Power Steering question

[Comtrad]

My power steering is out when I try to turn to the left. It work fine when I turn the wheel to the right though. The auto shop said the rack and pinion needed full replacement. Two different places have told me between $1200 & $1500. Does this sound right? Does the whole thing need replacing? If so how much is the part itself and is it easy to replace yourself.

[burple]

What vehicle?

[Comtrad]

What vehicle?

lol, guess that would help wouldn't it?


1999 Pontiac Bonneville SE

[burple]

Well you can get the full rack and pinion for about $300. I have seen it for under $200 on some sites. So if it only needs rack and pinion and nothing else like struts or cv joints then they are charging $900-1200 for labor. I do not know what they have on the books for repair time, but just the rack and pinion should not take more than 2 hours to replace. So that is roughly $450-600.00 an hour labor, unless it is more wrong like I stated before. If that is all it needs, it can be done cheaper.

[joecool169]

Well you can get the full rack and pinion for about $300. I have seen it for under $200 on some sites. So if it only needs rack and pinion and nothing else like struts or cv joints then they are charging $900-1200 for labor. I do not know what they have on the books for repair time, but just the rack and pinion should not take more than 2 hours to replace. So that is roughly $450-600.00 an hour labor, unless it is more wrong like I stated before. If that is all it needs, it can be done cheaper.


Not quite, I will look up the flat rate Monday. The rack will take more than two hours. The shop will mark the part up, shops make money on parts and labor or they won't be around long. Don't forget the car will need aligned. Also are they pricing out a new long rack, new short rack, or reman long rack or reman short rack. Everyone is quick to say that the shop is ripping a customer off, but till you see the car, and or the quote, you are usually not getting the whole story.

[burple]

Not quite, I will look up the flat rate Monday. The rack will take more than two hours. The shop will mark the part up, shops make money on parts and labor or they won't be around long. Don't forget the car will need aligned. Also are they pricing out a new long rack, new short rack, or reman long rack or reman short rack. Everyone is quick to say that the shop is ripping a customer off, but till you see the car, and or the quote, you are usually not getting the whole story.

Well as I said before, that is only if he needed the rack and pinion and nothing else. I know it can jump up as other things are needed. And I just quoted the price if he walked up an bought the part. That is what he wanted to know. And it should not be much more than two hours if that is all it needs. I can do a pontiac in about that time. I did forget to mention the alignment though. But that is not a lot of dough. BTW I worked for shops for 10 years until I got out of the business.:thumb: So I do not dog shops. But I do inform people to shop to make sure they are getting the best rate. BTW I forgot to mention that is a common problem with that car. So any good shop should be able to repair fairly easily.

[joecool169]

Best rate is over rated, you want the shop that will fix your car correctly first, price is second. And there are shops that I would not let work on my car. The flat rate is 2.7 hours and does not include transfer of parts, or alignment.

[Comtrad]

Thanks I will keep this in mind when getting quotes.