Franz993

I'm planning on getting Bilstein HD's/H&R. What would be a fair price for a professional installation? I was quoted $700 by an independent shop and thought it was a bit high. Thanks.

boulderbobo

Hi Franz, If the shop knows what they are doing and it includes an alignment, I think its just about right.

Good luck.

Bob-

Franz993

Thanks. It actually excludes alignment. The guy said 8 hours of labor @ 90/hr.

gr8330

That is what I was quoted.

boulderbobo

Franz, I'm not sure how handy you are but you might want to consider the suspension install yourself. It is really not very difficult. You will still need a pro for the alignment...but the $$$$$$$ you save could buy...well.........a lot of BEER.

Just a thought.

Bob-

TheOtherEric

$700 seems reasonable, but 8 hrs is rather high for shocks only, no swaybars or alignment. Maybe he fudges on hours to keep his rate low, or maybe he's just not very speedy. It's actually a pretty easy DIY, but of course it will take you a lot more than 8 hrs.

Franz993

Bob, believe me, if I could I would do it! Two problems: lack of time and lack of skills. The former feeds the latter. I hate to pay that kind of money for an installation but I have no other choice.

Surj-993C2S

Of course you!

Send me your HDs and watch me fit them on my C2S!

boulderbobo

Hi Eric, I agree 8 hours seems high but the $700 quote includes an alignment so I believe it is pretty fair. The rear sway bar can be changed in minutes. The front will take longer but after you have done it once it also is pretty easy.

Franz, It's an awesome investment. You won't regret it. BTW you should consider the sway bar upgrade (MO30s) and a strut brace. I found that the bigger bars reduce the inherent understeer and the strut brace make the steering very precise.

I love to spend money on cars. Especially other's $$$$

Bob-

Franz993

Bob, the quote does not include alignment. The car currently has a strut brace but no sway bar. The PO lowered it on H&R's but left the Boge OEM shocks and it just doesn't feel right. I'll get another quote to compare. Thanks again.

Black993

$700 w/o alignment seems high to me

I did mine in about 8 hours. Its really not that hard at all following Jeff's DIY guide. Plus you learn a lot about your car, and can spend that $700 on something cool for the car!

Leucadia

I guess labor is cheap in S. Fla. Same job on west coast is 120/hr.....

I agree with Justin, if you have a buddy with a hydraulic lift and the proper tools, its really a pretty nice project.. My buddy Tony in Tacoma and I did my coilovers last month - it was about 6 hours, and we were pretty sore and greasy by dusk. Learned alot, and it was rewarding to do it. Get started before 8am and do note that this is TWO person job.

ironimages

looking at having this done too, so how much is the total project with parts? 4G?

Juha G

Not really, I've taken my suspension apart three times in the past few months and allways just by my self. The only time it would help to have another person there is when you pull in/out the mcphersons. But that can be dealt with a little creativity.

The toughest part IMHO is undoing and re-tightening the rear shock mount nuts. The place is just so hard to get to. I learned an air wrench does wonders there. (shortened the time it takes to loosen and re-tighten the nuts from 1hour to 5minutes).

boulderbobo

+1. I did PSS10s by myself. Tightening the rear strut mount nuts (4/side) is tough because of the limited space. Forget about trying to use a torque wrench. The toughest part for me was dialing in the ride height. The settings given in Jeff's DIY did not work for me (the diy is awesome tho...thanks Jeff). Viper Bob provided some supplemental install info which helped. The collar settings for the rear drop link were dead on. The collar settings for ride height were not really that close. Kind of freaked me out at first. I thought that I messed something up bad. As it turns out, I just needed to move the collars up or down until I got the ride height where I want it.

I probably spent 10 hours on the install. If I had to do it again, I'm guessing I could do it in about 1/2 the time. Good stuff really.

Bob-