I destroyed my suspension - is Sears trying to screw me?

Hey all!

So a few months back I did a huge off-road tour of Death Valley filming an episode for a TV series I'm working on. I took my stock Taco, hit some places just a little too hard, and the truck wasn't driving right on the way home.

I finally took it to Sears to have them do a free tire rotation and had them check the suspension, and they said the bushings are completely gone, I need new shocks, struts, and rack and pinion because it is leaking pretty bad.

There is obviously broken stuff, I can hear it and feel it, but I don't want to pay Sears $1400 to swap all this stuff out with sub-par parts that are just going to break again.



They said they would use Monroe Sensatrac shocks and struts

Is there anyone in Northern California that knows a shop or can provide any input on this so I don't get raped? Thanks!

 

You can get great suspension and have someone help you install for much much cheaper. I have never messed with the rack and pinion shit so I don't know the pricing or labor involved. Suspension is easy though.

 

59.00 bucks for powerstearing fluid? That tells you something right there

 

Why sears? I'd want a shop to look it over, but I wouldn't go to sears.

 

Are they going to throw in a fridge and freezer ?

 

I went to Sears for a Tire recently and they were fairly priced but That's about all I'd get there....

 

find a few other shops and have them price out the rack and pinion/labor. then scope out the alignment. if it can't be retured to specs with no lift you prolly bent the front part of the frame. you can replace the shocks that are blown out with some billies for cheaper and better piece of mind. what bushings failed? top uca bushings ? lower ca bushings? ball joint bushings?

 

Before you start putting new parts on you may want to take it to a GOOD collision/body shop to see if the frame has been tweeked.
If you hit stuff that hard it may have some real damage to the mounting points on the frame.

If not you can find most suspension parts here from guys upgrading.
Be carefull driving the damaged truck while you find out the actual real damage.

 

Go somewhere else.

 

Bushings are completely gone, but the estimate doesn't include any bushings?

The steering rack is obviously the biggest item in the bill. Get a few quotes around your area.

For the price Sears is charging for shocks and struts, you might as well get Bilstein 5100s. Search for the lift install how-to threads on TW to install yourself. They are pretty easy to do.

 

The 1st gen's steering rack is pretty exposed. A stock truck without proper skid plating can damage the rack well before bending the frame.

 

Rack and pinions are not that much. And they are wantin to give you a re maned one. Just that alone I wouldnt let them work on my stuff. The price on the Monroe's shocks aren't bad but if you are wantin to go off road with it heavily I wouldn't recommend Monroe. And the fact they are charging you 100 a piece for the struts. I would go with bilsteins

 

Sears' price on the rack is comparable to what I see on PartsGeek with the core charge included. i.e. if you ordered a rack from PartsGeek without sending the old one back, your cost will be in the $400 range. http://www.partsgeek.com/catalog/1999/toyota/tacoma/steering/steering_rack.html

 

just a heads up...
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/automotive/sears_auto_centers.htm

 

There charging you for power steering service when you have to disconnect the lines from the rack to remove the rack anyways? Yep, thats why sears is going out of buisness. For most of the prices you can do alot better suspension as already stated. With them taking that much apart on your truck, you can guarentee that you will be back for something wrong

 

+1

It's Sears.

Sears was spanked HARD about 15 years ago for "overselling"... Goodyear got caught up in that too. Sears was actually prohibited from doing anything more than battery and tire installs in California for a couple of years.

I had a '69 Camaro that lost a wheel bearing.
Bought the parts and rebuilt the thing rotor to rotor in my driveway. Bushings, springs, all connections, ball joints, etc... it was a brand new front end except for the control arms and steering box.

Ballparked the alignment using a couple of 2x4s and drove it to Sears for an alignment.
Tech wrote up the estimate and took it to the manager for approval.
Manager looked pissed. He walked back out to the car with the tech, not realizing I was standing there, and started screaming at the tech... "Look at this old primered piece of shit! You're telling me that this car doesn't need ONE part and the ONLY thing wrong with this old junker is it's alignment???!!!!???!!!"

Tech just pointed "up" to force the manager to look at the front end.

The Toyota dealer will screw you, but it'll be half what Sears is trying to screw you for.

 

Take it to a real shop. SEARS hires kids who don't know what they are doing, then they pay them commission on what they can sell. But that sounds fair IF you really need all that work. Monroe is a good stock replacement brand shock/strut. But going to Bilsteins would be better if you are going to make a habit of this kind of thing.

 

I worked at a parts store. And if it's remaned and you give yours for the core it's a lot less. At least 100 bucks less than what they are sayin

 

And I also wouldn't let sears work on my weed eater. Much less my truck

 

I worked at Sears Auto for quite awhile, I would suggest you take the truck back and ask them to show you so you can see for yourself. (no policy against that). I know that Sears trains everyone to upsell upsell upsell but they also have terms for different categories of severity such as recommended repairs, suggested repairs, and everything is fine. if they're suggesting it, it's not that severe. If they're recommending it, it means its out of factory spec...and should be fixed...very soon.