My 1994 E320 Wagon has 108k miles. Recently it developed the bouncy ride syndrome typical of nitrogen accumulators giving out. I took it to my mechanic because of the stories I read here about how messy it was to do and how little labor was involved for an expert. My mechanic spent 7.5 hours over two days on it, most of that spent freeing the left accumulator hydraulic line screw, which was frozen solid. He billed me for 3.5 hours of labor ($280) plus $278 for the accumulators. Now I have a knocking sound in the back going over bumps which he says is the right rear shock. It's another $460 for the shock plus labor to do that. Question is - why does the shock go bad (I never heard the knock before), and if you replace one should you replace the other (God, I hope not). This begs a couple of other questions - he only quoted $475 for the accumulator job originally - do most of you think it fair that I pay him a little more than that? And do most people tell the mechanic what they think is wrong when they bring the car in, or just let him figure it out from the symptoms? My wife is convinced I am getting taken on this deal (aside from the car getting very expensive to own with all the repairs that have been done in the last 18 months). TIA

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Chip Johnson