Did I Get Ripped Off On Install? ALIGNMENT UPDATE

[Brian V]

This is why being a newb and wanting to do a drop on the suspension should take a long ponderous time .

I took 3 years of studying and collecting all the right and most beneficial parts before I even attempted the tear down and install ..

Sorry OP but you were taken for a ride of impatience and others greed . I sure have seen a lot of that .
Unfortunately this is our system of capitalism .

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[Pauliejr]

I did it out of convenience unfortunately they are supposed to “do the right thing” since we send them all our work. I’m def not. Newb to cars however this is my first time with an S550 I have done my own cars in the past however I was under the impression this was a difficult install and wanted t done right.

I agree I should have paid about $450 I was anticipating them giving me a lower price since they were just charging me straight labor. $800 was quotes for the 7.5 hrs they said the computer recommended from front and real install. Lesson learned. Will not use them ever again and will be stopping by to give them my 2 cents.

 

[bahasad]

Paid about 500 to get springs, full catback exhaust, sways installed.

 

[Pauliejr]

UPDATE : alignment sheet.

https://ibb.co/hHXyXy

Would appreciate any input on this alignment. Suspension is not my forte however I’ve never had issues in the past. Need to familiarize myself with the new suspension on the S550

 

[NightmareMoon]

They made minor changes to your front toe and didnt touch the rear at all, not even to try to correct the large camber issue on your right rear. Fwiw you have too much rear toe and too much rear camber on one side. Front alignment looks fine. The car probably drives straight.

Stop giving that shop money and go somewhere else.

As far as the install prices, I'd expect in the ballpark of $700 to do springs. Nature of the beast. It doesnt matter how quickly they did the work, the shop should charge book hours and if they finish faster while doing a good job, thats how good efficient mechanics make money versus inexperienced slow ones. Do you want to pay a good mechanic less just because they know the car well and can do a job faster than the book hours?

 

[Pauliejr]

They made minor changes to your front toe and didnt touch the rear at all, not even to try to correct the large camber issue on your right rear. Fwiw you have too much rear toe and too much rear camber on one side. Front alignment looks fine. The car probably drives straight.

Stop giving that shop money and go somewhere else.

As far as the install prices, I'd expect in the ballpark of $700 to do springs. Nature of the beast. It doesnt matter how quickly they did the work, the shop should charge book hours and if they finish faster while doing a good job, thats how good efficient mechanics make money versus inexperienced slow ones. Do you want to pay a good mechanic less just because they know the car well and can do a job faster than the book hours?

Only drove the car around the block. The car drove straight prior. Giving gas in and out or a turn that the car felt strange before.

You think my front is okay they way it is? That’s was my opinion. The rear looks Wacky to me. Not sure why they didn’t fix that. This is actually a different tire shop.

Any idea what the rear adjustments should be. Or what I should tell them to target?

 

[EFI]

8 hours? For a mechanic with a lift and access to air tools?

Holy crap. I can do it in my driveway with hand tools and hand compressor in under 3 hours. My mechanic friend with the lift and air tools can have it done in less than 2.

How fucking long does it take to remove 6 bolts in the rear to access the spring? 4 on the subframe and 2 on the shock. Once the car is on the lift and the wheel is off you can have the spring out in a matter of minutes.

 

[NightmareMoon]

Shoot for like 1.5 degrees of camber in the rear and symmetrical left/right. Have them dial back the rear toe to about 0.1-0.15 toe in per side or 0.2-0.3 total. You have about double that now.

The springs are probably the biggest difference in feel, FWIW, not your alignment, but that rear toe and camber is going to eat tires faster than you probably want. Lowering probably gave you a little more front camber than you're used to so, the car may turn a little different than before. Nothing you can do about the front camber without camber plates or bolts, and honestly it looks close enough.

If the shop that did the spring install didn't clock the bushings (i.e. loosen and tighten everything down while the car was resting on it's own wheels, like on an alignment rack), then you might have some side effects from that.

Ask around in your area for good performance shops that do alignments to spec and work on racecars or autocross cars. They're more likely to know whats up with things like clocking the bushings, and are likely to work a little harder to try to meet a customers specs for alignment than some random tire shop that sees 100 commuter sedans a week who are only concerned with the car tracking in a straight line.

 

[wildcatgoal]

If I do it for someone, I charge no more than $400... usually less. But I also don't have the kind of overhead a shop has. They probably just didn't know the shortcuts to the job.

 

[Dr. Norts]

If the shop didn't drop the subframe and did the rear spring install as per ford then they have to take the entire rear suspension apart and that does take some time.

The shop most likely did drop the subframe though since that's the easiest method and billed the hours as if they took the entire rear suspension apart.

Can't fault them for that. That's how most mechanic shops work/bill.

If you had a job billed out at 20 hours and you were an exceptional mechanic and got it done in 15 you get paid for 20. It's how a good mechanic makes money or a shitty one takes shortcuts. That's the only problem you don't know which mechanic your getting.

 

[JPMagnetic]

Coilovers

I had coil overs, BMR irs lockout, spacers cc plates and full alignment for 800. And it came with a year warranty on the labor. It took him a full day by himself. Which seemed odd as this shop is mustang specific and he worked on other S550s.

 

[Nuked]

Damn! This makes the 450 I was quoted for long tube header install sound that much better!

 

[Dr. Norts]

Damn! This makes the 450 I was quoted for long tube header install sound that much better!

I paid 1700$ CDN ($1300 USD) for installation of new shocks, struts, springs, sway bars, sway bar end links, toe links, tension links, lateral links, Bumpsteer kit, subframe braces, subframe bushing supports, subframe alignment bushings vertical links and 4 wheel alignment. Also a dyno run was included in there as well.

That's pretty cheap for LT header install, no?

 

[Nuked]

That's pretty cheap for LT header install, no?

I think it is a good price for the amount of work involved, yes. This is a performance shop that specializes in Mustangs too, so they have done more than their fare share. I think when you go to a "regular" shop you are gonna pay more for stuff to be done. A lot is the mentality they have that people that can't do the work themselves are at their mercy. More times than not they are right.

 

[Dr. Norts]

I think it is a good price for the amount of work involved, yes. This is a performance shop that specializes in Mustangs too, so they have done more than their fare share. I think when you go to a "regular" shop you are gonna pay more for stuff to be done. A lot is the mentality they have that people that can't do the work themselves are at their mercy. More times than not they are right.

Yea that's what I'm saying 450$ is a good price. Most shops, even specialty mustang one's want $1000+ for install of LTHs up here in Canada.

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