Well today I sent the Cutlass in for a new altenator belt (cant spell) and decided that they might as well do the a/c and power sterring belts too (wasnt sure if i should do all 3 but i decided too). I came home from school ready to got pick it up and my mom told me " They called and said you need a new altenator too" Well the part (a new one not rebuilt) is running me $200, plus the belts and labor. They said ok the car should be ready around 4, we'll give ya a call. At 4:15 i get a call, the bolt that holds on the power sterring pump was missing, and when they took the belt off, the pump moved and they cant get it back together without that bolt, so it had to be special ordered. What started off as maybe $25 for a altenator belt is now costing hundreds of $$$$$!!!!!!!!!!! THIS SUCKS. :?

shitty buzzzzz.

Monday, I got 2 new wheel bearings installed, ran me 728.14 for the parts and labour..

And for the record, i blew out 4 alternators with my system before I had a capacitor installed... (that got pricy!!)

is this a mechanic u usually go to?

you shoulda said, leave the alternator, Ill change it when it dies.. you cant just tell an alternator is dead by looking at it.. Do you know if they tested it?
or did you think the alternator belt was what was causing your electrical issues.?

isnt the serpentine belt hooked up too all of those (alternator, water punp.. etc)? (its just one belt right)

Man, that sux...$200 for a remanufactured alternator is a rip-off...
$728.14 for two wheel bearings?? Wow...I saved a lot by replacing mine...only about $100 for one wheel bearing and since I did it myself, no labor costs. The bolt was missing? That's very weird...

TOC Admin
Brando

wow I paid $99 for biggest alternator I could get. Never did hubs yet.

Dam man thats not cool at all. Why would u need a new alternator if it was fine when u brought it in?? Also you can replace the alternator urself, its really easy, like 3 or 4 bolts, not hard to reach or anything. The PS on the other hand is a B*&@! and 3/4 lol for me that bolt is so awkward to reach and so much pressure has to be applied as you tighten it.

I say it's time to learn how to turn a wrench if spending that much bothers you. It would bother me, that's why I learned. Luckily my dad taught me, and I taught my son. If you don't have a relative that can teach you maybe you should take a shop class at school to learn the basics, it would be well worth it

i need to replace my bearings but i am worrried that i will break something or not be able to get it back together right so i will probably just take mine in too and have them fixed....

Guys, i've changed my bearings before on the driver side, and had it changed before at the dealership also,. (i have a tendancy to slide into curbs sideways , when parkinglots are full of snow *(hidden curbs) , and I am doing donuts..
so everytime there is a side impact like that, the bearings get crushed... and usually a piece of the rim falls off .lol

well so this time, i thought it was the bearings causing the noisy stops, wierd noises when turning to the left, but not to the right.. and the road vibrations..

So I pulled the wheels and checked it out, but couldnt really tell.. (and i have a used bearing hub in the garage..) so i wasnt sure i wanted to go rent a puller and spend another 3 hours, if that wasnt even forsure the problem... so i took it to the dealership to get them to diagnose it..

they said both bearings were worn.. whatever...

Who ever was on the phome when they called me made a error, it ended up being $128.98 for the alt, and with the belts, labor , etc the total was $304.72. Hurts when you dont have any $ to start with.

seems like alot of labor to install an alt and a couple belts

what are the labor rates around there? you're not THAT far from me.... the dealers are about 58 - 60 / hour and the independent shops more like 45 - 50 / hr. at least that's here in western mass.

Labor was $69 per hr, around here the dealers charge up to $80 per hr, that was for 1.5 hrs of labor.

wow, never knew I had it so good!