Price seems too high

[mrmora]

After finally getting my car up and running again. I decided it's time to have the alignment done on my car. I took it to a local place, hoping it wouldn't be too expensive. After taking my car and raising it up on the jack stands, they quoted me a price of $1,093 + tax. I knew the alignment and CV boots were bad, but I guess they found other items that needed to be replaced.

Struts (front & back): $328

CV Axle: $379

Tie Rods (Inner & Outer): $386

New Front Tires: (Not sure of price)

Alignment: Free

I called up a mechanic I've been to in the past, he quoted me a price of $1,074, but found it odd and rather crazy that I needed all that at one time. I'm taking the car in tomorrow to have him check it out, but if I do need all that which was indicated by the first place... I don't think those parts are that expensive, are they? Am I just paying for labor?

I can change out the rear struts, but not sure about the front. The other parts, not quite sure how to install them, but they don't seem too difficult.

[Petros]

none of this is very difficult, here are typical prices I paid either locally or from rockauto.com

front struts (KYB gas filled), $70 pair, rear shocks kyb gas filled $40 pair
Labor in home garage without power tools or lift about 4 hours front, 1 hour rear. you will need a spring compressor (you can rent from Autozone for free), or simply remove the strut assembly and take it to a shop to pay them to install the front inserts for you. Rears are easy, no reason to pay a shop to install them. There are a few rubber parts than it might also needs, the strut stops, and boot, but these are cheap, like $20 total.

CV axles, new EMPI pair $120. About 45 min to 1 hour per side in home shop, you are most of the way there once you have the front struts removed anyway, only adds about 30 min total if you have struts removed anyway (remove with the steering knuckle attached).

Inner and outer tie rod ends, both sides about $75 (if you actually need both on both sides, kind of rare all would be bad), steering bellows boot, about $10 each. these are not hard to replace if you have the correct tools to break them loose, sometimes they are really stuck. You will have the outer one disconnected when you remove the strut anyway, inner one can be pain to remove without a really large open end wrench that fits perfectly on the joint. Might consider buying one just for this job. About one hour per side if not stuck too bad. soak in penetrating oil or ATF helps sometimes.

Alignment is usually about $75 to $100, can be done by yourself but a good shop can do a good job of it and save wear on the tires. make sure all of the parts noted above are good or have been replaced before you have it aligned.

BTW, you do not need new struts to get alignment (it will not affect alignment), if they are not leaky and still dampen they can stay in place. bounce the car up and down from the bumper, if it stops after half of travel cycle, they are good, if it goes up and down one full or more cycles, need new ones.

Stock tires are usually only about $40-60 each, depending on quality you get. Or you can spend $25 on used ones from the wrecking yard.


If you can do this yourself than you can save about $700, which includes paying for the wheel alignment. It will take you better part of a long saturday to do all of this if you have all the parts you need and all the tools necessary. But before I bought anything I would verify it actually needs all those parts, and I would not go back to that shop again.

good luck.