Mechanic costs for breaks, and lower control arm

I

igknighted

Member
:
Mazda 5 2008
My mechanic on Ottawa is replacing all

*breaks/rotors on all 4 tires
*lower control arm ball joint passenger side due to excessive play
* two Struts on rear as they were leaking.


He will be providing parts and repairs. How much do you guys think should this cost me? I have been quoted $1000.00 CAD for all these repairs. for parts and labor and he said this is an excellent deal that he has given me.

Can you please tell me if this is a good price, or should i take it somewhere else to have this done.

Thanks
 
My suggestion is source the parts from Amazon. Now keep in mind he's not going to be getting high end parts. Stick low cost good review items. After you add the parts up you'll see how much the shop is truly costing.

When I replaced my discs and pads they where with parts I chose, knowing the quality of them. All I paid for was the labor from my shop.
 
Too many variables for anyone to estimate. Follow Rally man's suggestion and get a price list your self. Then ask the shop how many man hours they are billing and how much they charge per hour (this should be posted in the shop). Finally, ask how much for labor if you bring in your own parts (Small mom and pop shops welcome this, big chains not so much).
 
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Keep in mind that often a shop will charge more for labor of they're not also supplying the parts, like 50% more.
 
sounds reasonable to me, considering the work to be done. no way in heck i would pay that, but it sounds reasonable.
 
MarkVII88 said:
Keep in mind that often a shop will charge more for labor of they're not also supplying the parts, like 50% more.
Click to expand...

Not all are like that. Just keep an eye on the labor rate they quote you and what they have posted on the shop.
 
It sounds reasonable. I've seen some places charge $1500 just for the brake work.
I'd say go for it. As far as doing part from Amazon, most shops will not use customer parts as they don't make any profit on parts.
Some will do the work at a higher hourly rate but will not provide any warranty at all on their work. So if you want the warranty to go with your work,
stick with the guy's parts and he is quoting you fair price for all the work, considering it will be warrantied after.
If you wanna save money, you would buy the parts and do work yourself, but that is not up to everyone's valley.
 
Depends what parts the shop is supplying. Some struts are known to fail quickly (Sensen), but are very inexpensive. The brakes & rotors can vary by 3 times. "breaks" can be supplied free, but you probably don't want them to break anything :)
 
kw_da said:
Depends what parts the shop is supplying. Some struts are known to fail quickly (Sensen), but are very inexpensive. The brakes & rotors can vary by 3 times. "breaks" can be supplied free, but you probably don't want them to break anything :)
Click to expand...

That maybe true, but if the shop is willing to support their life time warranty, it is their choice to keep replacing it for you for the life time of you owing the car.
They are not going to fail weekly, but you maybe getting new shocks every 3-4 years :)
If it is free after the initial investment, that maybe not bad.
 
it's also the time and the hassle. GR-2 rear shocks are only about $40 each delivered on Amazon (at least in US, not sure about Canada) and appear to last fairly long. I'd usually just pay the $ for a decent part, rather than having to go in & replace it. Depends on now much time you have. I think some person on this site said his Sensen's failed within 6 months or so.

Brakes are a safety item, I'd pay a bit more extra for a quality part than the cheapest part available.
 
Whatever you do, just make sure he isn't replacing those rear struts with OEM items... anything but OEM. Otherwise they'll be leaking again very very soon.
 
I had similar work done on my Mazda 5 at the local Ann Arbor, MI Mazda dealer minus the lower control arm ball joint, but plus an oil change. The dealer price was just under $1100 US as I recall.
 
igknighted said:
My mechanic on Ottawa is replacing all

*breaks/rotors on all 4 tires
*lower control arm ball joint passenger side due to excessive play
* two Struts on rear as they were leaking.


He will be providing parts and repairs. How much do you guys think should this cost me? I have been quoted $1000.00 CAD for all these repairs. for parts and labor and he said this is an excellent deal that he has given me.

Can you please tell me if this is a good price, or should i take it somewhere else to have this done.

Thanks
Click to expand...

I had a strut replaced and the shop broke my A-arm. They replaced it with a major brand that was not OEM. 3-4 months later, the ball joint was just flopping around. I demanded that they replace it with OEM at their cost. It's still fine a year later.

Just keep that in mind if you're trying to save money.
 
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