Sango

iTrader: (10)

Hi all,

I am considering modify my car to have F-Sport springs, sway bars and possibly the shocks and wanted to know who should I let install this?

Would there be pros and cons going either route?

One of my concerns is that if I go with the dealership installation, they are most likely going to re-align the vehicle to the factory spec which wears out tires fast. I wonder if I could have the dealership not perform the alignment the car such that I can drive the car short distance away to the dedicated alignment shop which performed my alignment which they set for general street use using my weight.

For the other shop, they can do all of this for me (it is the same shop that does the alignment). Would there be any problems with warranty by having the other shop installing this instead of having the dealership do this?

Any advice would help.

Thanks

Kurtz

iTrader: (1)

If you have the dealer do it then your warranty is "whatever is left on your factory 4yr/50k vehicle warranty or 1 year, whichever is longer"

If you have anyone other than the dealer, including just you, install it, then the warranty is 1 year.

Assuming "someone else" is a shop that stands behind its work I'd save the hundreds extra the dealer will overcharge.

(if you were JUST doing the sways I'd say do it yourself, it's very very easy even if you don't normally do much car work... springs and shocks though is probably worth paying someone if you don't typically do anything on your own car).

Sango

iTrader: (10)

Thanks Kurtz,

Most likely I will have the shop do all this then.

http://www.trulineseattle.com/index.html - It's actually this shop, recommended as one of tirerack's preferred tire installers. I had my tires installed and alignment done by him. I went to the Bellevue location and saw Byron - he really knows his stuff.

kuuqi

Honestly most shops can install any of those for you. Sango you can order all those parts for cheap from Sewell and they include instructions for you (you can also download them as a PDF from the website also). You can look through it and determine if they're easy enough for you to do yourself. I've never done a spring installation in my life until I got my IS and with two buddies I got them in and out no problem (except for one which I needed a shop to cut a seized bolt but that was a rare scenario).

92sc300nj

iTrader: (1)

i mean if your concern is the warrantee id go to the dealer cuz lets say something breaks .. they would have to cover it because its their parts and they installed it. meanwhile if you have an outside shop do it and something happens they might not be so inclined to warrantee it because they didnt install. i mean if its cost your talking about a decent auto shop should be able to install those no problem.

Hoovey689

iTrader: (16)

Just a reputable shop in your area is fine

Trza

The flip side is you pay the extra for piece of mind. If you have an 2011 that means u could have 4 years worth of warranty if the dealer installs the part. My oppinion is that a spring is pretty straightforward, not a whole lot could happen if installed correctly. I ultimately got a local shop to install mine and was ok with only a years worth of warranty instead of the 4

Sango

iTrader: (10)

Since my car is CPO, then I would have probably about close to over 2 years left on my car if I went with the dealership.

I do believe it is unlikely something would go going with the shop as they are reputable.

I am going to get a price quote between the two just to see what the difference would be in price to justify which way I want to go.

Thanks for the replies so far.

iRock

iTrader: (12)

The dealer wants atleast 5 or 600 to install springs last time I checked and a local shop quoted me 150.

Sffd103

iTrader: (16)

I don't think it would be worth it to pay dealer rates for simple bolt on products.

flektone

iTrader: (1)

$1000 from the lexus dealer by me for spring and shocks installed. absolutely rediculous

Duke02

iTrader: (2)

As Kurtz mentioned, the warranty difference is material but putting that aside, I think it just comes down to somebody who is a competent mechanic that knows how to work on suspensions.

shouldn't be complicated but you don't want knuckleheads doing it. The guys that did mine were idiots and I wound up having to have it fixed. Basically, if you go with a good shop, I would think you'd be fine. Take the $$$ savings from not going to the dealer and throw it in your savings account as an insurance premium.

shiny250

iTrader: (4)

dont go to the dealership. id say its a rip off and any qualified mechanic can/will do the work for you for hundreds less than the dealer. if you have the time to work on the car yourself, then it's worth doing the mods yourself. you learn a ton as you're tinkering with the car. but if time is not abundant, then pay someone for the springs and shocks as they take quite a long time (should cost anywhere from $150 up). sway bars you can definitely install yourself as kurtz said.

10lexISR6

iTrader: (1)

ive installed springs a shocks tons of times, but for laziness and argument sake i asked my dealer how much to throw on a set of f-sport springs....over $1000!!!!! minus the springs, just labor. are you out of your f'n mind lexus!?!?!? negative, ill wrench my own baggage thank you.

Sango

iTrader: (10)

OOh wow! I should just avoid the dealership. I am not familar with modifying cars so I would need an experienced person to work on it.

The shop quoted me about $440 or so for the springs (with or without the shocks), so it seems about right