How much should a pair of front shockers cost?

The front shock absorbers have complelty failed after 86,000 miles on my dads car, theys queek when the car covers over a bump and I did the usual pushing down the bonnet and all I get is a very slow movement upwards and a very bad sqeeek. The car also feels horrible to ride it. It handles like a lemmon at the moment.

So I am assuming the front shockers have gone, how much should they cost to get replaced form a small local garage? We don't trust the big fast fit companies as every time our cars went near one the brakes would need doing a week later.

 

Well I think logic would dictate you tell us the make of car, I have no doubt shocks for a porshe will be more than a skoda.

Speaking of which when I had a Skoda it cost 70 quid each plus fitting, both must be done at the same time and this was at Quickfit.

I would trust Quickfit over a small garage anyday.

 

I am talking about small garages who are well known and trustworthy localy. One where my dad took it for the MOT, I thought it would need a new rear silencer and rear shocks and thats all they said it needed.

Its an Escort (last shape) 1.6. It cost £100 inc labour the back ones but I am not sure if the front ones have to be stronger or somthing.

The reason I didn't mention it is I thought my dads escort was famous on this forum

 

No way. They're a crowd of robbing scammers.

 

I don't trust anyone to work on my car these days. Main dealers have proven themselves incompetant, independant was quick not to take responsibility for their work.... I have done the past few things with the help of a friend and made a much better job.

For a ford they should not be at all expensive.

 

Why are they crowd robbing scammers?

I like to know what I am going to pay. They tell you on a poster in the foyer. This is important to me and to date anything I have had done at quickfit has been the same price or cheaper as local garages.

 

They may be a bit cheaper but every time my dad took his car to them places a week later somthing else would go and it would be always somthing you get from a fast centre like brakes.

Since going to local garages we have not had this problem but one did do a very shoddy service (they didn't set the gaps in the spark plugs) so we never went back to them again.

Edit I hope I get a half decent job one day then I can buy my parents are a better car like a Focus or Octavia or somthing. I reckon there is three good years left in the Escort though so I have plenty of time. I reckon after about 110,000 miles the engine might start running into major problems.

 

i'd take it to quickfit. i can't speak for all the branches but the one nearist me are excellent. cheap and helpful.

 

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that's very laudable , i can't ever remember thinking of buying mine anything. i have on occasions cooked my venal mother dinner but that's about it. as for a car she can buy her own

 

John well my parents don't have much money and they have been good to me, when my dads car packs up they will be stuck. I am not talking about anything fancy just somthing well picked for about £1000-£1500 i.e somthing my dad can get 5 years out of.

I gave my parents my old HIFI and computer stuff etc, I guess its a way of paying rent. Oh course when I am earning I will pay proper rent anyway.

 

The reson why your rear shockers were ( relatively) cheap to replace is because they are usually very easy to change, the last pair i did was on a Mk 1 Punto and took me about 30 minutes to do both. They normally attach with just a nut and bolt at each end and don't require further strip down of the rear suspension.

I've not owned an escort for years , but imagine that it will have Macpherson (spelling?) struts with shock absorber inserts. These require lot more work to strip down and re-build as the suspension struts need to be removed from the car. This involves removing the drive shafts/CV joints from the hubs, Brake calipers removed, etc. Once the struts are removed the springs need to be compressed and removed before removing and replacing the insert. The gland nuts that hold the inserts in can be a right bugger to shift. I changed a pair on a MkII Cavailier once that needed clamping in a vice and a pair of 24" stillsons and a length of scaffold tube to crack off the gland nut !

A decent set of something like Monroe 'Gasmatic' shock absorbers can cost from as little as £20 each, and will be ideal for the average non sporty car. As always the main part of the cost will be in the labour.
The best part about replacing worn out front shockers on a car is the effect that it has on the braking. it's like getting new brakes fitted all round !

BTW,
I just managed to squeeze my old 1.4 Astra 'Dog Car' through another MOT today for another year ( amazingly) .
It needed two new bits of exhaust, two new tyres, a steering arm & track rod end and a headlight adjusting . Total cost (inc the MOT & retest) £135 !, this means that the car has just broken through the £500 barrier and thats including the original purchase from auction price this time last year.

 

Yeah I think it does have Macpherson strusts, its basicaly a large spring with the shock absorbers inside. It sounds like we are looking at least £100 labour. I just wish I had a job so I could buy my dad a new car. It needs full service and the idler valve has gone funny again.

The garage we went to last time seems cheap though, they charged us £70 to replace a gasket which seals the main head gasket, it was leaking 1 litre of oil a week before that was done.


I have a neighbour that never bothers MOTing his cars, he spends less than £100 on purcashing his cars and scraps it when it comes to the MOT if it needs any work doing on it.

My dads Punto MK1 was a great car, it was just a little unpracticle when used a van, the Escorts great becuase it has a huge boot the seats don't need to be split.

He's just bought an old MK2 J Reg (I assume the last ones ever made) Astra Estate I wonder how many months he will have it.

 

It is - he he! I was expecting to see a total wreck when you finally posted a piccy, but this car looks pretty good

Ashtrays go on and on like Ariston - our old school's car was a mk2 Astra estate, which went round the clock 3.5 times, ran out of water but didn't seize up, was ragged to sh*t, and STILL got sold on for a good price. Lhatkins can tell you a few stories about the maintenance he had to do on that car - he he!

 

Yeah its not bad for a 86,000 miles car which is gets out of Manchester about once a year, its virtualy all city milleage and there is no many pot holes and bumps near me its no wonder the shocks have gone. Its not bad considering we paid £1600 for it 3 years ago.

Its the fastest car my dads ever had, is old 1.1 Punto felt fast to my dad (0-60 in 17 seconds!) when my dad first got this escort we went to my grandparents in Scunthope he was crusing along the motorway and I glanced at the speedo and he doing slightly above 90, my dad had no idea. He is a bit more careful now.

Its just repair bills have now seem to have gone up from £300 to £400-£500 a year now but is including servicing and MOTs.

Astra's are not bad cars, one of the reasons we didn't is we couldn't afford an estate and the hatchbacks don't have as big boots as Escorts. Astra engines care capable of good milleage though.

 

I dont trust any of them, the trade is bent so you take your chances with any garage imo. Regarding cost, I wouldnt have thought it'd be too bad, its just when they get in there there's usually a "those bushes need changing", "you should see the ball-joint", "the rubbers are perished" etc etc etc.

 

I don't understand it really, I mean I know a very honest plumber, an honest UPVC window fitter etc but mechanics it just seems they all do somthing wrong. Even the last one they did a good job and they were cheap but didn't give us a receipt so we couldn't claim tax off it.

I really wish I could do this stuff myself but my co-ordination problems will make most of it impossible.

 

I feel I must defent the mechanics here, after working in a garage for 6 years they get a very raw deal, they are time restricted, get it in the neck if they run over, its not surprising they makes mistakes. I agree Main dealers are expensive, and Fast fit places, don't exactly employ people for their "mental abilities" shall we say, so the small local, family run garages are your best bet, the parts should be cheap enough if bough from a factors something like £30 a set, but its the labour that'll put the price up, looking at about 1.5 hours labour, I'd be surprised if the job cost more than £75.

Not the sort of job you'd want to take on unless you had the right tools and equipment. It could be very dangerous for exmple if you didn't use a spring compression tool when releaseing the spring, those things can fly