Well, I guess my driveshaft ujoints had finally gone bad. I started hearing a noise today like a clicking sort of but more of a squeeling when I took off. It seemed to go away after I got going. I was away from the house but near the shop I usually get to do my work. I used to work there and for the most part I felt like they were giving me decent deals and do good work although after this time I feel sort of ripped off as they charged me $80 for ujoints where as the place they get them from told me $12.50 a piece so $25. This is the same place they get them and I know they don't pay that for them. Anyway I got it fixed luckily and the guy that did the work does quality work so I guess it was halfway worth it. Had I been closer to home and known what it was I would have probably tried it myself I just didn't know what it was and was afraid driving 30 minutes to get home might damage something else.

They used a brand called Precision joints. Are these any good? They used to and mostly have used Spicer on stuff so I assumed thats what they would have used. I was a little taken back when I saw Precision on the box as he put them in. I actually helped him a little with putting them in but he did most of the work. Is this an okay brand or do I have crappy ujoints in there?

This kind of bothers me what they charged me as they usually are good to me and he is the best mechanic I know of around here imo and I really like his work it's just that price they charged me is absolutely insane. I don't understand why you would charge a customer that much more and risk losing him when he spends as much as I do there. I've spent a couple thousand there already this year. I guess this is a lesson on why I do most stuff that I can do myself at home. I'm just glad to have it fixed and I had to have it fixed which is why I just went ahead and got them to do it.

 

Precision ujoints are made by Federal-Mogul and are made in USA. I just did mine myself and they were 20 bucks a piece. I have an acount at auto parts store. But list price is 41.65 each.



EDIT: I could not find my reciept so I called my auto parts store where I got the joints from. He looked up my account from last week and I actually paid 14.23 each and list price for each was 25.88.

 

hmm that makes about sense with what they charged me. I wonder why they only quoted me $12.50 when I called to ask how much they were.

 

You just did the rears correct? I have a similar squeeking noise that WD-40 didnt seem to touch. Havent confirmed 100% if its the rear u-joints, but I am betting it is just by the nature of the squeek. Should be a nice little project for this weekend.

 

Precisionmakes a good part.

$80.00 is a fair price for u-joint installation my friend.Not as cheap as you doing it yourself,but that's not even an hour labor charge at a shop.

 

The $80 was just for parts. Labor was around 3 hours ontop of that. Maybe not quite 3 hours.

Anyway we went ahead and changed the ones on the front of the driveshaft too. He said they looked fine but for piece of mind I wanted them changed too so I don't have to mess with it again for a while.

 

i have never seen u joints over 25$ that you can get at the auto part store.i have seen exspencive ones that they use for 4wheelin or rock crawlin, but they are special order.anyways if they were 20$+ then i would say their good. i got mine at advanced and i think they were around 15-18$ if i remember right they were called 'brute somthing', but they were thick bigger than the stock ones and the most exspencive ones they had.
so 80$ for the u joints and how much for the fix?

 

$150 labor for finding what was making the sound which took maybe 15 minutes and then changing them which seems linline to me as another shop I like quoted me the same price. Well, actually $15 more. I just wanted to basically have my truck fixed right then as I have been using it a lot.

 

well it seems like a fair price if they did both, i would pay 230$ for that job if i had to. but i tryto do it everything myself cuz of the obvious reason saving money.but if you used to work there i think you should have gotten parts at cost at least.

 

Yeah I guess it was worth it to have it fixed. Had I been close to the house I might have tried doing it myself if I could have found what it was but I really didn't even think of the ujoints and wasn't near the house. I had limited tools in the truck but not enough for the ujoints. After the shop had the driveshaft out to check the joints I figured they minus well do them.