@tavo2422 Ah, dang! Doing these in a shop on a hoist with the good tall underhoist screw stands is not too bad. Especially after doing a few. Driver's side can be done in under an hour. Passenger side can be more annoying as the bracket for the power steering pump gets in the way. Still easy enough to do in under a couple hours. That's after doing a few and with the full facilities of a shop. Nice flat concrete, hoist, good screw stands, full tools, etc. Doing these on the ground with just floor jacks and jackstands would be murder. Hope your back is feeling better now. Congrats on getting it done too!
Had 2 shops quote book labor of 2 hours each to install 1 ball joint that was bolted in, not riveted for my Toyota 2 WD tuck. They wanted $1250 to do all 4. I did all 4 in my parking space, in 92 degree temps, with hand tools in just under 3 hours.
@Mike Hudson Nice job! Unless everything's rusted/seized in place then these are pretty nice to do. Could be a lot of that $1250 was parts. A lot of shops will only put Moog parts in because they have a higher parts markup on them. So looking up a 2006 Tundra 4L (I made a guess), our parts lookup lists a Moog lower bj with a "List Price" of $300ea and uppers with a "List Price" of $125ea. So that would be $850 just in parts (Canuck bucks mind you). The parts are expensive but that's obscene. We could still make a very healthy markup by charging $550 for quality parts or $350 for economy parts. Of course if you went to any of the large franchise tire shops here they'd all tell you that you "HAVE TO HAVE AN ALIGNMENT OR YOU WILL DIE!" So add on another $150-$200 to the bill... This is why I love working at a small shop. We have low overhead so we don't have to upsell. Whenever we see someone come in holding a quote from one of those retail tire shops we know we got a new customer!
@@eurbanautotech SE VA truck so no rust. It was fun and easy. That was labor only. Bought 4 Moog ball joints for ~$150 from RockAuto. Parts for 84-88 Toyota trucks are cheap and plentiful. One reason I have driven it for 37 years since new. If you ever get a chance to buy a 84-88 Toyota Truck- do it. The 22RE is good for 500K plus. Cheaply fix it up and sell it in a heartbeat. zI get people asking for me to sell my truck all the time.
@Mike Hudson All for labor..?? That's pretty messed up. Good thing you did it yourself! Whenever I think of old Toyotas all I ever think about is that episode of Top Gear where they could not kill that Hilux diesel! I know quite a few people with 22RE's that have over 400,000km on them!
@@eurbanautotech That's my model truck- 84-88. Yea labor was rape level. One even looked at the ball joints and saw the 3 bolts holding each on it, not rivets, as still didn't cut the labor cost. Shops in the 757 are either sky high or incompetent. I have stories so now I do all my work. Cheaper to buy an specialty tools and do it than pay the high prices.
I did get a Craigslist mobile mechanic to replace the in tank fuel pump as I just filled it up with 14 gallons. I bought the fuel pump and he did the labor. Had him install the fuel filter I had on hand as it's stuck behind the starter. The shop who installed the previous pump said my tank was rusted to hell and I needed a new one. I said pass. I looked when the craigslist guy pulled the pump some 9 years later it was as shinny as a new stainless steel sink. Their pump failed because they left off the hose clamp and the line eventually fell off. Like I said. 757 shops are crap
Did the same job on our 2008 Highlander, same exact setup. I planned it, though, to include new engine mounts and sway bar bushings. I lost track of the hours but had the car under a canopy in my driveway for several days working on it sporadically. PITA project. Lots of yanking, jacking, wedging the engine, removing the top torque mount etc.
@InexplicableBill After a couple of these, they're actually not too bad to do... In a shop that is! With a hoist, good screw stand and all the other goodies. I can't imagine how brutal these would be to do on the ground with just a jack and stands. Props for getting it done!
Being a Toyota sienna owner, a lot of mechanics wanna drop the sub frame a tire shop told me 1600, but other videos on youtube show it's way easier to do.
@TheCarSection TheCarSection Wow, that's crazy. Granted, service advisors just quote off labor times. It's impossible to know every vehicle inside and out so you have to go off book times. I would have to hope that as soon as someone started actually working on it they'd realize the times are out to lunch and charge accordingly. I think 3-3.5 hours is pretty reasonable. An experienced person could do one of these in 2 hours or so. That's what flat rate's all about. You're paying for what a generic licensed mechanic would do it in. You're not paying more if an inexperienced mechanic is on it and it takes them longer. Likewise, you're not paying less if a very experienced guy is on it and can do it much quicker. But if a mediocre mechanic can do a job for the first time in less than half the labor time... That's when you know it's out to lunch and charge a more reasonable amount. Of course some shops would still attempt to charge the 10hours but in today's age of social media those shops find themselves with less and less customers coming through the door...
