Hi, Can anyone give me a ballpark opinion on what parts and labor would be for 4 Bilstein HD shocks on a 97 E320? My mechanic charges $70/hour and I figure I can get the shocks online for around $400. So the question is how many hours labor do you think he'll take? Or, is this a job I can do myself? If anyone thinks it's a DIY job, could you give some instructions on the step by step. (or lead me to a link with the instructions).

It took me about an hour with air tools. You'll have to jack up the car and take off the wheels, but it's a really easy job. Just make sure you have a socket that's deep enough to clear the threaded end of the shock up top.

had different quotes from local shops from around 85 to 100 for labor when i was calling a few months ago.

All 4 shocks took you 1 hour??? So is his estimate a total screwgie? He's saying that this is a 6 hour job. Is this a tricky job?

Yeah, it's no more than 1.5 hours without airtools. takes more time to jack up car and remove wheel than to remove/install the shock.

2 nuts on the top of the shock (actually, it's one and another to lock it in place) and one nut at the bottom.

-travis

The mechanic mumbled something about the front shocks of the 97 E320 somehow being tricky and taking more time. Does that make any sense to anyone? I'm kind of blown away by this, he's a very trustworthy mechanic and I've used him a lot. Can anyone think of any reason why he'd quote me 6 hours labor.

I paid $80 labor

My mechanic told me $1000 for the job, so I logged onto this forum. I got the shocks for $80 each, so it came to right around $400 w/ tax and shipping. There is nothing difficult about the job. The front were a little harder than the back just because you have to compress the shocks slightly to get the new ones in...really not a big deal.

i paid $150 here in Northern Cal...don't pay anything more then $200.