Ls400 Mk4 Dhp - Garage Costs

[projucer]

hi

can someone please give me an idea as to how much i should be paying for labour to have the following carried out:

- replacing rear springs

- replacing front radius arms (still dont know what on earth these are)

- replacing n/s/f wheel bearing

- replacing front suspension bump stops

- replacing the bonnet struts

all the above parts will be ordered from the dealer except the wheel bearing which will come from nip-parts.com

dont even ask how much lexus quoted - the figure itself is probably 1/3 of what the car is worth!!!

i've had one garage quote £250 + VAT but i dont know if this is too much or too little

kindly please advise

regards

[steveskeggy]

The radius arms connect to the chassis at the front and to the suspension at the back.

If you draw an imaginary line from the top of the suspension in the center to the bottom of the suspension in the center, you would find that it would be offset slightly, this is called the castor angle, which is what the radius arms control.

The castor angle has a few functions, but the main one is to keep the wheels naturally pointing straight ahead.

So if you turned the steering wheel without a castor angle the wheel would stay in the position you turned it to, or worse if the angle was in the wrong way the steering would wind itself on, very bad.

If you want to save a bit (LOT) of money look on eBay see if you can get a few off there, dont rule out eBay USA either, I got a pair of bonnet struts for my 98 LS for 34 quid including shipping.

[bazgtr]

hi

can someone please give me an idea as to how much i should be paying for labour to have the following carried out:

- replacing rear springs

- replacing front radius arms (still dont know what on earth these are)

- replacing n/s/f wheel bearing

- replacing front suspension bump stops

- replacing the bonnet struts

all the above parts will be ordered from the dealer except the wheel bearing which will come from nip-parts.com

dont even ask how much lexus quoted - the figure itself is probably 1/3 of what the car is worth!!!

i've had one garage quote £250 + VAT but i dont know if this is too much or too little

kindly please advise

regards

£38 an hour plus vat. Thats my labour rate in the garage. Only put it up this year after finding out what others charge in the area.

[Manc]

Hi Projucer,

Its not the labour u should worry about - try not to buy from dealers as they are stealers (nicked the quote), so spend hours on here and you'll find answers. They are good folk on here.

u can get the bonnet struts re-gassed from sgs-engineering in derby. I've not myself yet (need to tho') but i saw a post on them recently. They will supply new ones too.

I needed new upper control arms which were dear (just ball joints went but whole thing needed replacing apparently.....errmmm??) so check them too 'cos its a few hundred quid just for that. The lower ones went not long after, just waiting for the rear to go and it should be the last major fault mine has..............touch wood

try to post a topic or reply to this when u done and let us all know if u saved a few quid

Good Luck