Looks like I've got the dreaded clunk.

Okay then, so its $157 just for the service department to put my car up on a lift and look around, and then $16 for replacement bushings, and another $150 to replace the bushings. Then another $15 or $20 in taxes is where they get the $330ish figure from. They offered to cut the labor in half ($75 bucks off) but I'll still have to pay for the inspection and parts or just have them do the work and be done with it. So I opted to let them do it and to never ever take my car there again.
 
Good call on never going back. They're charging you flat rates for stuff like the inspection? and over an hour for the labor? Maybe as an estimate but...
 
Well, apparently estimate equals fixed quote in service land. I guess the fact I used to work in service (telecom) makes me feel like more of an idiot.
 
Ok, You took it in with "somethings wrong in the front. Sounds like my wheel is going to fall off". They need to do an inspection and diagnose the problem.

15 minutes to drive it around the block over their favorite bumps. It wasn't a subtle or intermittent problem so they would have reproduced it right away.
15 minutes to get it up on the rack and start checking out the usual suspects -- tie rod ends, ball joints, tension struts, etc. Sway bar bushings are right up towards the top of that particular list. As soon as they looked under the car they would have spotted the aftermarket sway bar and it's almost surely the first thing they checked. Then just a cursory check of the other things once the bad bushings were identified. maybe 20 minutes total.

So we're talking right around 1/2 hour for the inspection.

Easy to see during the inspection if any unusual problems might be expected for the repair. Something like the bolts holding the sway bar bracket are smashed or severely rusted or something like that. Even so, that would be noted in the quote "this is what is expected for the normal repair but yours maybe be more due to unusual circumstances".

The job is literally a 15/20 minute job. Let's say they charge in minimum 1/2 hour increments. Techs track their time by the minute. Usually punching a time clock multiple times doing a job. Maybe the service advisor quotes the estimate from "replace sway bars". Might be the only price point he has to put on an estimate. They may or may not have it broken down by "replace front sway bar" and/or "replace rear sway bar" (rear is 10 times more involved).

So we're talking 1/2 hour for the actual repair.

15 minutes road test.

Every service department is going to have an hourly rate towards the customer.
I think the 5 star service department down here charges $125? can't remember.
Auto repairs used to be done mostly by "book" rates. There was a specified time listed for most every job on the car. "replace alternator - 32 minutes". map that to the shop's hourly rate and that's what you'd pay. If the tech got it done faster they mode more money getting more jobs in. Or they charge hourly and use the book for estimates.

1/2 hour inspection.
1/2 hour repair.
15 minute road test.
$20 parts, $5 grease, bolts maybe, whatever.

So apparently they have minimum rates? or they're just gouging. The $75 for labor is probably in the realm of reasonable. $157 for inspection?? Make an appointment with the dealer's service manager/director for when you go to pick it up. Ask him how they calculate their charges and what their hourly rate is. At the least it will give you some idea how shops derive that stuff when shopping for a service center/repair shop.
 
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Well, at this shop (Stoneridge) I'm just another customer. At Central Valley in Modesto, I know the Service Manager, so I get a better deal every time. Plus I suspect the rates are lower in general in Modesto. So I figure this is just how they do business at Stoneridge.
 
Okay, should've titled this thread "Much Ado About Nothing, Dealer Edition."

Got the call at noon today, while weighing my options for getting to an interview at 2 pm in San Jose. They realized that my front swaybar is REALLY big - Hi, I upgraded to Hotchkis, you see the big Hotchkis letters on the big swaybar?

They thought they could order bushings from a local shop. Nope, not big enough. So after all the fuss and kerfuffle and keeping my car for nearly FIVE days, I got my car back today, unrepaired, at no cost to me.

After riding with my husband and daughter to San Jose in his car, acing another interview (I think), and coming home. It took me a whopping five minutes to order the rebuild kit direct from Hotckis. For a mere $30, I'll have the parts delivered on Friday and with the help of a friend, I'll have them all fixed up by the weekend.

Geesh.
 
Heh, you got that $157 diagnosis for free! ...and I don't think Hotchkis bushes are just any old bushes either. Good thing they didn't complete the repair (screw it up).
 
Quick said:
Heh, you got that $157 diagnosis for free! ...and I don't think Hotchkis bushes are just any old bushes either. Good thing they complete the repair (screw it up).
Click to expand...

Yeah, they just kept my car on their lot for nearly five days, poked around the underbelly and drove it around a little. Poor car.

Anyway, should have her all fixed up this weekend at the latest. And for a whopping $30.
 
Speedy said:
That means you have saved (some girls would say earned) 300 bucks to spend on something else!
Spend it on yourself this time, you deserve it in my book Tam!!!

Fredrik:)
Click to expand...

Well, I'm not that kinda gal. Its just money that I don't have that I don't have to put on credit that I managed not to spend.

Okay, after a call this morning from the service manager at the dealer I've been dealing with, I will have this whole matter dealt with, including my swaybar reinstalled with the correct replacement bushings on Friday at no cost to me. Knowing the right people or being known has its perks. Also, making a racket about customer frustration.
 
