Did we get screwed again?

My wife brought her 99 voyager in to mechanic and he told her it
needed new swaybar links. I stopped by and told him he did them in
December of 05. 16mos ago. He said one was bent and the other one
was gone.

My wife stoped by to pick up the car and it wasn't ready. The kid
told her he could do them in 20 minutes. She told kid forget it, she
didn't have the time.

So she picks up the car the next day and bill is $220. I just checked
price on web - $33 each.

So he musta marked them up 100% and charged her an hour labor. Seems
kinda steep to me, especially when the first set got afu so fast.
Still a clunking in the front end so I'm not even sure droopy put em
in right this time.

Last mechanic charged me $220 for a brake hose job and when I told him
he was full of shit he told me there was a proportioning valve in the
hose.

regards,
F***ed again

 

I just replaced a sway bar link on my 99 voyager so it would pass state
inspection. It was an easy job that took about half an hour.

 

There's no excuse for not doing your own sway bar links. No matter how bad
a mechanic you are, at least you won't sabotage anything, and the labor is
all free.

 

I had sway bar bushings put in in my 1990 Caravan. The bill came to
$175. Labor isn't cheap these days. The car was much quieter for a few
months but now the clunks are back.

I had new sway bar links put in my 99 ford. The car then had front end
noise it didn't have before. I took it to the dealer who found the
bolts were loose on both sides.

The lesson to be learned: Independent mechanics can save you money, but
check the reputation of the garage first. The other moral to the story
is that mechanics labor is not cheap anywhere.

 

List price at NAPA
Master Ride $53.00
NAPA Chassis Parts $72.00
List price at CarQuest
Mevotech $43.00
Moog $74.00

I'm not certain what the web price you found has to do with this
particular shop and who they get their parts from.

Looks to be right in line to me.

Depends on whether you chose bargain priced links or ones with
lifetime warranty. At 16 months, the cheapies would be out of
warranty.

Quit going to 'droopy."

What vehicle?

 

Most of this clunking noise in the front of these Vans is caused by the
factory sway bar bushings, and, not the sway bar links. I also was told the
sway bar links were bad and replaced these myself. Not the problem. I put in
a set of sway bar bushings "red plastic" from Advance Auto Parts and it
fixed this noise. Good luck,

 

Honest mechanics and honest shops are the answer.
Unfortunately they seem to lose a bit of honesty if they see you as a
good paying customer.

So true, here the Chrysler dealers rate is similar to the smaller
garages, plus they even can save you money by getting it right the first
time.

 

Consider that the mechanic doesn't buy from the cheapest place on the
web he can find. Check NAPA prices and dealer prices to compare.
There is a large markup on parts. Mostly because the mechanic has to
eat the labor to replace the part if it fails under warranty.

These are easy to replace. If you aren't happy with the mechanics
price why not quit paying him to do everything and do this stuff
yourself?

Steve

 

Yea Steve, maybe I'll start working on cars again. My project car is
taking up the garage right now. I'm thinking of building a barn and
putting a lift in it, and It'll probably pay for itself in the long
run.
Bob

 

In fact he generally buys the low-end part (for maybe what you can buy
the quality part for on-line) at the auto parts store down the street
with his business discount, and charges you, his customer, full list
(often more than that customer can buy it for at the same store). I'm
not criticizing him for this - just merely pointing out a reality.

Check NAPA prices and dealer prices to compare.

Good points.

Up to about 6 or 7 years ago, I did 99.9% of all the work on my own
cars. I'm at the age now where I have to take it to a local shop for
the more major things (and occasionally take on some things that I now
have no business doing). The shop I deal with allows me to buy my own
parts and bring them to them, and they charge the same labor that they
would if they were supplying the parts. What I am giving up is their
guarantee of the parts and labor to install said guaranteed parts if
they fail. What it does is allows me to buy the best brand and quality
parts for between 1/2 and full cost of what they would be charging me
for the no-name low-end part from the local parts store. So I'm
basically self-insuring, which over the long run pays off with the much
better parts for a little less or about the same as what I would be
paying them for the same job with inferior parts (that would need
replacing again, or would need replacing much sooner).

Bill Putney
(To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my
address with the letter 'x')

 

Vehicle was Chrysler Cirrus. It had the right rear hose problem
where the thing gets plugged (or kinked) and the fluid doesn't release
properly and the RR shoe gets smoked. After mechanic repaired shoe
the first time the thing was smokin hot when my daughter got it home.
I found the hose problem on the web and told him to replace it. I
told my daughter not to bring it there in the first place. The
buttplug tried to sell her older sister a $600.00 brake job on a
Toyota Corolla. I changed the front pads and she got 3 more years out
of car. He is the same asswipe that ran into my friends car with a
plow. He denied it and finally admitted when the neighbor showed up
and said,"Oh yea, I saw him hit the car with plow."

The whole point of my post was that I don't think the first pair
should have gotten bent and fallen out. My wife doesn't go 4 wheelin
in her minivan. I think he should have given us a break on the job
instead boning me. He could have charged me the 100 bucks for the
parts and 50 to put em in. I am(was) good customer with 8 cars in my
family.