Am I in the Twilight Zone or what?

les-paul man · 08-12-2002, 06:39 AM

my 83sc has been very "spongy" in the handling dept. recently so I decided to have new shocks and have the Turbo tie rod upgrade done.

so I call a dealer and ask for an estimate to have the work done. He tells me "what are you doing today? Just bring the car in and we'll take a look at it" I tell him I don't need to bring the car in, the car runs well, just give me an estimate..He sounds very confused about the Turbo Tie Rod upgrade that I'm talking about, claiming that he's never heard of such a thing...also quotes me 300 for alignment, saying "well, the earlier cars may need more tweaking, possibly 400-500 for alignment"

then I call some other indep. shop - I tell them I have my own tie rods and shocks (brand new) so all they have to do is install...he tells me that with my own parts, there's a 20% overcharge, bringing the rate to $100/hr....6 hrs for shocks/tie rods., plus another 225 for alignment....

bring the total cost to $825

are these people for real? Is there any good shop in Mass. that can do this job without the pain/suffering? thanks.

Oldporsche · 08-12-2002, 06:55 AM

In many cases, the regulars on this board, like you, know their cars better than the repair shops. Yours' is a case in point.

I can believe that a call to a shop would net you an answer of $800 for some "front end work with your own parts." After all, this is a Porsche and you want to take some parts from another model and put them on your car. Then you want them to work correctly and you to be happy with the modification.

Good luck,
David Duffield

roGERK · 08-12-2002, 07:01 AM

Rene of "RenSport" in Framingham can do all that for you - he'll know what you're talking about, and I doubt the cost will be anything near $800.

http://www.rensport.com/

Give him my regards if you decide to go there...

Thanks,

- roGER (Rene will know me as the English guy).

Planter91C2 · 08-12-2002, 07:37 AM

am i in the twilight zone? why does it say you are a new member?

Argo · 08-12-2002, 07:49 AM

Boy, tell me all about it. I just installed turbo tie rods, new Bilstein HD's all around and a new rear axle myself. This morning I called the local P car wrench to get a quote on a lowering (about 1") and an alignment. His over-the-phone quote just for the lowering was for 12 hours of labor. 12 hours? I know lowering the rear can be tough but this sounds way over the top. Sounds like I've got one more project on the list ...

As far as the shocks and tie rods go, have you thought of doing them yourself? I'm just a driveway mechanic with basic tools and I didn't find either project to be particularly hard. Tie rods took about 3 hours (hardest part was getting the old ones unscrewed from the steering rack), front inserts took about 3 hours also and rear shocks were another 2 hours. This includes a few breaks, time to study everything and a few minor missteps along the way. I find it impossible to believe that a professional mechanic with lifts, torches and air tools would take the same amount of time with these jobs as I did in my driveway. Somebody's getting set up for a good $crewing here and it appears to be us!

Argo
88 Targa

pbs911 · pbs911's Garage

Quote:

am i in the twilight zone? why does it say you are a new member?

I think you are thinking of "Les Paul Guy"

You have to remember that wrenchs also makes money on the sale of part. You just have to find one that will work with you.

(Begin vent)
I remember I had a Toyota that the power steering hose wasleaking. I picked one up at NAPA for about $50. They built the car around it so i couldn't replace it. (Another reason I despise Japanese imports.) I took it to the dealer and they wouldn't use the hose I brought them. They said it wouldn't fit and charged me $170 for a new hose. I asked for the old part. When I picked up the car the old part and the NAPA part were IDENTICAL! I took the two hoses to the parts department and customer service rep and showed them the two lines, but they said their wrench couldn't make it fit and they couldn't do anything. Lies! All lies! Since then I have talked at least four friends out of buying Toyotas, and my parents, who took their car to that particular dealer for service, never went back and have since stopped buying Toyota's. In the end they may have made money on the extra part, but they lost and continue to lose in the end.

(End of vent.)

ChrisBennet · ChrisBennet's Garage

When faced with a very high estimate for some work I conclude that they are either inexperienced or crooked. Either way you don't want to have them doing your work.

les-paul man,

Replacing your old shock with Bilsteins will raise the car about an inch requiring the car to be lowered. This what makes the complete job time consuming. When the car is lowered it really ought to be corner weighted - another time consuming job.

Replacing the tie rods and shocks is pretty straightforward. It really helps to have an impact wrench for the shocks. You should do them yourself and then have the alignment and corner weighting done by an indepentant shop. In the Boston area I would recommend EPE. I don't actually know of any _bad_ ones in the Boston area. Some are kind of expensive, but I haven't heard of any that actually did poor work.

I'm not a mechanic, but I believe that most small independant shops are not getting rich and I believe that they are certainly as entitled to refuse to use your parts as a restaurant would be to refuse to cook food you brought. Parts and Labor is how they make their living after all.
-Chris