Recently had to shell out $1100 to replace leaf springs at local garage. Was planning on maybe $450 to $500. Was that reasonable?

 

It would have cost you 200$ bucks and a hour to do it yourself.

 

OEM springs? Man...... You definitely could have bought the springs for a couple hundred and done it yourself

 

You got royally screwed. couple hundred and a ratchet and socket you could have easily dont it

 

Live and learn. I got the story about frozen bolts and 5 hrs. of labor. The parts alone were over $550.

 

The front bushing bolts can be very hard to remove if you live in the rust belt, thats where the time was, problem is, I've swapped a dozen pairs of those springs and even when the bolts broke and i had to drill them out it didn't take even half that long. Don't go to that shop again!

 

Yes you did get ripped off. It's a little late to do anything about it now. Look at it as a learning experience and that it is now repaired.
If or should I say when you have more work to be done. Come on here first and get some input before you take it in and you may find out that is something that you may be able to do yourself.
Welcome to the forum.

 

Springs are relatively cheap, labor can go thru the roof but $1100?!? You were taken for a ride. Most any off-road shop could do it for half that because they know the tricks. The average garage has no idea what is involved and screw the owner accordingly.

 

New England is definitely in the rust belt, so i can see rusty bolts as a problem. I later checked with two shops that are spring specialists and they quoted less than half that price worst case scenario. Big problem not having a garage or even driveway to do any work.

 

This is why buddies come in handy

 

could of gotten a 4.5 inch lift with long arms for that! full leaf spring packs included

 

You could have a new long arm 4.5" lift with new leaf springs for the price that you paid for just the leaf springs. Hope you had lube...

 

If you think labor is a rip off, then yes.

I did mine last summer and if you have the right tools, parts, all the time in the world and if NOTHING breaks, its a big job. If you get frozen or broken bolts, broken shock bolts, etc., its a LOT longer than that.

I think anyone who says its $200 bucks and a couple hours is talking IDEAL conditions with every tool known to man, a garage and lift to work on it, NO problems what so ever and ONLY replaces the leafs themselves (but I still dont beleive it can be done that quick because Ive done it myself, its a BIG job).

I bought leafs ($160 total), bushings ($40), center bolts ($50), shackles ($50) and ubolts ($40) for a total of $340 dollars. Thats NOT the cost of shipping either! I also had my shock bolts break and replaced those along with the shocks themselves. But figure to replace the leafs correctly, with new hardware and bushings, youre talking $350 for parts alone (more like $400+ with shipping on everything). Now, the shops up my way get $45 an hour, but 2 hours south of me they get $125. Depending on where you live, how much labor is, etc., $1100 is high, yes, but how much time, tools, knowledge and drive do you have to do it yourself? I dont think $1100 is outrageous honestly. I wouldnt want to pay it, but it is what it is.

 

Yeah, I got a personal message along the lines of what you said. I expect to pay a premium to have a shop do work that I either can't do or choose not to do. I'm sure I would have wasted the better part of a weekend having no experience doing rusted on springs. Maybe I need to rethink my notion of being screwed by this shop.

 

I think a big part of the problem is that too large of a share of your $ went to people who did very little, or no work at all. Insurance, rent/mortgage, power, license fees? Just keeping the law, the lawyers and the banks happy, and the light's on is pretty spendy. Still sounds a little high. I know I myself, I need to absorb a little sometimes for a customer if something is a supper mess, if I want to get hired again!