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I got quoted ~$900 to replace the lower motor & trans mount for my GP.

B

Bugsi

New member
My local shop guy diagnosed a horrible vibration under load as needing new lower motor mounts.
BS things he told me:
-There are seven mounts total.
-The "side mounts" are the ones that are really bad.
-The torque strut mounts are fine, but the parts I need would cost $290.
-Labor would be around $600, because it's such a difficult job.

I said "No."
I came here and did research.
-There's 1 lower motor mount, 1 lower transmission mount, the 2 torque struts, and the 2 torque strut brackets.
-I paid under $50 total for the lower motor mount and transmission mount. (I bought DEA brand. I understand there's better, but for how easy they were to replace, I'll just re-do them whenever they need it.
-I paid $16 for a set of metric offset wrenches at Harbor Freight.
-My 11-year-old son and I had them changed out in about 2 hours. In terms of difficulty, honestly, the hardest part was jacking up the car. (Which as anyone knows, is not hard.) Jacking up the engine & transmission with a big board under the pans was simple in comparison.

So. . . $66 and two hours. Almost all of the vibration is completely gone.
 


Thanks for sharing this experience. This will no doubt help others wondering if they can take on changing the mounts!

Sent from my SM-G920R4 using Tapatalk
 


this might be the worst case of shady mechanics I've heard of. I would go on that dudes page and give him a horrible rating.
 
SgtMarshal said:
this might be the worst case of shady mechanics I've heard of. I would go on that dudes page and give him a horrible rating.
Click to expand...

I disagree with this. How many hours of labor is it quoted at and what is their parts cost?

Remember that shops have certain parts stores they deal with and a certain markup on those parts. If their price for parts was $120, and it's quoted as a 9 hour job at $80/hour that's $840 total.

Shops don't charge actual labor time, they charge quoted labor time, so even if it takes them an hour, and the time on the books is 10 hours, you will pay for the 10 hours. That's just how it works.
 
Explicit_Spade said:
I disagree with this. How many hours of labor is it quoted at and what is their parts cost?

Remember that shops have certain parts stores they deal with and a certain markup on those parts. If their price for parts was $120, and it's quoted as a 9 hour job at $80/hour that's $840 total.

Shops don't charge actual labor time, they charge quoted labor time, so even if it takes them an hour, and the time on the books is 10 hours, you will pay for the 10 hours. That's just how it works.
Click to expand...

I understand that, and I would have to look up the time allowed to change a motor and transmission mount, but there is no way it should take 10 hours to do that job, and the parts store would have to mark up the cost of the item a big amount to come to that amount for the mounts. Another thing is that there isn't 7 mounts on the car.
 
I just renewed my alldata. It lists 2.7 for the motor 1.1 for the trans 0.3 (x2) for the uppers so... 4.4 hours. It also lists the engine mount as $129.76.
 
so that's 613 dollars, but the transmission mount and upper mounts would have to be bought as well, but upper mounts were fine. and that's at the typical dealership rate of 110 bucks an hour.
 


If you're taking your car to a shop, you're gonna spend a lot more than doing it yourself in any situation.

Parts are less if you buy them yourself and you don't pay labor. And OP got to bond with his son.

Doing it yourself always beats taking it somewhere.
 
The only times I have ever let anyone else work on any car I have ever owned, is warranty or recall.

I'm not paying for someone else to do what I have the tools and skills myself to accomplish.

Plus, you know nobody else will take more care when working on your car than you will.
 
Yeah, I live in one of the most expensive urban areas on the country in the California east bay, and they charge $120/hour for labor (which is also what my stealership charges). Honestly the job is stupid simple. You put the front of the car on jackstands with the front wheels off, undo the torque struts and rotate them out of the way, undo four nuts on the motor mount, jack up the engine/tranny, pull out the old mount, slip in the new mount, lower the engine/tranny, put the 4 nuts back on and tighten them down. Same deal on the trans mount, plus you remove a splash shied with three plastic fasteners first and put it back when you're done. $66 total plus bonding time with my son, and didn't spend $900. WIN.
 


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