I came to this newsgroup last year when a Goodyear mechanic reversed the polarity on her battery and tried to charge us for all sorts of extra things, and everyone was extremely helpful, so I figured I"d bring this up here too. :)
My wife's '95 Mercury Tracer has had bad shocks/struts and springs for about a year, and we're thinking that it's probably about time to pony up and fix them. We brought the car into a shop for an estimate, and I was a little shocked by the price. However, having never had to do this before, it may be a perfectly acceptable cost so I figured I'd run it by here as a sanity check.
The otherall cost is $954.63. Here's the breakdown on the quote:
Labor: Shock/Strut Assembly-Remove and Install - 2.5 hours @ $67/hr = $167.50 Labor: Spring/Top Mount-Remove and replace - 0.6 hours = $40.20 Labor: Strut-Remove and replace - 0.6 hours = $40.20 Parts: Shock/Strut assembly, qty 1.5 @ 79.62 = $119.43 (part no F4CZ 18124 C) Parts: Shock/Strut assembly, qty 1.5 @ 79.62 = $119.43 (part no XS4Z 18124 AA) Parts: Coil Spring, qty 2 @ $100.24 = $200.48 (part no 2775382) Parts: Coil Spring-Var Rate, qty 2 @ 94.33 = $188.66 (part no 2775374)
Total: Parts ($687.86) + Labor ($266.77) = $954.63
A few questions on the quote that I didn't ask while I was at the shop (and will ask before I decide to do this) is why do I need 1.5 shock/strut assemblies? Why isn't that a whole number?
Second, any ideas what "coil spring-var rate" is? Are there two springs in front and two in back?
So I'm just curious if this quote is in the ballpark range or not. If it matters, we live in the Twin Cities, MN area. We havn't had any reason to think that this is a bad shop, but sanity checks are still a good thing.
We were told that there's a crack in one of the springs, and that the drive will be much better once this is all replaced. It's been like this for a year, and while it isn't the most comfortable drive, how much urgency should this be given? Were we stupid for even waiting the year? Thoughts and opinions greatly appreciated :)
Thanks for everyone's help! CW