Replacing Cam Tabs... How Much Should they Cost?

Hello everyone,

I'm looking to get my cam tabs replaced, and hoping you guys can give your opinions on pricing to make sure i'm not getting ripped off!

I took my '17 TRD Off Road 4x4 in to service at a dealership the other day, and they noticed some cam tabs were bent and should probably get replaced. The dealership wanted to charge a boatload to just get one welded on, so I took my truck to a tacoma specialist to see what they'd say. Here's the quote they gave me to replace all the tabs and weld on new ones(Total Chaos Tabs):


I called around and it seems like people who aren't familiar with Tacomas in particular aren't really as knowledgeable on replacing these parts. With that being said, am I being charged too much for a total replacement of these tabs? I haven't had these worked on, touched, or replaced before so i'm really not sure.

 

First off, the alignment seems about $100-ish too high. My last one was about $100 and that was a solid shop. Is “R&R” = repair and replace?? I don’t know what that charge would be otherwise. Is your lower control arm damaged? I would say the labor is not too out of whack. Seems like a 4 hour job at no more than $100/hour so maybe a tad high. What I am not sure of is replacing the ones on the back side and how tight they are to get to causing more labor. The tabs are about $125-$135 online so those are priced a bit high too.

 

Thanks for the response, what you said definitely makes sense. I'm assuming the R&R does mean repair and replace, which is weird because there isn't anything wrong with the Lower Control arm. I’ll see if there are other options here in Kingwood, TX (Houston).

 

R&R means “remove and reinstall” here.

 

Keep in mind if you're in the rust belt, or even if you're not the front cam adjusters and possibly the rear bolts on the LCA's are seized. The front cam adjusters need to be cut to get the LCA's off if that's the case. My cam tabs bent while fooling around with the LCA's. They actually bend back pretty easy with a hammer and punch/chisel and Vise Grips.

 

Have you thought about reinforcing the stock tabs with a weld along the side? I’ve heard good feedback from guys who have put the cam stops in once the tabs are solid with a bead. This is the route I am taking. Also, you won’t have to remove the lowers and you could poeeibly replace the cam bolts with the stops yourself. Watch a video and see how easy it looks.

 

My tabs bent a long time ago so I bent them back and put a good weld behind then never had a problem since.

 

Thanks for all the input. I'm going to go a different route. I took 2 pics, 1st of the good side, 2nd of the bad side. On the bad side, the camber is max'd and still the alignment is off, thus why we need to fix it. Could we just hammer the bad tab back through and then do a little weld to hold it? Thanks again!

Good Side:



Bad Side:

 

‘That’s my direction. Waiting on new LCA’s. My cams are frozen so I have to cut the LCA’s off and will up grade.

 

I have heard many people say that hammering it back into position and reinforcing is sufficient.

 

FIXED: Thanks for all the ideas. I found a local place that got into the truck today, hammered the bracket so the cam tab was accessible, bent it, and welded a piece of steel behind it to support it. Very cool. $125. That should do it. Then another place to do the Alignment, $110. Way better than the original quote I was considering, and less messing with things that were ok.

 

My quote to replace all the cam tabs and alignment was also $1300. So seems like a consistent price for the full R&R job.