@eurbanautotech no worries because in Philadelphia, we must have our cars inspected every year, and toyota told me that when they inspected it, they were fine, and btw have a warranty.
I just got done doing it all on both sides.. struts, stab links, outer tie rods, hubs, cv axles, axle seals, lower control arms. 2 days but hours added up to about 16. The passenger cv axle and motor mounts bs took most of time.
Yeah the 09 - 13 corolla's are super fun. I loosened the engine mount a little, not all the way, on the passenger side and raised the engine with a hoise about an inch and was able to slide the control arm bolt out beneath the bottom of the oil pan. Haha dont ask about the drivers side. -.- good video though.
Original Miles? My 2006 is only at 261, 200 or so. I'm going for 300,000. It's a little slow, but it still runs strong. I love my van. My hubby keeps trying to get me to get rid of it, but I figure as long as it cost me less than $1,000 a year to keep going, I'm making money.
@Jonette Bumgarner By now this thing'll be at 400,000km. It is a taxi though so crazy miles. My buddy's shop specializes in taxis and most cars click past the million kms and cycle back to zero. He owns his own taxi car. Paid for the license and all from our largest taxi service. When he was driving; him, his wife and his cousin would shift it. It'd literally be on the road 20+ hours a day. Now he got his shop going his nephews are driving it. The guy's a tiny shop and he still changes out 5+ motors and high voltage batteries a month...
The crop of engineers for later models are like gen x'rs here. On the V6 Venza the intake manifold AND wiper cowl have to come out to c/o the rear spark plugs!Totally f'd up.
I'm going to do this job later today, I expect 3hours for both sides. Unbolt the top engine mount and the bottom and jack it up 5". Like 4 socket sizes and less than 16bolts...loosely speaking.
@TheRealBmanswan You bet! Definitely not a bad job to do. Sometimes the manufacturer is right out to lunch on their labor times! I find in general Toyota seems to give you a rather healthy amount of time for most things.
At least the front lca bolt isn’t stuffed behind the oil pan anymore like the Prius or the tc lol. I had to do the sub frame bolt and remove a motor mount just to get barely enough clearance. One of the most challenging control arms I’ve come across yet.
Take all the mounts loose. Lift and support engine and trans all together. Can get both sides done in 2 hours. Toyota says remove engine and trans for control arms on most siennas
@Christopher Maldonado Yeah, it's really not a bad job to do. I think an apprentice that's never done one before could probably still bang one side out in 3 hours.
I had a backyard mechanic replace my entire suspension system sway bar bushings, sway bar links, axles, control arms, struts- front and rear, bearings, tie rods for $800. The same work in a shop would have cost me $2000.
@Brian Nah. I love working on the 2010+ Dodge Caravans with the 3.6L! They're super easy to work on. Bonus is EVERYTHING fails on them so you see them lots! 😄
Definitely more work than expected but i did one side in an hour and some change in the driveway on my sisters solara. That estimated time is waaay off😂. It is not THAT difficult c'mon, I'm only 21 and I don't have any of those fancy tools like a lift. Remove the 3 motor mount bolts, jack up the motor, remove the old control arm, slip in the new one and boom, lower the engine down.
@truepyro28 Use a nice block of wood to spread the load out and try to get the jack closer to the outside of the pan. It REALLY helps to undo the swaybar links so you can move the swaybar out of the way. You'd have to undo both sides in order to actually move the swaybar. I used to do these without undoing the links but I've found it's more hassle than it's worth trying to get that one bolt started again. Good luck!
@Dan The Tech We get so many interruptions at our small shop that it would never work for flat rate pay. Still though, I always look up labor times to get an idea of what to expect and how I'm doing. Some of the times are just straight out to lunch and some of them are VERY generous!
@GERMAN JESUS Haha, we have a few chain tire/repair shops here that try to charge crazy high amounts. They provide us awesome advertising! We see a customer come in with one of their quotes and we know we're in for a good day while still saving the customer $1000!
I read through these comments about how people posted through this job in a couple hours and I say well I call bullshit. I'm confident that the next time I do it I can do it in 2 to 4 hours but the first time through I think the left side is a pretty challenging job, sure you don't need to remove the engine like Toyota talk about, but you certainly have some very high on those body mounts and getting that transmission mount clear is the ticket I've done a lot of shade tree wrenching but this job was challenging left side took me 10 hours
@gianfrancoa Sure doesn't. Service info says remove the whole subframe assembly. This was made easier because I was already in there doing a bunch of work, but still, not a hard job to do on its own. A lot more work than SHOULD be required...
