Woah! Sticker shock today - got my trailing arms back withe new RTABs

[DanDombrowski]

A little suprised to see my bill for $600 ($593 after taxes) when I picked up my parts from the shop this morning.

I don't mind, the guy who runs this shop wouldn't charge me a penny more than he had to to stay in business, he's been very good to me over the years. Broken down, it was:

$275 labor for pressing out the old bushings from my trailing arms (that I brought in). They said it was the hardest set to press out they've ever had, they even bought a special tool that they broke on it.

$70 for 2 sets of RTABs ($35 a set - same as BMA, and he bought them from the dealer)

$135 to swap the diff flanges and install new seals. Yeah, this one kinda bit me. I posted a thread on here about how to do it, got some great ideas, and decided to do it myself. However, when I talked to their master tech at the shop (who I know to be very knowledgeable in building BMW and Porsche race motors, and knows Im a cheap bastard and will do whatever I can myself), I opted to let him do it (although I was expecting about 3/4 of an hour of labor for like $50). It was a little more than I wanted, but he installed new input seals in both diffs and I know the gear is torqued properly. $15 for the seals.

So I feel as always that I got a good deal from this shop, it was still a bit of a shock to see it come out to $600. I don't even want to know what it would have cost to have them pull the trailing arms, differential, and shocks and have them do ALL the work...

[Blitzkrieg Bob]

over the years.

When I did my front end a few weels ago, BMA sent control arms less the bushings, tried to save some time and $$ and see if BMA just sent the bushing to me, and I get them pressed in would be cheaper then sending back the arms and getting the new ones....

Nope, 1st shop wanted $80 per side, some didn't want to do it, finally one guy started out at $20, but when he realized they where BMW arms, the price went up to $40 per side. Bastards!

So I ended up shipping the wrong ones back and getting new ones.

Damn I used to get ball joints, bushings & bearings pressed for less then $20 a side.

The rearend service at $135 sounds pretty reasonable, considering it's something that takes much more then pumping up a press

[ryan roopnarine]

"Zack, its going to cost $600 to put this cd player in my wife's car?"
"Well, you see Mr. Belding, it's a Japanese car, and this is a german CD player.......connects to the speaka-leaker"

i always comfort myself in this kind of situation by remembering that mechanical people seem to do a more thorough, conscientious job when you bring them an assembly by itself. the extra money was just spent to prevent a deferred headache down the road, and you know that for $600, there aren't going to be any unforseen eventualities. or at least, that's what i tell myself. you going to do the subframe bushings while that thing is off?

[DanDombrowski]

Yeah, they didn't seem to mind that I brought the assemblies into them rather than give them the whole job (or at least they didn't show it). They seem to be a little slow on work lately, as of the 4 cars in the service bays, 2 of them belonged to the owner, and one was the owner's son's car. While I'm sure they would have liked the whole job, they know me enough to know that I know what I'm doing and that they won't have a problem doing side work or working on my car after I've worked on it.

This car has just been getting a little expensive lately for a car I don't drive anymore and would am keeping as a hobby. I've spent $650 on tires for my $200 set of style 32's, $250 on rear shocks and assorted shock mounts/bumpstops, $600 on the rear end work, $850 on the transmission (will drop to $700 when I get the damn core back to Vines), and $100 on my depo headlights, so its just a little bit of a "groan" feeling when I see the number pop up. On the other hand, I know it has to be done, and that they've done a good job, and that even after all these expenses, my sister won't be able to find a better car for the $3500 I have into it.

Besides, I needed a break and have a shop help me catch up. I've been working on this rear end forever (I guess I'm slow).

Back to work tonight, gotta start putting it back together! I've passed 50%!

[DanDombrowski]

Yeah, I still have a set of thrust bushings from the first time I attempted this, before I learned about the pre-pressed arms (and bimmer.info for that matter). Still sitting in my garage, I just ordered the arms when I found out how much it was going to cost to press them.