If all goes well with the job hunt, Scarlett and I will be back on the track on a regular basis. And Scarlett will be back on a semi regular race gas diet and enjoying a good spa treatment more often. :)
 
Haha, well, I thought of you last night when I was out with the boys on our bikes, I passed a brand new BMW 760 IL with the licensplate saying TAMARA.
I was on the bike so sorry, no pic...

Fredrik:)
 
Recap!
Last Friday: I dropped off my Charger to get the mystery clunk checked out.

Saturday: They found that the swaybar bushings were worn out late in the day. They said they could order the parts and fix it up for me for $330 dollars. I wasn't happy, but I was stressed so I agreed.

Monday: I'm clear-headed enough to realize that I can order the $15 parts myself and get a friend to help replace them. So I call to see what parts they ordered and whether I could take the car home. Guy says that they're charging me $157 just to look at the car and drive it around, plus the parts are $20, but he offered to shave $75 off of labor. So I decided fine, whatever.

Tuesday: As I'm about to rush out the door to an interview, meaning Marc had to drive me since I hadn't heard from the dealer, I get a call that they ordered the wrong bushings, assuming it was an OEM swaybar (I tried to tell them Monday it was Hotchkis), and that they could either replace the entire front swaybar with an OEM set up for $550 or I could just come pick the car, no charge. So I did. Marc still drove me to the interview and when I got home, I ordered the bushing kit.

Wednesday: Madeline has a bad reaction to peanut butter, so while Marc is at the grocery getting children's benedryl, I get a call from the dealer's service manager, who is also a member of NorCal Challengers. Apparently I drove the car home with NO front swaybar, and he'd be on the horn with Hotchkis, because they thought my swaybar was bigger than the standard hotchkis bushings. So Hotchkis is nice enough to include 1.5" swaybar bushings along with the 1 3/8" bushings I ordered Tuesday, at no additional charge. So the manager wanted to call to ask me to call them when I get the bushings so I can bring the car back in and have my Charger, the swaybar and the correct bushings reunited on Friday at NO Charge, due to all the trouble they put me through. Get Madeline's allergy sorted out, etc.

Today:Got the package with the two sets of bushings, take it to the dealer, all fixed up in half an hour. Turns out I did in fact need the 1.5" bushings and not the smaller 1 3/8" bushings that I thought were correct. Took the Charger out on the freeway and tried out the handling on some cloverleafs, then cruised Main Street in Pleasanton to see how bumps at low-speed felt. Everything checks out.

So whole thing got resolved for $30 on my part and I now know I need 1.5" bushings in the future. Apparently the Hotchkis kit I got through tbyrne back in 2007 was beefier than what's listed as compatible on the Hotchkis website. In other news, that interview I had to hustle for, well they passed me over because I'm overqualified. So I'm basically back to where I started a week ago. Car in my possession and no job, yay. Sorry for wasting everyone's time with this debacle.
 
ChargerGirl said:
Recap!
Last Friday:
Apparently the Hotchkis kit I got through tbyrne back in 2007 was beefier than what's listed as compatible on the Hotchkis website. In other news, that interview I had to hustle for, well they passed me over because I'm overqualified. So I'm basically back to where I started a week ago. Car in my possession and no job, yay. Sorry for wasting everyone's time with this debacle.
Click to expand...

You don't to have to apologize for anything
No way... that is what we are here for.

Great that things worked out so well.

I got my sways in late 2007 also. I will have to measure them.
However it is weird about this 1 1/2" and 1 3/8" bar. I also noticed on the Hotchkis site that they now sell a stronger bushing with a billet housing for their sways...... But the largest size available is 1 3/8*. Why do they not list a 1 1/2". So I wonder about this 1 1/2" bar?


I will have to so some back thread searching. I now members were posting sway bar sizes as comparison.








Search done....... here is a thread from dodgetalk forem in 2006. Supporting a 1 3/8" bar?

http://www.dodgetalk.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-93403.html


I ran across this on the TBYRNE Motorsports site under their listing for the Hotchkis swaybar upgrades. You might consider theirs vs. the SRT8... probably in the same ball park, cost-wise.

Specs:
HP Front Bar - 1 3/8" (35mm)
Stock = 30mm Solid
HP Rear Bar - 3/4" (19mm)
Stock = 15mm Solid
% Stiff over Stock
Front Bar - 30%
Rear Bar - 150%


..
 
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That's the set I thought I got from tbyrne when they had a sale mid 2007. Hotchkis had 1.5" bushings to include with the 1 3/8" bushings they sent so I'm wondering if I got an entirely different set. Still the part number stamped on the bar matches the 1 3/8" bar. So who knows.
 
Okay, the sound in the front right side of my car is still there, just not as horrendous thanks to the swaybar bushing fix. Just sounds like something's loose when I encounter any particularly large bumps while moving slowly (parking lots, streets).
 
ChargerGirl said:
Yeah, they just kept my car on their lot for nearly five days, poked around the underbelly and drove it around a little. Poor car.

Anyway, should have her all fixed up this weekend at the latest. And for a whopping $30.
Click to expand...

why did you leave it there? You should have picked it up after they looked at it and then taken it back when the parts arrived. I am surprized that the dealer enen tried to get bushings for an aftermarket part. They should have just sent you on your way.
 
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