Went to the dealer today, What are my other options for this?

I went to the dealer this morning for an alignment, long story short after the truck was ready he told me that the L/F Tie Rod, Left front Lower Control Arm, and R/F spindle were “bent”.

I use my truck a lot, on the notes (attached) a tech wrote “To start, truck looks like it gets lots of off-road driving”. LMAO. then he told me that it would be $800 in parts and another $1700 in labor.

Is there a cheaper or similar priced items that would hold up better in the future?

 

Theyre bent? Well take a look lol. Do you go hard offroading? They shouldnt bend unless your catching air over and over. Stealership is always gonna bend you over, take your money to an independent yota shop if you dont wana do it. Yeah many companies make reinforcements for the spindles.

 

Got a photo of the alignment sheet?

 

Like YotaGang said, plenty of companies make what's called "gusseted spindles", or if you're feeling a DIY mood you can just buy the gussets and add them to the spindles yourself. Although if they really are bent, you'd be better off just getting a pre-gusseted set and eating the core charge.

 

Should be easy to find all of those parts used for cheap, and an easy install to save yourself the $1700 in labor. As mentioned above, gusseting the spindles for some extra strength wouldn't be a bad idea.

 

Find a shop that will install some NAPA parts. You will be fine and it will be much, much cheaper. The other option is to find a Toyota dealer that sells parts online at a discount and have those parts installed by your mechanic.

 

Where are you located

 

If you are going off road, you should be able to do the work yourself. $1700 is a lot to replace a bent knuckle, LCA, and tie rod. It is a maybe a 3hr job for a skilled mechanic and about 8 for a youtuber. I would love to know where they are coming up with that labor. Probably flat rating you for each item when all 3 are related.

Post the alignment print out.

 

This.

 

Wait, did they do all this work without your permission? That is illegal in most states.


I think people use gusseted spindles that should hold up better.

 

Same here. Would love to see a breakdown of the time estimate. I have been to more than one shop that takes the individual time to complete each job and just adds them up per the book. Those numbers figure in the time to get the vehicle on the lift, remove wheels, etc. etc. Obviously, if the vehicle is already on the lift having a tie rod replaced you shouldn't calculate all the prep work for the spindle and certainly not all the prep work for the UCA. Some shops say "Well that's what the book calls for!", and until you look at the time estimates on a line by line basis can you call bullshit. No you don't need to figure in the time to jack the vehicle up 3x if you are doing 3 jobs at once.

I don't know how Toyota calculates/estimates time but that would be the first thing that I look at. That little mechanic's trick has happened to me at more than one shop and I am quick to challenge their estimates.

 

I think that is a quote-estimate IF he wanted to have the work done with the dealership.

This is why you should never get work done (outside of warranty work) done at a dealership. They inflate their prices A LOT.

 

My local dealership charges $106.25 per hour, for mech labor. So, if you multiply that by 16 hours, you get $1700. It probably won't take the mechanic 16 hours (2 full days), but you'll get billed just the same because they think it will take that long.

 

All stealer ships are the same. I had a bad fuel pump in the tank of my BMW. They replaced that and the transfer pump , both in the split tank under the the rear seat. It was say $900 each for a total of $1800. I was appalled. I went to the desk and spoke to the poor service person. I explained I don’t mind paying for $900 for the one and the part cost of the other. I won… lol probably over charged. It was like $1100. Again the cost I am not sure of but the point any work involved in doing one part the one next to it should be the part and very little labor. Good luck