Dealer prices and current problems

[Supra725]

Well, my car had the check engine light on this week. It went on 3 times a week and I took it in today. Found out it was some dirt hitting the idle thingy however, there is more to it. They found out that my shocks are pretty much done, my rear seals are leaking AGAIN. GRRRR.
Followed by ac belt and other belts, but also my alignments are bad and needs to be replaces.
The prices were $950 for the rear seals and bearings, $815 for the shocks, $160 for the belts, $615 for the alignments. I was astonished by the prices, how can i come up with $2500 dollars to fix it?
Is it really this much to fix it?
I passed the 160,xxx miles and has any of you had this problems? Can some of you give me some other choices to solve my problems?
Why is my rear seals leaking again?
I'm just shocked, the shocks are understandable cause these are the same ones I have since we had the 4runner.

My questions are, what are reasonable prices for all these problems?


thanks

 

[wizzells]

What ya do at this point is take it somewhere else for a second opinion. A couple of those prices seem outrageous to me. $815 for shocks?! I had all new Bilsteins installed for less than $600. $950 for the seals and bearings sounds about 400 too high to me. And what kind of alignment costs $615?!

 

[Supra725]

How much should it be for replacing the rear seals and bearings?

 

[Supra725]

This is the second time that has happend to me. The rear seals and bearings.

 

[chad99]

How long ago did you have the rear seals and bearings changed?

Sounds like you should check if the diff breather is clogged, if so it would explain why the seals keep blowing.

The shocks can be changed by your self if you don't mind getting dirty.

I have no idea what is the normal prices but if you give firestone or some other place and ask them im sure they would be more than happy to give you there prices.

 

[Supra725]

Where is rear diff's. breather it?
I'm so a noob to it.

 

[chad99]

the diff breather is on top of the rear axle it is located to the left of the big hump that houses the diff.

You can find a write up of how to extend the diff breather here http://www.yotatech.com/f129/rear-differential-breather-mod-75747/

You don't have to extend it but it should give you an idea of where it is and what you can do.

As far as checking if its working or not some people say spinning the silver cap and making sure the cap can slide up and down freely means its working fine but im not for sure on that

 

[Supra725]

Has this happened to yours? I'm trying to find some more solutions to it.
Out of the 4, which one would you recommend fixing it the soonest?

 

[chad99]

yea my rear seal did leak but i caught it before the diff oil washed out the bearing grease so the bearing was saved, i just had to change the inner seal.

As for what to change first, I would think the axle seals and bearings would be first with drive belts being a close second.

Are you sure the seals and bearings are bad again? maybe who ever did the job before didn't clean out all of the crap that was in the drums, and when Toyota went to check the brakes they just assumed it was a new leak.

 

[techno]

I was astonished by the prices, how can i come up with $2500 dollars to fix it?

Get a job. Or sell one of your toes at a medical school where they pay you so the students can practice amputation surgery stuff.... up to $5000 per toe I hear!

Seriously though, they have definately added in a good amount of labor costs to your estimates. As was pointed out earlier, find out what this alignment thing is, a normal wheel alignment should be less than $50.
Aftermarket shock absorbers should cost you between $300 and $500 dollars and I'm sure you and some buddies could fit them yourselves one weekend.
If your seals have gone bad a second time so soon then you may have damaged axles. there could be a small grove that has worn its way in to the seal contact area. This is common on any high milage vehicle and can easily be fixed using a very thin sleeve that slides over the worn area, these are sometimes called speed sleeves.

 

[RonMAIDEN]

My mom just had her rear seals done at our local dealer and she was charged a little over $600.

 

[One_96TR4]

A set of tokico's can be had for between 2-300 on ebay and a few online sources. The factory shocks were tokicos and the trekmasters are fairly similar. Not sure about the seals as I've never had the pleasure of haveing to do them . I have no idea how they came up with 615 for an alignment. I assume they would be replacing a few front end parts. I would take it to a local shop you can trust or to another dealer and get another opinion.

 

[Supra725]

Well, gave my local Napa a call today and got a price quotes for the bearings and seals. Is about $160 dollars, Im thinking about it. My question is, would this be hard to do? Has anyone done it in the past? any help or guidance would be great.
Btw, I do have a job.(not trying to be mean) I just wanted to see which is more important to get it repaired first.

thanks