$700+ For Shocks??????
 

I was getting tires for my 420 SEL yesterday and the tire shop tried to pitch me some new shocks, too. I declined, but the salesman insisted on providing me with a quote for me to "think about." The quote was for a total of $702.32 for four shocks (brand unknown, but I would guess something like Monroe, which I'm not interested in buying at any price), installation labor, shop fees, and sales tax.

$702.32 for four shocks installed????!!!!! :eek: Am I missing something here? I declined, because shock replacement is one of those things I typically do myself, but the $702.32 figure really left me startled. :eek:

Bilstein shocks for your car are about $60-$90 each depending on where you buy them. How much of the quote was labor?

$90 labor on the front shocks, $108 for the rears. Shocks were priced out at $112.50 each. What a bargain.

Well, since you have a M/B, he probably figured it as follows:

4 shocks at $100. per =$400.00
3 hours labor at $80 per =$240.00
Tax, shop fees = $ 62.32


Total =$702.32


Thank you very much for your business, Mr. Dandy :D

Labor sounds about right what were they charging $75-$84 an hour? For $112.50 they probably are not OE shocks. I would prefer Bilsteins anyway,
spending $300-$400 on a nice set of Bilsteins is the way to go.

Btw I got a quote from a tire shop for $700 for the rear shocks on my Camry! :D

Your post scares me. I'm almost of the mind to think you work there.

Bilsteins are what I'm planning to get, but even so, I can get a set of four for not much more than these clowns wanted for a pair.

You have a Mercedes so obviously you can afford it. ;)

If you had said struts instead of shocks, I wouldnt be in such a state of shock. No pun intended.

Consider yourself lucky. A local independant shop quoted me :eek: $1000 to replace all four struts/shocks on our E320. I really wasn't considering having an outside source do the job, but I was curious - before ordering the parts from phil (fastlane) - what I might get dinged for going the 'easy' way out. I couldn't believe my ears. Ordered the parts for less than $400 and did the job in my garage in about four hours. Any of you guys considering this on an older W124 series, it's really a piece of cake.

What a jolt of reality. I guess as a MB owner, you have to expect to get put in the 'rich' category by shop owners, and have "open checkbook" tatooed on your forehead....

Moparmike they were struts on the Camry but I could get them from Fastlane for around $125 each.

What was kind of funny was that they didn't try and pitch me their most expensive tires (Michelins), but their store brand. I guess they thought they could make up the difference by selling shocks in the package. BTW, the "cheap" tires ride as good as the Michelins they replaced. :)

But you drive a Mercedes money should be no object.:D

True, but I'm hoping to retire someday, too.

If those were Bilsteins, the price was right on the mony. List is about $125-$150 each, three or four hours installation time gets you right at $700.

If they weren't Bilsteins, you were getting ripped.

If the shocks are starting to knock on heavy deflection, you probably need new ones. Bilsteins are (and have been for nearly 40 years) gas compensated, with a high pressure gas cylinder under the oil chamber to keep air out of the oil. As the oil slowly vanishes through the rod seal (as it will evenutally, faster if the rod corrodes or gets scratched), the gas expands and the compensator piston rises. Eventually it gets high enough that the shock valve piston at the end of the rod hits in and compresses it some at full upward deflection -- this causes knocking and hard ride, you usually don't get a bouncy ride on Bilsteins unless you have complete oil loss.

You can check when the shocks are out by completely compressing the shock and measuring the distance from the bottom mounting cup on the rod to the top of the shock body -- new is about 5mm, when it gets to 25 mm or 38 mm (depending on shock), it's gonna knock, get new ones.

Usually last about 200,000 miles, less if you do a lot of driving on rough roads.

Peter

I don't believe that they were.

And, my guess was prior to your post (I was typing while you posted the individual costs).

But, thankfully, I do not work there and probably will not be going there for service any time soon. :D

My indy Mercedes mechanic wanted one hour of labor @ $70.00 to install each shock on my '85 300SD.

I took the new shocks to the local Midas shop and they charged me $20.00 each to install them and they did a great job.

-George

This was at a Big O Tire, so I'm of the belief that the shocks were either Monroe or Gabriel. Even if it'd been a killer deal I was in no position to get them (my two daughters were with me and I had already gotten them to sit still for the better part of an hour).

Needless to say, I don't ever recommend anything but Bilstein or Boge for MBs. KYBs are too hard (although fairly good) and anything US is junk, pure and simple.

In fact, most aftermarket shocks are illegal in Europe, the car will fail inspection.

$700 for Monroe shocks is pure ripoff, they only cost the dealer about $7 each, and ride like rocks.

Peter

Well, I have some Bilsteins on order and it'll give me a chance to make my high-dollar Lincoln floor jack that I told my wife I HAD to have pay off.

The store brand is where the largest profit margin is. This is why they usually push it.

So will bad shocks give you a stiff kind of hard ride? I have always thought that my SDL rides harsher than it should. My shocks are original and all are leaking around their seals, and when a bounce the car it comes back up to level fast and doesn't bounce like bad shocks usually do. Maybe I will push replacement up from next summer to this winter break.

Well, I replaced my shocks this weekend and I'm still not getting how anybody could justify charging $200 or so for labor on this job. The rear seat removal and reinstallation added maybe 1 man-hour to the entire project, but shock removal and installation on a W126 is a pretty straight forward affair. In fact, I would think the entire job could be completed in under 2 hours on a lift. It took me 3, THREE hours from start to finish on the floor of my garage, using a floor jack and a bottle jack, removing the wheels without the benefit of an impact wrench (I have a pretty nice I-R 1/2-inch impact, but it seemed like a big pain in the butt to drag everything out for this job), and riding herd over my daughters and wife (our youngest was trying to have a battle royale with her mother and older sister).

$702.32 for this job??? That's just CRAZY. :eek:

Did you replace all 4 shocks? Does the car ride better?

Yep, all four. The car rides SOME better, but not what I'd call dramatically different (the front end is firmer). Then again, the suspension is all in pretty good shape and my car has fairly low miles (125K).

Really, this is about as pud of an automotive repair as I've ever done on any car. Removal of the back seat is a little tedious, just due to its size (a second person is handy for this portion), but the actual shock removal and installation is a piece of cake. If I can do it on the floor of a garage inside of THREE HOURS BY MYSELF, and still find plenty of time to goof off, then why does a garage with a lift charge hundreds of dollars in labor for the same thing? I don't get it. If I had a lift and had used my impact wrench, I don't see it taking more than two hours. More like 90 minutes or less.

I can fully understand timing chain replacement at a garage costing around $700, but shocks? The labor times on this job need to be readjusted.

Sticker Shocks
 

I installed HD Bilsteins in my 124 in about five hours on the patio. About two hours was spent trying to compress the LR shock into the place where it dwells, AND lining it up to push the bolt through. After I figured out that this could be done more easily with a bottle jack and a "pickle fork" tool, it took 20 minutes, as did the RR shock.

It took me about 1.5 hrs, again, slithering around on my patio, to install nitrogen spheres on the 123 300TD wagon. No real difficulty. I bet it would have taken 30 minutes with a lift.

New HD front shocks on the wagon took about 2 hours. No major difficulties.

Jacking up the car and getting the jackstands in place was most of the difficulty.

Still, if each shock costs $100 and another $100 to install, that is over $800 for the whole job.

To pay the mechanic $800, I have to earn $1200: but if I do it myself, I need to pay only $400 and earn $600.

Five hours for $600 = $125 per hour, and I also get the benefits of exercise: the shock press, the jacking jumps, the carpal tunnel ratcheting exercise.