I cant believe they're still doing this lmaoo in the first siennas they did the same thing...8hr to do, old coworker used to do 4 in a day at Toyota. Then the general manager found out and Toyota changed it 😅
@JJ Underwood Haha that would've been some kinda payday for a flat rate tech! Our customer actually did get charged 10 hours but then we also did a whole bunch of other work... This van had been ... "neglected" !
@EUrbanAutoTech ya it is unfortunate when engineers do that and expect us to be dumb and not figure out a faster way but it is what it is. I think it was 3 weeks or months before they figured it out so ya biiiiig payday!
@JJ Underwood So 10 hours may be pretty ridiculous to change a control arm but it gets worse! Got an '09 Rav4 2.5L that had a minor valve cover leak. What do I see after pulling the valve cover? Oh a little piece of broken timing chain guide... I had heard these Rav4's were nasty to do chains on but I was NOT expecting 22hrs! 😲
@Yaroslav Yeah, that's all it takes. This van we were doing a whole bunch of other work to it so I had a lot of extra stuff off. I just get a kick out of the labor times for these. Toyota be crazy sometimes. The labor time for a Rav4 timing chain is 20+ hours!
@Brock Catando That is a 2018. It's a taxicab so it's got over 350,000km on it already. The guy doesn't clean it and likes to drive into things. It's pretty rough.
Probably doing that to put the engineers on blast. The only way to get corporate attention would be to charge excessive and get the complaint dpt involved when customers bitch about labor times.
Hard? So the driver side, you just jack up the transmission, take the motor mount out. Do the same on the passenger, but youll probably have to cut one of the bottom motor mount bolts shorter. It's not a big deal. If it takes you more than two hours a side max, youre doing it wrong.
@tatsumaru12345 It's definitely pretty easy. Passenger side I remove the power steering bracket. It can be annoying but gives all the access to that one mount bolt and doesn't really take that long. Likewise I'll also remove both swaybar links as the end of the bar gets int he way of the one control arm bolt. I've done it before with just cranking the swaybar over but now I just find it quicker and easier to disconnect both links.
Oh definitely! It was intimidating at first with the mount, my first time. Messing with one. But I'll say cutting the motor mount bolt shorter on the passenger side, made life so much easier. Because there's a line in the way 'power steering maybe?'
@tatsumaru12345 Haha, there are many times where a slight "modification" of something makes all the world of difference! Not much more frustrating than spending an extra hour or more just because you can ALMOST get a bolt out but not quite!
@glitchthecat5011 Haha it actually didn't have that much for a cabbie. Can't remember exactly but under 500,000km/300,000miles I think. Last shop I was at serviced a lot of taxis. The drivers would put on 500km/300miles per shift!
@Anthony J Barbuto Jr Barbuto Yup. Ya definitely don't have to do anything silly like dropping the whole subframe... It's a little annoying getting the front bolts started but otherwise not too bad.
@georgesedeno7891 Toyota says to drop the entire subframe to replace these control arms. There is one bolt you can't get to because it's under the engine mount. These are mounts that support the full weight of the engine&trans and not just torque mounts. But it's easy enough to put a screw stand under the engine/trans then remove the mount to give yourself access to that buried bolt. The swaybar also gets in the way and the power steering pump bracket also gets in the way of the passenger side. First time around might be a little tricky but a relatively new tech could still do both in 5 hours in a shop. An experienced tech could do both in under 3 hours.
@Hihopeyouhaveawonderfulday Haha, I agree with you on the Subaru but Volvo..? All I think of when I think about Volvos are those goofy 3.2L engines where the alternator tucked in where you'd expect to find a starter and the drive belt system is at the back over top of the transmission! 😅
This video fails to address the engineering masterpiece that is the Toyota. Cars need to be designed to handle on the road not necessarily be easy to fix or work on. In the driveway with handtools, I can rebuild the front end of my 2012 Camry struts into an outer tie, rods, control, arms, and swaybar links. I understand your perspective, but you failed to show the other side or even address it.
@jorelvasco5801 Yeah, they're really not too bad to do. Driver's side can be done easily under an hour. Passenger side can be annoying with the power steering bracket but still not bad at all. I would think a medium experienced tech in a shop could do both in around 4 hours on their first go through. Sometimes the book gives you no time at all to do a job and other times they give you time for a nap even!
