PeteyV

Dealer is quoting me $2400 to change both my tie rods, both lower control arms, and both front springs. Look up the parts online and they cost about $800 which is close to what the dealership cost would be.

Why are they charging me another $1600? There is no way that this should be that labor intensive, especially when I had my wiring harness changed because of the leaky cam sensors and they quoted 8 hours of labor that.

hcoronado

stealerships are going to do what they do best..........which is steal from you.
try local independent shop my man. good luck.

VVF

Control arms = 3 hours labor, springs = 3 hours labor (shocks come out, get disassembled, new springs installed, shocks reassembled and installed). Tie rods probably another 2 hours.
Still a bit short of 1600. Parts are gonna be marked up probably.
They should have given you a more or less detailed estimate btw.

Holmes5518

There's likely an alignment in that estimate somewhere as well not to mention the initial fee for the diagnosis or service the car was originally in the shop for.

PeteyV

That initial diagnosis fee is supposed to be built into the quote for the repair work as long as it is going to be fixed at the dealer.

They're quoting each job as a separate job even though these parts all would have to come off at the same time which is what irritates me about the quote since I went here for all of my work. I did find another dealer in the area to do the work at almost half the price which boggles my mind in the discrepancies of pricing.

Holmes5518

Technically none of those jobs overlap. They can all be done without removing one of the other components. I agree the pricing was still high. Looks like you found a new dealer to use. They're not all price gougers.

wvadam

I have done all of those things in a residential garage with basic tools. The only thing you couldn't do your self is the alignment but I have done that myself also with a 'good enough' attitude and not noticed any irregular tire wear.

Do not pay that insane amount of money for the repairs. Like other posters said, find an independant if you are not looking to do the work yourself. I admit springs are a challenge for any non-professional mechanic but if you inspect them yourself and don't see any cracking or missing piece of the link you don't need to replace them.

I rented the tool to compress the spring but I don't think I would do it again.

insame1

It is the same reason they quoted me $1600 for plugs and wires. Top gear talked about this and basically said when you go to the dealer they dont care that your car is only worth X because new it was worth Y and that is the class of care they are repairing. Is it worth it? Most of the time no. That being said I recently shelled out $1100 for a repair at a indy that I fell was unnecessary. I didn't know that at the time but after getting the vehicle back it had similar issues. I swapped the battery and it was fixed. I found with the dealer they don't just shotgun parts at things because they have seen the issue before and not how to fix them. We aren't dealing with fords or chevys here.

Kenneth Nelson

I am a auto tech that works and has worked at a dealership for longer than I care to admit or want to. I happen to be the suspension "guy" at my dealership as well.

The question i have is what is the shop rate? I dont work a MB dealer and ours is 105 and hour, MB is going to be more for a number reasons, one is the techs are highly trained. Plus those awesome waiting rooms and that spectacular service it all has to be paid for some how.

Another big reason the Dealership bill is high is the same reason medical costs have gotten outrageous. Most the repairs that come to a dealership in a highly populated area anyway, are warranty claims. As the medical field does with insurance companies, the dealerships do with warranty companies.That is inflate the price of service and parts.

Now we could go on for days about the million little reasons dealerships are so pricey but the easiest quickest way to explain it is, we see the cars from new to the end of warranty, then its very unlikely we will ever see the car again. MB has much much better customer retention but it still happens to them.

BTW we techs dont get the shop rate, around here i know of no one at any dealership that's getting over 35% of the shop rate. We are not salary or hourly either. No work no pay which is usually not a problem but some times Christmas is nightmare.

Going to a well researched well respected private shop for work on your Older MB or out of warranty MB is by far the way to go. You will get a better deal, mainly cause your not paying for all the about mentioned junk. Just make sure you check them out really well.

Holmes5518

Well said.

