Called 3 mini shops (independent not dealer) in the San Jose California area and they all wanted over $600 dollars to install 4 Koni FSD shocks!!!
This DID NOT include the alignment!!
Anyone know of a shop in the San Francisco Bay area that can do this job for a reasonable fee?
Just got my Mini and hope this is not a sign of things to come.
Thanks
RC

 

I am on the east coast and my local dealer quoted me $500 to install the FSD struts. I was shocked and think I may need to do it myself.

Mark

 

U have to pay to play - have it done right. I went with the stealership install.

That said - be sure you ditch the run flats first - much bigger gain in ride quality than FSD's.

 

That is only $150.00 per shock.

Really, You can do the shock swap your self for free. It's not that difficult.

 

I paid $650 recently to have a set of tires mounted and balanced, and a set of coilovers and spacers installed. I think the mount/balance for 4 tires is $150, so about $500 for suspension install. That's up in Canada, and i'm told things tend to be a little more expensive in California, so... that doesn't sound too outrageous.

 

There's an app for that..."Repair Pal", in this case. I use it as another data point for discussions like his one, its vendor says it references a database of repair costs and provides quick/rough estimates of what repairs may cost.

In this case: Rears $250-350 labor, Fronts $350-450 labor, depending on location.

Free download for iPhone or Android.

 

Drive it cross country to CT I'll install em for $250.

I can do each of the fronts in about 1-1.5 hr each (depending on how nicely the car wants to play), and the rears take a mere 20 minutes each.

If anything do the rears yourself (its 3 bolts) and you can rent a spring compressor for free. The fronts are trickier with the lower strut mounting, but just takes patience.

 

Give Edge Motorworks a call.
http://edgemotorworks.com/wordpress/

Tell 'em "Big, Tall Jim" sent you.

Jim

 

and this why i learned to do almost everything i need worked on in life. If you have any mechanical skills what so ever there are write ups on those it really is super easy took me about 2 hours with out looking into the write up to install my lowering springs

 

Amazing a shop would charge more than 2 hours labour for the install....i guess they want to make the extra $$ on what they would have made selling you the koni-fsd's. They are painted gold for a reason!!
+1 on ditch the runflats first...the diff in ride might be enough to not need them....$600 if it included the koni's and the labour is not too bad.....

 

Wtf? Have you all never heard of flat rate work? Almost all shops just look the job up in the flat rate book and that's the time they charge. It's not like they make this stuff up.

 

Take that $600 and buy a good floor jack and an electric impact gun and some spring compressors and you will still be way ahead in cost. Plus when it is time to do the swaybars next month, rotate your own tires or change the oil in between dealer visits etc. you can do it your self and save even more! It is not that hard to do, maybe 1 hour per wheel if you go at a leisurely pace. I usually take longer because then I can really clean my wheels and make the car look new again.

 

Umm, that is garbage. Install for struts you own should only be about 300 to 400 USD. If I remember correctly I paid about 320 plus 99 for an alignment at a tuner here in Maryland. I did have one quote me 600 and when I started laughing he asked me what was so funny. When I questioned him on the cost, he hung up on me.

 

$600.00! Dang, I just had KONIs and a sway bar installed at an alignment shop for 200 bucks. Yet another reason to add to my three pound vellum and leather bound book of reasons not to live in a big city.

 

 

This is a DIY for sure! It's an easy job! I've done it numerous times on different cars and no problems. 600 is way too much for an easy Saturday job. Buy a jack for 90$ and some time and that's all you need to spend

 

Daflake
Who did the install ?

 

MachV did the install and I do recommend Dan and crew, they are a great team. However, if you are on the other side of DC you could get OXSpeed to do the install, but I don't think that they do alignments. I can't remember the name of the shop that quoted me 600 USD but it was close to Laurel and it wasn't worth remembering.

 

As a bit of reference , Steve's Auto Clinic out here in CA does a shock swap for $ 300, including a 4 wheel alignment.

Randy
M7 Tuning