Front Shock Install Price Quotes

[Silver 99 Camaro]

I want to get my front take off shocks put on, and I got a couple estimates for the job. One was $190 plus $40 for a front end alignment ($230). The other was for $325 including the alignment. The second one was so high because the guy told me he has to disconnect the sway bar, which requires breaking the old parts. I would need new links to put it back together. The first guy told me that most likely they will go back together without new parts. Which one of these guys is right??

[V6Bob]

Hard to say. The threads on the sway bar links are very exposed and tend to corrode to the point where you can't remove them without breaking them. So it depends on their condition.

[Red V6 Raider]

When I replaced mine, I didn't break anything so I would guess you don't have to replace anything.

Anyhow, the aftermarket poly endlinks are only like 13 bucks so I wouldn't pay $95 for them.

[Silver 99 Camaro]

Well I guess the higher quote was 50 bucks for the extra parts and an additional hour of labor (another $50) compared to the lower one. Both things total a $95 difference. Sounds like the lower one is the way to go.

[Red V6 Raider]

The real truth is do it yourself. You can get the struts(spring/shock assembly) out fairly easy and just take those into the shop. Hell, I even took mine into pepboys. You can have them change out the shocks and give you the struts back for probably about 50 bucks. And as for the allignment. Well, I never got my allignment done and so far so good. ::knocks on wood:::

[94TeaL]

Sounds about right...
I'm having a local guy who runs a shop do my front shocks and ball joints for 100. Cant beat that.

[Silver 99 Camaro]

The first shop said he would change the springs over for $20 if I took them out myself, and then $40 for the alignment. $60 looks a lot better than $230. It doesn't look that hard, but I'm not sure about moving the brake booster around and separating the sway bar and stuff. Gotta buy those big torx bits too for the shock mount.

[Red V6 Raider]

Moving the brake booster isn't really too big a problem, you just kind of have to bend it over a little bit to get the bolts/screws out.

Moving the sway bar out of the way isn't hard either. This stuff is all pretty simple and not difficult, just takes some effort and time. It would probably take you about an hour or 2 to get the struts out and then probably about an hour to get them back in.

You should replace the endlinks with some polyeurathane ones while you're at too.

I did this a while back and I didn't really know what the hell I was doing but everything went pretty smoothly other than I ended up replacing one of the shocks out of the strut myself with some low-quality spring compressors. That was a major PITA! I did one and then I took the other one in, was not worth it.

And you should probably learn to do it yourself because with the take-offs, it's gonna be time to do it again in 30k miles. ;)

[Silver 99 Camaro]

I've got 55K now on the originals, and I know what you mean. Sailing on a yacht. Maybe I'll try it myself. If the hardest thing is changing the springs over, and I'm having someone else do it for 20 bucks, what the hell. Thanks for the info Raider.

[zlexiss]

Here's two install guides (both with good pictures) I used when I installed my coilovers:

YearOne Guide Front and Rear
LS1Howto Front
LS1Howto Rear

I used this install to break in my new cordless impact wrench (DeWalt 14.4V), saved probably an hour of spinning lug nuts, suspension bolts, and the spring compressor (I did front and rear coilovers, brakes, and front sway all at once).