SilverStarAMG

X2 on that. Buy genuine parts online and do it yourself. Drive to the nearest tire place or garage and get the alignment. Dealership labor prices are steep but they are quality, and at the end of the day they are a buisiness and there to make money...so do it yourself and save the money for mods!

PeteyV

The dealerships labor rate is $120 an hour and they were quoting me 12.5 hours of work. I actually got really lucky by going to another dealer because an old friend of mine is a technician there. He had the shop foreman examine the suspension as well and said the reason their price was so low was because the original dealer is quoting you for parts that you do not need replaced. I have a repair scheduled for next Saturday and my total for the repair is only going to be $1050 compared to my original quote of $2680 which I incorrectly stated here as $2400. He's going to change out the tie rod, both torsion bar linkage, both front springs, both cross struts, and change my rear pads and rotors.

I guess I found a new mechanic.

tommy

For next time, there's no reason to go to a dealership for brake work. That can be farmed out much cheaper quite easily.

Some things are better left to the dealership, and some aren't.

Kenneth Nelson

Well not that i am defending that price they quoted you, but i see where some of the savings is coming from, and as a technician that has every single come back recorded and documented, i cant take that chance. What i mean by that is the job your doing if i quoted the parts that needed replaced i would never omit all the rubber bushings and mounts that accompany the spring, if i find anything at all that might comprise your satisfaction with the completed job i am going to suggest it. That way if you come back
and say that noise is still there i cant look at it and say yup told you so. Keeps me out of trouble and if the customer approves everything score.

Now if its a friend of mines cars or employee the rules change cause in that case we can solve any problem if there is one with out reporting anything.

Dealerships may seem much more professional than small shops and they are but they also come with corporate rules as well.

Like i said not defending their price at all, i just hear this so many times, You know the " dealership said i need all this but billy bobs grease and dash said i just need this, the dealership is a rip off", and i know it seems a little shiesty at times but we have to do things right and at a higher level of speed and efficiency (or least that's what they tell us) than a private shop.

Let me put it this way, its the difference between a nice streak at a good steak house, or a number 1 at McDonalds, One is going to be more expensive and take more time and effort and is going to be delicious and filling, the other is fast and cheap.

BTW i have nothing against private small shops if you are out of warranty i suggest them, but come by the big place once in a while we get updates and campaigns that not only they cant perform but know nothing about.

BTW sorry for the long post.

Kenneth Nelson

i was thinking about my last post (cant sleep yay) and i just wanted to say that if at any point in time what i typed comes off as offended, or mad or even just slightly upset, then i apologize. I have been a dealership tech for long time and suspension and NVH for as long as i have done it. I just seem to have knack for it i guess, any way when you do chassis work at a dealership you hear this almost daily. Not just from customers but friends, family, TV, and of course online. Most the times i ignore it but i kind of feel this almost the perfect place, to clear up some misconceptions and hopefully help a few have better experience. The techs seem to take allot of the blame for what the dealership said you needed and you might not have really needed. Allot of things your told you need the techs did not suggest, your service writer did cause of the factory scheduled maintenance chart. Going back to suspension and using a hypothetical situation. If your car has 60K on it and the factory specs say that its time to replace for your struts, guess what, we are going to try to sell you struts. Are they bad? Maybe maybe not, are they unsafe, again maybe not, but you see some things. However are they past there expiration date? This is kind of important cause although you might get another 20K out of them safely. They have done extensive research and testing to find the approximate range when they begin to fail. Basically in this scenario after 60K those struts are going to diminish rapidly. Do you NEED them, depends on your definition of need. Our job is to keep your car running and driving like new, not just good enough, so by our definition yes you do. Most places the tech is required to suggest these items if inspection reveals factory parts still in place after the millage has been hit.

There really are not as many shady techs out there in the dealership world as people think there are. We are not trying to get anything over on you. We just repair and maintain whatever companies product to their standards. In some cases that means some things we simply cannot do that a private shop can, because we have more rules than is ever necessary. We also have more state and federal laws to follow as well which in some cases is another reason for these complaints.

