I need ball joints and tie rod ends on my Iroc. While i am capable of doing this myself , I really don't want to. The mechanic at the local shop is talking 500-800$ to do this. Is it just me or does this guy need to drink his pepsi instaed of denting it up to smoke that s*** he's obviously on?

 

That's pretty ridiculous. I'd shop it around a bit.

 

That's too much. Like, by a factor of 4.

But let me tell you, he will open his Pro Parts book or Peterson's or whatever, and he'll show you the book times; and you can add them all up, and he'll appear to be telling you the truth, and probably even throwing in a couple of bonus hours.

Here's how it works: you say you want ball joints. OK, he opens the book, it says a ball joint takes 1.7 hours (or whatever). There's 2 of them. Then he looks up "control arm bushing". It says a pair of those takes 2.4 hours. OK, the car has 2 pairs. THen he looks up "spring". Book says, 1.4 hours apiece. (I'm making these times up; they're just examples, to illustrate the principle.) There's 2.8 more hours. So by the time you get done, you're looking at some kind of 12-hour labor bill, at $65/hr or whatever; there's your $800.

Funny thing is, you'll take him your car, and it'll be ready in 3 hours.

What just happened?

The book assumes that the car drives in, the tech changes that part all by itself, and the car drives out. So for a control arm bushing, that means the car drives in; the tech pulls the wheel, the brake caliper, the rotor, the bolts that hold the spindle to the strut, splits the ball joint, takes off the sway bar hardware, compresses the spring, removes the CA, changes the bushings, and puts it all back together, and the car leaves. 2.4 hours. I can believe that.

Then the book assumes that the tech is going to change out a ball joint. The car drives in, the tech removes the wheel, pulls the brake caliper, the rotor, the bolts that hold the spindle to the strut, splits the ball joint, takes off the sway bar hardware, compresses the spring, removes the CA, changes the ball joint, and puts it all back together, and the car leaves. 1.8 hours. I can believe that too.

Then we'll do a spring. The car drives in, the tech removes the wheel, pulls the brake caliper, the rotor, the bolts that hold the spindle to the strut, splits the ball joint, takes off the sway bar hardware, compresses the spring, removes the CA, changes the spring, and puts it all back together, and the car leaves. 1.7 hours. I can believe that too.

The thing is, he didn't pull the wheel, caliper, rotor, sway bar end links, strut bolts, and all that, 3 times.

That's how he makes his profit. And a nice tidy one at that.

Go find someone that will charge you the actual labor time for control arm bushings, plus 2 hours. That's about what it will actually take. About a third or maybe only a quarter of what the book says to change each part individually.

 

Thanks I can see what you mean. I think the guy is a ripoff artist personally. The only reason I was taking it to him was because I HATE to be cold , and spring hasn't quite hit here yet. (That and I MIGHT be a tad on the lazy side).