Looking to install adjustable control arms and ball joints for my 1999 Prelude, base model. Was quoted $900.00 for parts and install, is that a fair price?

 

no

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by AJ06 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">no</TD></TR></TABLE>

What would a fair price be?

 

holy **** some one taking you to town $900 what does this guy quote include. i hope everything

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by fubar &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

What would a fair price be? </TD></TR></TABLE>

Look up the prices for those parts and find out what they cost...he is probably making a good amount of profit from you.

 

all the way around??? Labor rate for the front is 2.2hrs for both upper control arms,1.8 for both upper ball joints and 2.8 for both lower ball joints. Thats about $500-$700 in labor alone.


Modified by cb7-R..no more at 12:27 PM 3/25/2008

 

i'm so glad I do EVERYTHING myself. 900 sucks

 

Let me fill you in since i recently had to do this myself. You CANNOT buy those balljoints seperately guys. You HAVE to buy them with the actuall control arm. I know i am in Canada and pay an inflated price over the American prices but it still costed me $380 for each control arm with balljoint. Then i had to add labour for a total of just under $1000. This price of $900 seems bang on with what he should be paying. In fact, he is paying a little less than what i had to.

I called dealers to make sure the parts prices were correct, they were. I called NAPA, and a ton of other part source places and they did not sell the balljoints...reason why? You have to buy them with the control arms and the control arms are only sold at a Honda dealership.

Hope that helps. If you can find balljoints seperate from the control arms at a junkyard in good condition or something that are already pulled, or someone on this site they should be able to press them into your old control arms.

 

interesting info...but ouch

dig into deep pockets for this one

 

Prudz, Are you talking about upper or lower ball joints. I am not sure about the upper but I know you can replace the lower ones with legend ball joints. You can get them from honda or go aftermarket.

 

i just bought left and right upper control arms for $120 after shipping... everyone knocks on ebay but i have never had any problems with any items i bought on there

 

Thanks for the feedback everyone. And yes, they suggested replacing all four control arms and ball joints. I have not made the appointment to do this yet, wanted to see if the pricing was reasonable first, hence this thread. Would appreciate any more advice anyone may have to offer...

 

I bought upper control arms for my 2000 SH at the Honda dealer and they were $82.50 each. Labor to install them both was $70.

 

lower control arms should just get poly inserts and the upper arms you can get at a local parts compeny for less than the dealer.

 

$900 Holy crap.

Upper control arms run a couple bills for all 4 at most on ebay. And it took me about an hour to do all 4. It's one of the easiest things to replace suspension wise.

For a shop to say it'll take em 2 hours to just do the front uppers alone is a joke.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by TheJGB3 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I bought upper control arms for my 2000 SH at the Honda dealer and they were $82.50 each. Labor to install them both was $70.</TD></TR></TABLE>

if honda is charging this much...900 is very steep

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Prudz_lude &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Let me fill you in since i recently had to do this myself. You CANNOT buy those balljoints seperately guys. You HAVE to buy them with the actuall control arm. I know i am in Canada and pay an inflated price over the American prices but it still costed me $380 for each control arm with balljoint. Then i had to add labour for a total of just under $1000. This price of $900 seems bang on with what he should be paying. In fact, he is paying a little less than what i had to.

I called dealers to make sure the parts prices were correct, they were. I called NAPA, and a ton of other part source places and they did not sell the balljoints...reason why? You have to buy them with the control arms and the control arms are only sold at a Honda dealership.
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Actually you can buy replacement balljoints. A company called SPC sells replacement adjustable upper ball joints for the Prelude. This is an option we offer to our customers instead of buying the whole control arm. (I work at Midas)

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by cb7-R..no more &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

Actually you can buy replacement balljoints. A company called SPC sells replacement adjustable upper ball joints for the Prelude. This is an option we offer to our customers instead of buying the whole control arm. (I work at Midas) </TD></TR></TABLE>

hey i work at midas too haha

i didnt know SPC made all that, they must have just started cuz i know they werent out a year or two ago...my midas doesnt sell anything from spc

btw camber doesnt wear tires out that bad, toe in or out is what kills tires...i have ~2 degrees negative all around and my tires wear perfect

 

Yeah u can buy them because I have adjustable uppers made by ingals,they adjust for camber also...they were 190$ for the set and work great.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by TheWalrus &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

hey i work at midas too haha

i didnt know SPC made all that, they must have just started cuz i know they werent out a year or two ago...my midas doesnt sell anything from spc
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Well we dont buy them direct from SPC. One of our vendors sells them to us

 

I am buying front upper control arms for less than $50 each, Napa has a new import line that has them cheap, but of course I work there so I get them even cheaper though .
They also have these: http://www.napaonline.com/mast...nsion
but my cost is about half of that.

 

The dust caps are both gone on my front ball joints, well one is gone... the other is cracked and leaking.

I am planning to buy two new ball joints and the dealer will only sell them in one piece with the control arm for around $120 each. I don't understand this as they easily come apart.

Anyways, I called around 3-4 places and found that Advanced Auto has just the ball joint for about $70 each. Napa, like the link above has them for $119. I also found them online for about $58 each. I'm most likely going to order them online and save some coin.

This has to be one of the easiest installs... should take about 30 minutes per side, with half of that time going to jack up the car and remove the tire.

Josh B.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by jbibler &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

This has to be one of the easiest installs... should take about 30 minutes per side, with half of that time going to jack up the car and remove the tire.

Josh B.</TD></TR></TABLE>

haha.30 mins per side, huh?? Guess you 've done this many times before ...

 

a lot of muscle needed(or power tools!)

 

moog sells adjustable upper control arm ball joints. i bought them and installed one side to see how the ride felt, and with the adjustable ball joint, the ball joint doesn't sit flush with the top of the control arm, and when i would hit a bump, it would bang the fender well. so i ordered 2 new control arms from majestic and called it a day.