Hey ya'll.

Well, as some of you know I cranked my t-bars to help clear the 33/12.50/15s, and afterwords I didn't do an alignment. The truck drove fine, didn't feel rougher or bouncy at all.

Well, fast forward to now. I took the ol' truck in to Goodyear and was pricing around for some new mud tires, and decided to have them align the damn thing.

They put it up on the rack and showed me a few things that need to be fixed before they'll even touch the alignment. Apparently my lower ball joints are shot and need to be replaced, as well as my pitman arm in the steering column.

A few other things need attention too, but I'll get to them in asecond.

The price they quoted me was $114 per ball joint, $70 for the new pitman arm, plus 4-5 hours of labor @ $95/hr.

Hmm, that's funny says I. I whipped out my blackberry and pulled up the local auto parts web page, (Schucks, Kragen,Advanced Auto) and looky looky here.... the most expensive ball joints I could find were only $64.99 apiece, and a nice new pitman arm was $35.

I told the guy at Goodyear to shove it and started walking away. I was halfway back to my truck when he came running after me waving another piece of paper. On it, he had quoted me another $900 to replace my intake manifold gasket, and to put a new O-ring on the fitting where the oil filter screws on to the block.

I told him to shove it again, and turned around on my heel.

I believe him that my ball joints are messed up, but I'll be damned if I'm gonna pay through the *** for the additional mark up on parts.

I'm hitting up my private mechanic later to discuss these issues with him. I'll let you know how it goes.

 

That is why I do most of my own repairs. Plus you typed enough there... GOODYEAR! Sorry if there are any Good year employees on the forum. Discount Tire has always done me right for tires... even though they are marked up too, but they have beat everyone's prices I got quotes from.

 

That sucks! It's a sad world when they try to grab your ***** and squeeze when you need a little help. I don't do all my own work, but I have a mechanic friend who lets me buy the parts and he does the work for $10 an hour.

 

That's bull****, they are marking up the materials that much and then charge $95 an hour labor. The chevy dealer by me charges $70 an hour. And $900 for intake gaskets, I changed them in my 350 in a day and spent about $100 in parts.

 

First off that mark up is insane! I had almost the same exact situation happen to me at a Belle Tire about 4 or 5 months ago. I did the same thing you did and told them they could shove it. Took my truck home and fixed everything for a fraction of the cost. Dumb me I took it back for the alignment after I fix EVERYTHING they said IHAD to before the would touch it and when i showed up to pick it up they had another list of parts and a nice fat quote waiting for me all printed up and still no alignment. So i just took it else where with no problems.

Oh and the intake, you can drive with that thing leaking for a long time without any problems as long as you keep up on your coolent level. Thats what i have been doing considering its a pain in the *** to change.

 

Oh and get this. Iheard ofa guy who took his truck in there for an alignment after just putting brand new ball joints in. When he returned they had replaced them without his knowing and charged him for the parts and labor telling him "they were shot!"

Uhhhhh...... WTF???!!!!!

 

That is why I do my own work on all my stuff. The company I work for marks material that we have to buy for cretin jobs up 65%.

 

Shop online for parts, buy or rent the tools and do-it-yourself. For the Geo, I was able to buy a timing belt for $30 less online than Advance Auto, rent a good puller from Advance Auto for free, and do my timing belt and tensioner in a few hours. Total cost $55 and that included a new valve cover gasket and a can of degreaser.

Another example of cheaper parts online:

Fuel Pump
AA = $112 Rockauto = $57

Even if you want name brand parts, you still save $$$ by doing it yourself and I bet you could either rent or borrow the tools you need. Get help too, a case of beer and a few phone calls goes a long way!

 

Gees! That’s really overpriced. Well, it is really important to make canvass in other stores to get the best price you want.

 

I worked at aGoodyear shop for a while before I joined the military and they were crooks... They'd try to charge people for stuff then not do it...

I went to Pep Boys to get a tire patched (covered under the free road hazard), and some kid comes out two hours later and tells me I have a dirty air filter, need an oil change, and my brake light on the clusteris flashing...

I put on a BRAND NEW cold air intake, and changed the oil(nothing but Royal Purple)the day before. I even get the window stickers from auto zone and fill them out... As far as the brake light flashing, I looked at it and the parking brake was still on... I asked him to show me my air filter and dirty oil, and he couldn't find the hood release... I popped it and he couldn't find the underhood lever... Then he saw my intake and got scared... It was HILARIOUS!!!