150 for diagnosis, covering travel and the time to test the vehicle
EC Mobile Auto Services, Sacramento	$65 for a check engine diagnosis, and a $0 service call inside its service area
EC Mobile Auto Services, on other California mobile mechanics	a service call or trip fee of $25 to $75 on top of the repair

A filled-in example

These are example numbers. The $140 for the call and the first hour sits inside the $80 to $150 and $90 to $150 ranges above. Your rate and your area decide the real ones.

Estimate 1, a car that cranks but won’t start:

Type	Description	Qty or hours	Rate or unit price	Line total
Fee	Mobile service call	1	$40	$40
Labor	No-start diagnosis, first hour	1 h	$100 per hour	$100

Total for the diagnosis: $140. No tax in this example, because neither line is taxed here.

Estimate 2 comes after the diagnosis. If you found a failed fuel pump, it carries the pump, the labor to replace it, and anything else the job needs, each as its own line.

How to price a no-start call

Get the diagnosis approved first. The service call and the first hour of diagnosis go on paper before you touch the car. That way the conversation about money happens before the work, not after it.

Price diagnosis by time, not by the answer. A dead battery can be quick to find; an intermittent security fault can eat an afternoon. Quote the first hour, and stop to ask before you go past it.

Don’t promise to take the diagnosis off the repair. If you choose to credit it when the customer approves the repair, write that on the estimate. If you don’t, write nothing and charge it. Saying it out loud and forgetting it later is where the arguments start.

Write what you found in plain words. “Power and ground at the fuel pump connector with the key on, and the pump does not run: failed fuel pump” tells the customer you did real work, even if the fix is quick.

Split the repair from the diagnosis. A second estimate for the repair gives the customer a clean yes or no, and gives you written approval for the bigger number.

Build it in GarageSolo instead of on paper

Start a job with the customer and the vehicle.
Add the service call as a fee line and the first hour of diagnosis as a labor line.
Turn the screen around: that’s your diagnostic quote, two lines.
Back in range, share the estimate link. The customer approves it there, with no login, before you start.
After the diagnosis, write the repair the same way: labor lines, part lines, and taxable lines marked, with the subtotal, tax and total added by the app.

The diagnostic fee sits on the estimate as its own line, approved from the link before the work starts. You can write it up with zero bars in the driveway. It saves on your phone and syncs when you are back in range. Sharing the link needs a signal.

When the work is done, create the invoice from the job and email it to the customer.

The Free plan has no card and no time limit, with 5 invoices a month.

Start free

No-start diagnostic questions

Should a mobile mechanic charge a diagnostic fee?
That’s your business decision. If you charge one, put it on an estimate the customer approves before you start, as its own line next to the service call.

What if I find the problem in five minutes?
Charge what the estimate says. The customer approved the service call and the diagnosis before you started, and finding it fast is the skill they called you for.

What if the customer won’t approve a diagnostic fee?
Then you know before you spend an hour on the car for nothing.

Can I combine the diagnosis and the repair on one estimate?
You can when you already know the problem, like a battery that tests dead. When you don’t know yet, two estimates keep the first yes small and the second one honest.