Tomorrow, I am going to toyota for a minor service and I got my Bilsteins shipped to me today. I will ask them how muck to install. Can you guys give me a ball park as to how much I should expect to pay? Also, just so they don't try to rip me off too much...how much time for labor does the install usually take? This is on a 3rd gen, 4wd.-thanks

 

If you lived nearby and I was doing freelance work for you, i'd probably charge about 75-100 bucks for shocks. Since you're a yota guy, i'd help you for free tho. No one else around you interested in lending a hand?

 

Joe, if you have the time, try it yourself. Its not that hard, rear shock top nuts are a royal biatch, but not impossible...

 

"rear shock top nuts are a royal biatch" mad chemist please explain in more detail. Is it hard to get to, usaully rusted on, or just a biatch? I plan on swapping out all my shocks very soon.

 

I would love to do it myself but I have a very limited amount of tools and this is my only mode of transportation. I would be screwed if I got stuck in the middle of the install. I asked the guy from toyota real quick and he quoted a rough estimate of 160 dollars. Of course it would be free if I could do it myself but I would rather get this done because I got a lot of things going on right now.

Since they charge labor by the hour, I was hoping to get an estimate on install times from you guys so I now what better to expect.-thanks

 

Hard to get to? Yes.
Rusted on? Depends on your region.

Took me about 1.5 hours to do my rears. You will get your arms into positions that you never thought possible, trust me.

 

I work at a Ford dealership--I am sure labor time to install shocks are the same--we charge 1 hour per axle, so a total of 2 hours at whatever labor rate that dealer is at.

 

You can check out what I had to do for my rear shocks in my write-up here:
CLICKY

 

Yeah just a bad spot, not necessarily rusty. What worked for me was putting the ratchet on the top nut, then a 12 inch breaker on the ratchet. With a strap wrench on the shockbody I twisted the shock, which spins the whole thing, including the top schock nut until the breakerbar was levered against part of the frame/body. At this point it was just a matter of continuing to use the strap wrench to get the shock off. I had soaked the nut for ~3 days in PB blaster, a spray in the morning and one at night, and that seemed to help a bit.

 

Not the same model, but for any car it would not take me more then an hour or two by myslef to change the shocks. That is easier then changing oil in most cases.

 

If you have not had the shocks put on yet you should try a different shop to do the work. An independent shop will not charge as much on the hour as the dealer. This is just a thought later.