The upper ball joint on my malibu broke this past wednesday. I was well aware that I needed to do a full rebuild on the front suspension, so about a month or two ago, I ordered the full kit from PSC, and was waiting for a friend at the dealership to guide me through the job on his lift. There was a problem at the dealership and nobody was allowed to do any work after hours, so I had to shop around for someplace else to do it. The first place I went to was a shop that made my malibu pass NYS inspection, and the owner took a real interest in the car and said he loved chevy's. When I went back to him and asked him about the front end he seemed almost excited about it and said he'd do a real nice job, and to buy spray paint so he could paint the control arms, etc., but he didn't quote me a price at the time. Just after that is when my ball joint popped, so I called him and he said to tow it over and he'd start on it immediately. He had the car for the past two days, and I just went to check on him about 20 minutes ago, and he was just finishing putting everything back together, when I noticed that the sway bar was upside down. I ran out to my camaro and double checked, and then politely informed him of his mistake, then left. He's already charging me 10 hours at $60 an hour, and I'm supposed to go pick it up in two hours. What should I say to the guy? I didn't do it myself because I thought the job was a little over my head. Now I really regret not doing myself and saving $600. I want to tell him to figure out how many hours of labor it would have taken him to figure out is F up, and subtract that from my bill. Anyone have any advice? I have to go pick this thing up and pay the guy in an hour and a half.

 

I assume you picked it up already, since it's been 2 days.

$600 for that work is hard to swallow, but do you have a ball joint press? How about a frame press with all of the correct adapters to remove and install the bushings? If not, you don't want to try to take on this job.

I paid over $250 to have A-arm bushings installed and ball joints replaced - and they didn't have to remove or install the A-arms. They didn't paint them, either. I gave up after destroying one bushing trying to remove it (without success), so I didn't have many alternatives.

I don't think you paid too much.

 

Thanks for the reply five7kid. If I had to do it all over again I would have done the disassembly and reassembly myself and had someone else install the new bushings and ball joints on the A-arms. I am happy with the end result, and I have definitely cooled off since saturday. The front end feels straight and tight, and I won't have to worry about it for a long time, so I guess that makes it all worth it.

 

i bet 10 hours is flat rate and it won't matter how long or how quick he did it, the charge is 10 hours reguardless. last complete front end i did took right at 10 hours, on a nice 70 nova. it had the ball joints rivited in, but it's all about the same. i've done a lot of front ends and very seldom take out a sway bar. not sure without looking but i can't quite see the sway bar bolting up to the bushing kit if it was upside down, but i'd have to see it.

 

I would have been charged the same if I had taken the car into them. They said, "You did the easy part." Can't say I disagree with that.

The 3rd gen only has half the number of a-arms a Monte has, and I did the sway bar myself. Like I said, it's hard to swallow, but when you get right down to it, they earned it. Would have taken me a couple of days to do without the proper press (I do have a ball joint press).

 

I'm not sure where you live, but around Fl., it wont cost nearly that much to get ball joints and bearings replaced. $600 isn't bad if you bought the parts off of them, but I think you said you already had them. I never did it before and it only took me 5hrs on jack stands. Just my observations. Hell if prices and wages were the same everywhere, I'd be making much more money.