I think I have asked this before.....

[JBougie]

But, I am trying to find a shop in Minneapolis/St Paul that won't charge $500 to put my lowering springs on. I don't have a garage and since we have on-street parking, I have no choice but to pay whatever people want to charge. But $500 is nuts. They are all saying in their systems it shows that it will take 6 hours in labor.....which it won't.

Anyone who can give me any info I would greatly appriciate it!!!

[kuyachris84]

$500 is nuts. I went to wisconsin and found some YW members that helped me get mine on for $100... and I got to help.

I swear shops and such rip off people so much... I'd probably put them in the top 5 in "professions I hate"... along with policemen who just constantly give me tickets on my driveway and other things like not cutting my grass and leaving my garbage collection bins in front of view on the driveway. *sigh*

[toad]

$500 is high, but if that's a dealership quoting you i wouldn't be surprised. i found a small, independant garage in town and the guy there quoted me $200ish. even that i thought was too high so i just went out and bought the necessary tools(17mm OFFSET box wrench, 6mm L-shaped allen key) and said 'here goes nothing!' i had never done anything to my car before besides oil changes, but there's a really good DIY on this site(i think?) that walks you through it step-by-step. i took my time, carefully read each step, and with a little luck finished in a few hours(this includes running out to the auto parts store to rent a spring-compressor - which they usually loan for free with deposit). if that sounds a little scary - which it did for me and i totally understand if you just want to let the pros do it - you might be able to find a small shop around town do it for about the same. good luck!

[JBougie]

I would love to do it myself, but I would get ran over - I live on a very busy street in St. Paul (Fairview Ave) and don't have a garage.

I am going to keep looking ... I haven't called the dealership, I know they will be more than any of the local shops, which are the ones who are quoting me $500 +/-. It's about $420 for the springs and then $80 for the alignment. God I need to hurry up and buy a house. So close, yet so far ...

Is an alignment going to be needed for a 1.5" drop?

[toad]

most people will probably say 'yes', but i did mine almost a year ago and haven't done it yet(1.6f,2.1r drop). at first it was because i was on old tires and i didn't care about wear problems because i was going to replace them anyways. now i have new tires, but it's winter and the potholes are REALLY tearing-up my car and i'll probably wait until spring because it'll need it. i haven't noticed any problems and occassionally i'll let go of the steering wheel(at medium speeds and with no traffic around) to see if it's still going straight and it does(a surprisingly long time really!). i have heard that if you're getting the alignment done immediately it's better to wait a week or two afterwards to let the car 'settle'. hope that helps!

[JBougie]

It does :) Thanks!! I will continue the search and hopefully find a place that will do it for $200, and I'll worry about the alignment a couple weeks after.

[why?]

check the attached stores too, like sears auto, wal-mart and such. every so often you'll find someone there who knows exactly what they are doing and will do stuff like that really inexpensively.

[contraband831]

try craigslist, submit an add offering $100 for the install. just a thought...

[JBougie]

I posted an ad on craigslist and found a guy who will do it for $200, all the guides say that it is a 6+ hours job, so no one will touch it for less than that. I sent this guy the DIY and told him it shouldn't take more than a couple hours since he knows what he's doing. I'm OK with paying $200, that was the max I wanted to spend. Still high, but whatever - they need to get on. It's driving me nuts not having them. So, I drop her off next Thursday night and he is going to do it Friday morning :) YAY!