Lowering Springs

Kool PT · November 18, 2008, 09:51

Quote from: "WillsSayers"I may drop the car off and see if he can get the existing bushes off before hand then, although I'm not overly optimistic judging by all the doom and gloom surrounding this. Just seems a tad extreme paying over £400 to have the car dropped by 30mm - certainly the first case of this I've heard!

£529 for me...and I didn't even do the shocks! I wish I had done...or that i'd just saved up and got coilovers.

WillsSayers · November 18, 2008, 10:53

At this sort of cost, are Coilovers going to cost the same amount? Or will I still need to purchase the same bushes/shocks etc as well? Guess this is highlighting my lack of car knowledge s:D

s:D

Wabbitkilla · November 18, 2008, 11:05

Quote from: "WillsSayers"At this sort of cost, are Coilovers going to cost the same amount? Or will I still need to purchase the same bushes/shocks etc as well? Guess this is highlighting my lack of car knowledge s:D s:D

Yes!

markiii · November 18, 2008, 11:18

biggest costs is teh labour, and personally I think it's mad payng for that

the roadsteris teh easiest car to work on you will ever own, buy some spring compressors and get to it :-) :-) :-)

WillsSayers · November 18, 2008, 12:50

Quote from: "Wabbitkilla"Yes!

Yes to what?! lol.

Quote from: "markiii"the roadsteris the easiest car to work on you will ever own, buy some spring compressors and get to it :-) :-) :-)

If this was the case, why is labour so expensive? s:evil: :evil: s:evil:

markiii · November 18, 2008, 12:56

because they will quote standard rates and have probablynever worked on one

I can fit a set of adjustable coilovers in anything from 15 to 30 mins per corner (issues with arb links not withstanding) maybe double it worse case for springs as you have to split teh spring and strut, more likely though another 10 mins a cormer

even then lets be generous and say 3 hours total

main dealer labout rates are what £70 per hour? theres £210 to fit straight away

personally I say do it yourself, spend a bucket load of cash, gains ome tools you'll use again and learn something in teh process

think how long you have to work to make £210 after tax and it's a no brainer

hell what your saving would allow you to buy a full set of adjustable coilovers

Kool PT · November 18, 2008, 13:26

can i just say that if i had known the cost would ahve been so high I honestly would have attempted it myself. what i paid was insane, but they had already done it so i didn't really know what to say to them.

Wabbitkilla · November 18, 2008, 13:41

Yes a in you would still need the same bushes.

Ok, the cheapest you're going to do this is;
Springs, and new rear droplinks... you WILL have to cut the rear droplinks out, i have no doubt of that.

Next cheapest is;
Springs, new rear droplinks and eurethane bushes.

Next cheapest is;
Springs, new shocks, new rear droplinks, and eurthane bushes

Next cheapest is;
Springs, new shocks, new rear droplinks, Megan Racing lower, toe, and camber arms. Camber arms at the least.

Next cheapest is;
Coilovers (of some persuation) new rear droplinks, eurethane bushes.

Or a mixture of any of the above.

The trouble with labour is they can charge what they can get away with, because company car users don't care how much it costs. Changing the bushes takes a fair bit of time as you need to remove the suspension arms and press the old ones out, the new ones generally just slot in. It's pointless wasting time on trying to undo the rear droplinks, just cut through them and be done with the job (unless they're obviously brand new).

When i put my coilovers on, i reckon because i already had the 2's r us droplinks in, if i'd pushed on i could have done it all in about 2 hours. As it was i was thorough and learning and it took 4 hours - but all it takes is 16 nuts & bolts (some pretty big) a bit of elbow grease and copper slip. Obviously after taking the wheels off ... oh and a bit of time fine tuning the height.

The bushes took much longer as i had one siezed in and the others were blummin tight!

Kool PT · January 28, 2009, 22:50

I'm at 92,500 now and I said at 100k i'd replace the shocks. What do people reckon? i've had the front and rear links replaced & springs fitted, but at a cost of 300 quid.

I'm sure if i went to a different garage that I could get this price down, but £240 shocks and £300 labour amounts to a set of BC Coilovers or similar, which by the sound of things I could probably fit myself in a day.