I had a local repair shop take care of some things on the wifes 98 mountaineer. They did a good job fixing the door hardware that was giving me trouble, and found a loose connection at the enertia switch that had left me stranded. While they had the car with them they alerted me that the control arm bushings were toast and suggested they be replaced.
Well my wife picks up the car at quitting time on friday
and lets me know that it just feels weird to drive. I take it out for a short spin this morning and notice huge wheel scrub and a pull to the right. I get out to have a look at things, and inspect the parts that just got installed. All the parts are there, and look ok, but the front end alignement is so bad that you can see the camber is WAY in while standing in front of the vehicle, and the toe out is at 3/8" measured with a tape. The castor seems to at the maximum rake position.
It appears that the front end alignement is out in every mode of adjustment. The torsion bars are not equaled out either, the drivers side sits .75" higher than the passenger. This BS got me looking closer at my bill, and had me checking the prices of our local parts stores.
I paid the shop 241.00 for a part that Napa sells for 144.00 (upper control arm and bushing)
All of the other parts seem to be marked up around 30% from what I would pay at a parts store. IF this is normal markup, then so be it. The closer I look at his work and invoice, the more I wonder if I am getting gouged. I also had them service the transmission for 225.00, and I can see that the tranny pan never even came off. Is it possible to change a trannsmission filter without removing that pan?
here is what I paid
parts..
upper ball joints w/ control arms 241 each
lower ball joints 66 each
labor 350.00
total 960.00
If the alignment was not so far out of wack, I would have never questioned any of this other stuff, but I just lost all faith in them as a shop. I wonder if they will now try to charge me extra for a front end alignment..
Well my wife picks up the car at quitting time on friday
and lets me know that it just feels weird to drive. I take it out for a short spin this morning and notice huge wheel scrub and a pull to the right. I get out to have a look at things, and inspect the parts that just got installed. All the parts are there, and look ok, but the front end alignement is so bad that you can see the camber is WAY in while standing in front of the vehicle, and the toe out is at 3/8" measured with a tape. The castor seems to at the maximum rake position. It appears that the front end alignement is out in every mode of adjustment. The torsion bars are not equaled out either, the drivers side sits .75" higher than the passenger. This BS got me looking closer at my bill, and had me checking the prices of our local parts stores.
I paid the shop 241.00 for a part that Napa sells for 144.00 (upper control arm and bushing)
All of the other parts seem to be marked up around 30% from what I would pay at a parts store. IF this is normal markup, then so be it. The closer I look at his work and invoice, the more I wonder if I am getting gouged. I also had them service the transmission for 225.00, and I can see that the tranny pan never even came off. Is it possible to change a trannsmission filter without removing that pan?
here is what I paid
parts..
upper ball joints w/ control arms 241 each
lower ball joints 66 each
labor 350.00
total 960.00
If the alignment was not so far out of wack, I would have never questioned any of this other stuff, but I just lost all faith in them as a shop. I wonder if they will now try to charge me extra for a front end alignment..
