I received a quote from the Lexus dealership to replace my lower ball joints and outer tie rods for a price of $1,050(parts and labor) which included an alignment. Is it me or does this price seem outrageous? From what I read on here this is an hour job tops with parts costing about $220. I found another place willing to do the labor for $250(alignment included)..is this reasonable?

TIA,

Datguy

 

Well, you have to remember that that includes a free loaner car! That alone is worth $600!

Try your Toyota dealer. They can do the same job and most have Lexus certified mechanics.

 

yes. go with them.

 

Maybe Lexus is replacing the entire control arm with new bushings and the ball joint preinstalled, along with the new tie rods.

This is the better, more complete fix than just the ball joint itself. The parts and labor justifies the additional cost.

 

The price they quoted me was specifically for the ball joints($600) and the outer tie rods($450). It doesn't surprise me though..they charge almost $1k for the 60k mile service while the other Lexus dealership(90 miles away) charges half that.

 

yeah lexus is tryin to rip you....i also got a labor quote for ball joints/tie rods (i already bought the parts from sewell lex) for $700+.

needless to say, i didnt go to the lexus dealership....went to my buddies garage and he did it for me for $300 including a synthetic oil change...then i went to firestone and bought a lifetime alignment for $120

i asked the dealership why it cost so muhc, they said its because they estimated 6hrs for labor @ $100/hr...WOW.

it only took my buddy about 2hrs to do everything.

 

i got my tie rod ends and lower ball joints during Sewell's summer promo and had my mechanic replace all four for $100 bucks.

when asked if I should get an alignment aferwards, he said i didnt need to because the tie rod ends were threaded on to the same position as the old ones were. and lo and behold he was right!

my car drove perfectly THE SAME after. kind of disappointing considering i could have spent the money on better things. the old ball joints with 86k on them were as tight as the new pieces. same for the tie rod ends. oh well; better safe than sorry

 

I had lower ball joints on my GS430 replaced for $40 by a local shop. On my LS400 I had the ball joints and tie rods replaced for $120, and that included oil change and gas filter replacement. All parts were mine of course.

 

I went to local dealer and they wanted 1 hr of labor for each tie rod and ball joint. Okay I can handle that part and they would give me a brand new Lexus for a loaner either an ES or an RX.

Where I had a problem is getting the parts thru them was something like twice the price of going thru Carson Toyota. I asked if I brought in new Toyota parts in the box if they would install and still give me a loaner car. When they said yes I said yes.


My alternative is my local shop who has a crappy waiting area, no free donuts or juice and no beautiful women walking around. Oh and no loaners.
I could have saved maybe $30 bucks but I would have been stuck there and then I would have to hear how he is not making any money off of me.

My point is sometimes the Lexus dealer is a better choice.

My lexus dealer won't install aftermarket stuff like coilovers or anything not made by Toyota. Since I have lots of that kind of stuff I still use the local shop quite a bit.

Ivan
3dog

 

I'm not a rich guy. Just have enough to happily own a GS, pay for it's insurance, and have the $$$ to add mods to suit me and again make me happy. With that being said, I have a great Toyota dealership that has already done work on the car for as much half the price that Lexus would charge. Whatever money you'd save by taking it elsewhere, man that could go to things to dress up my GS even more. And BTW, I'm not comfortable in bringing my car to a "local" shop. Maybe I'll hear through the grape vine of one around here that's superb in working with Lexus cars.

 

My local Toyota dealer, whom I bought a brand new 1995 Camry from will not work on Lexus vehicles. They made some sort of deal with the local Lexus dealer.

I wish I could go that route.

Ivan
3dog