strut install
 

I'm bringing my car in to Midas b/c they only want $190 for installation of all 4 struts including 4-wheel alignment (everywhere else I checked wanted $500).

Anything I should be cautious of or warn them about (or make sure they do)? Should I be frightened?

thanks,
Dan

Please let us know how the job turns out. Thanks :)

Re: strut install
 

That's pretty darn cheap. Is that an estimate or a guaranteed price?

They have to partially disassemble the rear interior of the car. I'd probably do that part myself just to make sure nothing its stained, ripped, broken. The only tool you need is a phillips head screwdriver. First the rear seat bottom comes out, no tools needed. There are levers under the seat in the front. Then the rear side panels come out. A phillips head screwdriver is needed to remove the two plastic screws on each panel. You'll need to tilt the rear seat forward to see one of the screws. The panels pop off. Then the deck trim comes off. There are two phillips screws holding it on. It slides forward to come out.

Depending on what they find, you may need more parts when they get in there. With a flash light check to see if the rear strut mounts are rusted away. It's common enough. They may also hit you up for front mounts, if they got play. The rubber cushions next to the springs have internal metal that may have rust rotted.

I hope that helps. :)

That's an estimate. Note that the price is labor only. I got the OEM struts from Kerven Subaru.


Thanks...I'm hoping the mounts are fine. I'm trying to buy a condo this week too so the finances are a little thin. Does the car handle differently with bad mounts than with just bad struts (i.e., more play or shaking in the wheel, etc.)? Is the rubber cushion part of the mount or does it have to be ordered separately?

I kinda assumed it was labor only. Since its only an estimate, I would count on the final cost (for labor) being greater than $190. I've taken all four struts off my SVX car twice now. The first time it took 12 hours to remove and replace. The second time, I got it down to 8 hours. I'm pretty slow and methodical though. Assuming nothing goes wrong, I would estimate that at the minimum, its going to take Midas 4 hours to R&R the struts. At $60/hr typical labor rates, that $240 just for the R&R. Toss in another $50 for the alignment.

I've had the same experience as svx_commuter with the rear strut mounts. The metal on the strut mount gets pretty badly rusted on cars driven in wintery climates. The rubber portion of the strut mount (not the seat) seems to hold up fine though, so as long as your strut mounts don't collapse from rust, they work fine. The rear upper rubber spring seat can probably be reused even if its rusted, but as with the rear strut mounts, its eventually going to cause problems if its not replaced. The front strut mounts don't seem to rust like the rears. The metal and the rubber on mine were in good condition. However, the bearing in the front strut mounts on mine had become notched, and this was causing a clunking sound when hitting bumps.

Hmmm...
 

I asked midas about installing struts on my car. They came up with a price of $1600 if I bought the struts they had listed in their comps (Gabriel's). But they said that if I brought the struts they could install them for $115 each (not an estimate). My struts arent dead yet so I'll wait untill I have the $900 to spend.

Re: Hmmm...
 

$1300 was my subaru dealer's price. I specifically asked if the $190 was for all 4 struts. Maybe they meant "each of all four", but if this is the case it'll be the same price as my local garage that I trust more, so I'll go there. My appt is on Friday so I'll let everyone know then...

OK. I dropped the car off yesterday and made them double check the price, but they pretty much said "if someone told you that before, then that's the price".

So I get a call about 30 minutes later saying that they can't do the install for $120, that whoever told me that price was wrong. But they were nice about it and said they could do it for $240 (still 1/2 the price of everywhere else). So I had them do it, plus $70 for a 4 wheel alignment.

I got the car back, and I'm happy with the struts. But, they didn't reattach the rear seat fully (I had to get them to pop it back for me), they left 2 screwdrivers in the rear seat, the interior cover on the rear wiper off, and the trim in the trunk wasn't attached. Well worth $250 to do this myself though--but I'm not sure I'll be going back there just the same.

Dan

wow 12hrs? and 8hrs after doing it?

My buddy's and I have the WRX struts down to 43 min w/o power tools for a complete struts/spring swap, I can't see the SVX being too much more difficult than those!

-mike

Yeah, when I think about what I did, it doesn't seem like it should take so long, but it did. The first time, there were lots of near-seized nuts that I had to loosen without destroying. I also looked things over carefully. Switching the springs adds time, especially the stock springs which are soft and have to be compressed a large amount before the strut mount can be removed. And the bottom line is that I'm pretty slow.

The nut removal can be tedious, not something we had to deal with on the WRXs. How did you pop the springs? On the WRX we are able to just compress and use an electric impact on the top nutz. Since we usually are putting in lowering springs we didn't need a spring compressor for them to go in.

-mike

I used a strut spring compressor that I rented from Schuck's. Its just the standard type that uses two claws that attach to opposite sides of the spring and compress the spring by tightening a nut on each claw. The first time I did the springs, the compressor I rented had rough threads on both claws, and it was slow going getting the springs compressed. I'd say it took 15 min just to get a spring compressed enough to remove the strut mount. The custom springs I put on my SVX are much shorter than stock, but a spring compressor was still required to get the strut mounts attached to the struts.