[DanDombrowski]

Hey Ryan, you want my old diff?

I just realized a few things - 1, I am truly sorry, but I still never got a chance to get the cutoff 14mm hex key back to you. Did you gradjeate from UF, or you still around? We go there every once in awhile.

and 2 - I remember awhile ago that you were having problems with your diff whining and were trying different addatives and thicker oil. My old open diff was silent and now has the automatic input flange on it (from the LSD), so it should bolt right up. Interested? (assuming the new LSD doesn't fall apart 10 miles down the road and I have to put the old back in?)

[ryan roopnarine]

i guess i don't have as bad luck as others with machine shops and such. alternator repair places practically give stuff to me for free, machine shops will grind down tools for a few bucks, rad shops will test tiny rads for free. the most expensive number i got a couple of years ago for thrust arm bushings was $10 per side.

dan, the "whining" in the diff was two crappy goodyear tires on my back axle. i change the oil out every 30k miles with royal purple 75w140 with a tube of LSD additive and it keeps chugging along. i have a 4.10, which is already kinda gutless. it certainly looks as though my diff will outlast the rest of the car. thanks for the offer, though. .

and yeah, i'm still here. i decided a little while ago that, at best, I could only ever be a mediocre engineer, c+ type. some people can do chem, or physics, or math without studying, and i can't do any one of those things. even if i went full bore at it, i would only pull slightly above a c+ type deal. yeah, i like taking things apart, machining things, making things out of whole cloth, but my good intentions can only get me so far. i'm an english major now, in line with my SAT score:D i'm going to try to go to lawyer school when everything is said and done. i keep getting older, but the 18 year olds stay the same age....

ps...if you ever find that key, and mail it back to me, i'll be happy to send you the stub of it that i had cut off. it does the same thing, you just have to use a 14mm wrench on it to work it. it has sufficed me for the last couple of years.

[Robin-535im]

$275 labor for pressing out the old bushings from my trailing arms (that I brought in). They said it was the hardest set to press out they've ever had, they even bought a special tool that they broke on it.


You telling me I owe Don $275 for helping me with mine? Maybe a lunch at Modelo's will suffice.

Good idea to have a shop do it. Now for the fun of getting it all back on the road! $600 is pretty cheap for a car repair bill, assuming they didn't bend the arms that is...

- Robin

[DanDombrowski]

Yeah, if you get lunch, you'll get more than I usually get for helping friends with their cars...ungrateful bastards. Scratch that, one guy at work bought me a motive power bleeder for doing his brakes and let me keep it, that was nice.

Yeah, its starting to get exciting trying to get it back on the road. I got the arms into place last night (2 large bolts through the bushings), but the shocks are still out waiting for bumpstops, so the arms are just kind of hanging.

I got the parking brake, rotor, caliper, and new pads set up on the drivers side last night also. I checked the setting of the parking brake (4 clicks) and it was perfect on the first try, I couldn't believe it! Those parking brakes were bitch to put in with those stupid springs and spring-retainers.

I figure one more day for all of the assembly (dog bones, brakes on the pass side, brake lines, sensors, etc), one day for rebuilding shocks (when they come) and putting them in, and one day for installing the diff and putting the CV axles back on. Then one more day for bleeding the brakes, lowering the car down, checking everything out, and putting the new wheels and tires on. Its getting there!

By "day", I mean the 2.5 hours I have to work on it after work, if/when my new parts from BMA get in.

[DanDombrowski]

When you can bill an 8 hour day at $250 an hour, itll all be worth it.

Yeah, I'll get that allen key in the mail for you, its still in my workshop. Don't worry about the cutoff piece, the LSD actually is an 8mm hex, so I'll either have to see if my 8mm key will fit or if I have to go grind down an 8mm allen.

Glad to see you got the diff problems worked out and don't have the whining anymore. Hows the car running otherwise? Still putting a crapload of miles on the thing?

