club.liberty.asn.au

There were a few things that need to be attended to on my new purchase and I have had a quote which, to me, seems a bit excessive and I'd like to know what you guys think. The car is a MY06 3.0R-SpecB sedan auto

What needs to be done:

Lower control arm bushes replaced
Front discs machined
Front inner CV boots replaced

The mechanic has recommended that, instead of replacing the CV boots that we replace the entire shaft with a new one ($240 each shaft instead of $180 each boot and I tend to agree with him).

Total job he says will take 5 hours and cost $1,300. I've priced some parts and I'm finding it hard to get to that total price myself.

I'm not wanting high performance parts, just the ones that will get me around the country roads I live on.

What do you guys think?

cheers,

bj

Lca bushes from Phat are $250 I think
New shafts $240 ea as stated
I had my discs machined at Subaru on Friday and it was $115

So parts are approx $865 that's $450ish in labour for Lca bushes and the shafts

It all depends what your mechanic charges for labour and how long this would all take

if your lucky enough to find them, you can pick up some perrin LCA bushes for $200 + or - $10

and if its onlt another $60 extra for the CV's then why not spend a bit extra you will have piece of mind knowing your CV's wont fail you!

Whiteline LCA bushes $130
Discs machined $35
Reco'd driveshafts (Ebay) $120ea

Thats actual prices not trade.

Disc's machined for $35 has to be for drop off and pick up - ie you take them off yourself and drop them into a brake machining shop.
This guy is doing drive in drive out so no way in hell he's going to get a price any where near that.

$180 to replace a drive shaft boot is on the pricey side, a boot kit with grease and metal bands can be had for under $25.
The job takes less than an hour to do so labour should not be more than $80-$90.
I do a drive in drive out price of $80 to remove shaft, fit one boot and refit shaft (replacing both boots = $110 all up).
I'm not a fan of the aftermarket drive shafts - the genuine Subaru ones in my experience are a lot better.
They will last more than double the aftermarket ones if you maintain them - ie replace split boots as soon as they occur.

Don’t let mechanics rip you off. I just did my LCA's. Everyone wanted $380-$440. I asked one guy how much just to push the bush in if i bought in the arm. He said the labour would be the same because that’s the hard part!! I ended up taking my arms in to fulcrum, $11 a bush to push in, so it was 270 all up including a $55 wheel alignment from beaurepairs.

If you've got the time and are confident (undoing bolts isn’t that difficult) do a bit of research and have a go yourself.
Should be able to do the lot for $785. New shafts $480, Rotors machined $35, lac and wheel alignment $270

Is replacing shafts and/or boots a reasonably straightforward DIY job? I know I need to replace at least my boots.

My curreent level of DIY is having replaced my intercooler, turbo back exhaust, sway bars, oil changes and other general maintenance.
Doable?

mincedmeat wrote:
If you've got the time and are confident (undoing bolts isn’t that difficult) do a bit of research and have a go yourself.

+1.

This will save you a lot of cash and give you that warm fuzzy feeling of accomplishing it yourself.

mincedmeat wrote:Don’t let mechanics rip you off. I just did my LCA's. Everyone wanted $380-$440. I asked one guy how much just to push the bush in if i bought in the arm. He said the labour would be the same because that’s the hard part!! I ended up taking my arms in to fulcrum, $11 a bush to push in, so it was 270 all up including a $55 wheel alignment from beaurepairs.

If you've got the time and are confident (undoing bolts isn’t that difficult) do a bit of research and have a go yourself.
Should be able to do the lot for $785. New shafts $480, Rotors machined $35, lac and wheel alignment $270

What a load of crap, him telling you that pushing the bush in is the hardest part. Some mechanics really try to use a lay person's ignorance to take advantage. Phat has a machine which pushes the bush in in about 10 seconds, no effort required he just winds the handle down!

The hardest part is cracking the nut on the bolt that goes through the rear bush. I eventually had to resort to heat, wouldn't budge for a long long time

seanmau5 wrote:The hardest part is cracking the nut on the bolt that goes through the rear bush. I eventually had to resort to heat, wouldn't budge for a long long time

You need to bulk up then Sean.

I've not had one yet that I've needed more than my 14" socket bar on.

Grrrrrrr.

seanmau5 wrote:The hardest part is cracking the nut on the bolt that goes through the rear bush. I eventually had to resort to heat, wouldn't budge for a long long time

I just had to learn that anticlockwize is still the same under the car

cruisn wrote:

seanmau5 wrote:The hardest part is cracking the nut on the bolt that goes through the rear bush. I eventually had to resort to heat, wouldn't budge for a long long time

You need to bulk up then Sean.

I've not had one yet that I've needed more than my 14" socket bar on.

Grrrrrrr.

It was difficult! I had a 14" breaker bar extended with some hollow metal pipe & still couldn't get it off!!

cruisn wrote:I've not had one yet that I've needed more than my 14" socket bar on.

Grrrrrrr.

Your manly b1tch stick...

And here I was thinking I was asking a fairly simple question when, really, it's all about the size of your socket wrench and what you do with it....

I really appreciate your comments, though, guys, it's been a great help (some more than others )

Well I now have three quotes:

$1,300
$977
$500

The latter is for the replacement and repacking of the boots only and not the whole shaft.

Machining prices I've had $100, $66 and $80 with bush prices of $297, $130 and $120 plus installation.

I'm tempted to go for the middle quote - the higher one I am sure is taking me for a ride and the lower one is just that little bit too cheap for me that I'm worried and I think I like the idea of replacing the shafts while they're out of the car.

As to doing it myself, I seriously wonder if I have the time and I honestly do not have the confidence to do it on my own without someone there to tell me what I'm doing wrong. And I don't have a 14" socket wrench

cheers,

bj