Am I getting hosed by the garage?
 

Hi all, I went through a friend to get my Cherokee fixed up with a Rusty's 3" AAL kit at a local garage...don't necessarily know the mechanics but I talked to them quite a bit and they seemed honest and have been in good communication with me.

However, the guy working on my Jeep has told me that because of some rust issues (it spent it's first 10 years up north) he's had to re-run brake lines, my control arms have broken, my back brakes were rusted and that the sway bar is off by 1"...he also suggested that the kit I bought was not quality and should have come with adjustable control arms, bump-stops, etc. I bought a Rusty's lift after reading reviews throughout this site and from other Cherokee owners and I was confident I was buying quality.

He's saying he's got 8-10 hours of work to get this lift road worthy and that's before it goes in for an alignment. I'm not super mechanical, but I also want to be smart about the whole thing and know what I'm getting into. Anyone else ever had that amount of issues with a lift? Is this guy being over-cautious or is he just hosing me to use additional parts and mark-up?

Any input would be helpful...

The kit has all you need, brakeline maybe rusted just crawl under and look at it before he does it. I did mine in six hours on jackstands so a shop with lift should have been faster. Control arms broke show it to me is what id say.

Go somewhere else or do it yourself

Well he is correct, rustys is junk! And jeeps from the North do rust heavily. Has he done all this extra work with no approval from you? Also you don't have to have adj. Arms, just makes it easier. I have done a few3" lifts with stock uppers and fixed bds lowers, worked great. Rust can eat through things like Trac bar mounts and such as well. Are you mechanically inclined? Shops will take advantage of someone they think doesn't know about cars/jeeps. Tell them you don't need turn signal push rods and the rear brake light fluid level is fine! Lol. Jk

THanks for the input, so far, all. I'm not mechanically inclined in the sense of being comfortable doing this work, which is obviously why it's in a shop...but I have spent long enough on this forum and reading through to know what everything is and understanding the terminology.

It just seems like this might be the doomsday scenario where there was so much rust that control arm mounts and u-bolt nuts were breaking off left and right and he felt like it wasn't safe in that condition.

Either way, still appreciate anyone's input and past experience. Cars really do get rusted the hell out by NY State's salt habit...

U bolt nuts always break, no biggie, I usually just cut mine off. But control arm mounts rusted off? Bad day.

The rust part is not unbelievable able at all. My we just put a 4.5 inch lift on my buddys tj and It was a pain in the *** because of the amount of rust he has, His uppers are about to go because the rust is so bad on them, also we had over half of the old bolts break while swapping shocks, linkage plate, track bars ect.
It can be a huge pain in the *** when you have a good bit of rust....

The best advise I have for you is to go into the shop and look for yourself. Many problems can arise from rust so it's all possible, but seeing it with your own eyes is something none of us can give you.

+1 Best advice plain and simple.....

not to mention im pretty sure every shop likes to cover their butt and not reuse the rusty stock stuff then have it brake because your out wheelin it and its rusty then guess who gets blamed for shotty work. i would just assume that though i always do my own work. and my jeep is not really that rusty compared to stuff ive seen on here and i had probably 8 hours putting my lift in.

When you go in to have a look be sure and say you want to see these broken control arms to. Also check for yourself just how rusty the unibody is under there.

Thanks for the advice, y'all - pretty much concluded I just have to get up to that shop again Monday and ask to see everything. It was pretty rusty the last time I was checking things out but I could never have imagined this scale.

I live in Fairview, east of Asheville 15 mins, I could look at it for you if you want. I'm from MI so I know about rust and have done a few junkyard lifts, pieced together lifts, as well as kits, but never had much issues. Rust is a PITA and makes things difficult. I bet the guy is just making sure everything is correct b/c he doesnt want you to come back complaining

Hey, yeah I might just take you up on that after I get it back - everything should be wrapped up tomorrow or Thursday and I went ahead with an adjustable trac arm just to keep things kosher but it'd be cool to meet and have somebody with a bit more mechanical knowledge look her over.

Plus, I love that area out by Gerton/Fairview - do you know of any 4x4 trails out that way? I was just there two weeks ago to hit the new (hiking) trails the Carolina Land Conservancy built up to Little Pisgah Lookout.

No I dont know of very many trails but many are private land and old trails the locals know about. I'm down here for work-study for only a few months and I dont wheel as much as I like around here.