[Bill R.]

here i wasn't going to comment on this ,but it keeps on bothering me.
So for any of the uninformed who read this thread and think this is the going price for a machine shop to press out and change the trailing arm bushings... It isn't. Flat rate time for that job is 8 units for both trailing arms to r+r the bushings. which at 5 minutes per unit is about 40 minutes.
Figure an hour tops at virtually any machine shop for the job.

Last i checked here, which was about a week ago when i had work done at a local auto machine shop, labor rates were 65 an hour. Where you're at it may be somewhat higher than that.

By your post i'm also guessing that you took the diff's to them to change the input shaft seals, That price also seems pretty high to me. That shop rate must be 175 and hour or more.

When a machine shop breaks their press or a special tool doing a job, thats not the customers responsibility, its simply a business cost. By the same token if it takes them more time because they have to get a special tool then that time isn't the customers responsibility either.





A little suprised to see my bill for $600 ($593 after taxes) when I picked up my parts from the shop this morning.

I don't mind, the guy who runs this shop wouldn't charge me a penny more than he had to to stay in business, he's been very good to me over the years. Broken down, it was:

$275 labor for pressing out the old bushings from my trailing arms (that I brought in). They said it was the hardest set to press out they've ever had, they even bought a special tool that they broke on it.

$70 for 2 sets of RTABs ($35 a set - same as BMA, and he bought them from the dealer)

$135 to swap the diff flanges and install new seals. Yeah, this one kinda bit me. I posted a thread on here about how to do it, got some great ideas, and decided to do it myself. However, when I talked to their master tech at the shop (who I know to be very knowledgeable in building BMW and Porsche race motors, and knows Im a cheap bastard and will do whatever I can myself), I opted to let him do it (although I was expecting about 3/4 of an hour of labor for like $50). It was a little more than I wanted, but he installed new input seals in both diffs and I know the gear is torqued properly. $15 for the seals.

So I feel as always that I got a good deal from this shop, it was still a bit of a shock to see it come out to $600. I don't even want to know what it would have cost to have them pull the trailing arms, differential, and shocks and have them do ALL the work...

[DanDombrowski]

Well, this makes me feel great. I guess I should have asked what the book time for the job was before I went in there, but I trusted them, as I've been using them for quite some time in the past. I suppose I let my guard down, but on the other hand, they did diagnose my problem and went over the car with me without asking for anything up front.

FWIW, this wasn't a machine shop, it was an independant mechanic. When I talked to the master tech that had done the job, he said that they usually just send it out to another machine shop, but they had agreed to do it. I think the reason was that they were a little low on work lately. Not my fault, I know, just giving some background.

I guess I learned my lesson on this one, I should have questioned the labor at the time. I've never questioned the labor amount at this place because I've been so often undercharged that I've never worried. Guess they coulda been hard up for bills this month.

[Bill R.]

you feel bad ,it was just to let others know that this is not what you should expect to pay at a machine shop.




Well, this makes me feel great. I guess I should have asked what the book time for the job was before I went in there, but I trusted them, as I've been using them for quite some time in the past. I suppose I let my guard down, but on the other hand, they did diagnose my problem and went over the car with me without asking for anything up front.

FWIW, this wasn't a machine shop, it was an independant mechanic. When I talked to the master tech that had done the job, he said that they usually just send it out to another machine shop, but they had agreed to do it. I think the reason was that they were a little low on work lately. Not my fault, I know, just giving some background.

I guess I learned my lesson on this one, I should have questioned the labor at the time. I've never questioned the labor amount at this place because I've been so often undercharged that I've never worried. Guess they coulda been hard up for bills this month.

[DanDombrowski]

No I know, I didn't mean that you personally made me feel bad about it. I just felt generally disappointed that no matter how good of an independant mechanic you find and how good of a relationship you have that you're never out of reach of being overcharged. I wouldn't say I was taken advantage of, but it does seem like they padded the bill a bit.