PeteyV

Thanks for your input! I see where you are coming from and I understand dealerships are trying to up-sell you on all maintenance that is required at that mileage. My issue with the dealer was that I have went there for everything out of warranty for my car that I have usually repaired if it was not an astronomical cost. The last time I went there they finally found my oil soaked wiring harness to be the issue of my cars 10+ years of having a very rough, rumbling cold start but every time I went there while I was under warranty it was a bad 02 sensor that had to be switched out and the problem would go away from the spring/summer. They quoted me $7000 to repair, then bumped it down to $4500 because of the leaky cam sensors being replaced under a campaign and still leaking. I told them I would think about it and they would order the parts. Called them back the next day saying it was not worth it for me to repair my car, and guess what, they had already started replacing the parts! After a few days of back and forth they dropped my cost down to $2800 which I paid for because I needed a car. Now when quoting my suspension work they say I had a broken front right spring but when taken to the other dealer to get inspected I had both my front springs broken. That makes me lose trust in them because they were willing to replace both shock absorbers and 1 spring but not both springs. And they would not hook me up with a better price for my suspension work after I gave them all that cash in repairs the last few years. Give me 20% off on parts and decrease the tech hours because I know that this job would not take 12 hours when another tech could do it in 3.

Kenneth Nelson

Yeah that i cant defend. I mean if you were warranty i could but being customer pay that is just not what we are supposed to do. Although keep in mind we just suggest service and repairs to the service writer. We for the most part have no idea what dollar amount they are quoting you.

I hate to say it but that is were this can all go south. I am not service writer and never have been one. I do know though i have been asked before if i can reduce the number hours i quoted or fix something small that is not on the R.O. cause the customer couldn't afford it. Being as how i do suspension work usually i can a little. Weather it be throwing the alignment in for free, or ,well i cant mention the other things cause im not supposed to do them but its in the benefit of the customer and their car.

However what they tell you is really up to them some what. Just remember Service writers are salesman. Also 99% of the times we quote factory parts. I hate using aftermarket myself but just going from factory parts to aftermarket allot of times can cut bill in half. If it is something we refuse to use aftermarket for because we have seen numerous problems with, you will be told the tech says no on the aftermarket for this thing whatever it maybe.

Still i know we have fired a couple of service writers for padding the bill as they call it. Its not us though, we just want to know if were doing this or not so we can either get to work on your car or the next one.

PeteyV

Received my car back yesterday. Drives a lot a lot better than what it did before and I ended up saving around $1500.

List of what I had repaired/replaced:

Battery
Tie Rod x 1
Torsion Bar Linkage x 2
Front Spring x 2
Cross Strut x 2
Rear Brakes and Pads x 2
Alignment
Rim Straightening

I kind of wish I had the shock absorbers replaced too because they are making that creaking noise when I drive down the curb of my driveway. I guess there is always next time.

VVF

What kind of creaking? It might be the sway bar bushings creaking against the brackets.

PeteyV

I am not exactly sure how to explain it but when car goes down over a curb and compresses then decompresses the suspension it makes that creaking sound as if you were pressing old springs on a mattress together and then uncompressing them. I at first thought it was my springs but since I just had them replaced I was thinking it could be the absorbers.

tommy

How old are the struts? If stock and original, they're either ripe for a change and are the cause of the creaking, or are just ripe for a change and will eliminate one contender from the reason for the creaking. Either way, it's a win to replace them.
That's why you usually change them at the same time as the springs (would have saved you labor too).

PeteyV

Yeah. I don't understand where my logic was on that choice.

VVF

I bet $5 that's the sway bar bushings, maybe spray them with silicon spray (between the bracket and the bushing, not the bushing and swaybar) and see if creaking stops. Yours should be the molded ones, i.e. they are non-replaceable by themselves.
Also maybe try to rock the front end and listen to where the sound is coming from.