The anal raping of january.

well i already told yall about the whole "car in the ditch becuz of bullshit" story. Well now my damn left headlight motor is shot. And now today tops it off. I dropped my car off at an auto place for the day for them to take a look-see at the front end. I came back this afternoon to find out that i need new axles, rotors and brakes, rods and pinions (sp?) . Anyways i'm gonna have to go ahead and get the axles and brakes and rotors and thats gonna run me $588 parts and labor. Dude said it was all not in good shape at all, and this is the second estimate i've had, so i know its for real this time. So my new year is starting off like a roayl pain in the ass. Not to mention i got a flat last ngiht, and then got a flat riding home on the donut too. I'm gonna go nutz if this keeps up. And the damn tire is unrepairable, not only did i pull a brokn nail out, but the sidewall of the tire is ripped on the backside of the tire, maybe from camber...who knows. I guess i'll now have to postpone my cutom interior with tax returns and use them for the rods and pinions. damnit. Hopefully things improve soon. This is gettin to be too much.

R©

That seems a little steep for that work he must be charging you $150 each axle which is with core charge. The axles should run no more than $100 if i recall right with the core. Then the brakes i paid no more than $60 ea rotor (cross drilled performance rotors) and like $40 for AEM pads. If i bought parts locally from like napa i would expect parts to cost like $250. Shops will over charge you and rape you on the core charge which they will pocket the extra $50 ea axle. I dont know if they were counting calipers but thats not a normal brake change so ask questions and be careful.

im soory but i laughed when you said " Not to mention i got a flat last ngiht, and then got a flat riding home on the donut too. "


now thats bad luck

That shouldnt cost $588..do it yourself. Those parts are all easy to install. The rotors are held in with 4 screws! Calipers are simple to do too..they run about $25.00/ea with a core..simple to install.

Axles are simple too........your screwing yourself by paying that much for someone else to do it...thats half the fun is doing it yourself.

Nate.

good point there nate....i'd just like to have some help while i do it. By the way, i dunno what the hell i was thinkin with" rods n pinions"......i meant "rack and pinions". But anyways, i'm gonna see what kinda prices i can dig up on parts with cores, and see how much of a pain in my ass it'll be to do it all.

R©

Nate and Rob are right. It's not worth paying someone to do this work. Depending on just how hard your hub nuts are to get off, the whole job might take you as little as 2 hrs. for all of it (not including the steering rack). Worst case scenario, it's down for a whole day. Really, the axles are simple, I changed one on the side of the road in my coupe in a matter of a 1/2 hr. Rotors/pads, also real simple.

And Rob's correct on the prices. The axles should run you NO more then 100@, but you get a 50 core charge back per axle. Trust me, it's worth getting under the car yourself and doing the work.

if you do it yourself..think of the savings! Anytime I have to do work, I figure what it's really worth to me..I end up doing it every time. I can't see paying 50+ an hour for labor...I did pay $1500 for a rebuilt tranny on my van...I don't have a lift here..but I could have bought a new used van for what that cost..with a new set of headaches.

Brakes and axels are not out of reach of the shadetree..I pick up new rotors on ebay when I can..I keep a good stock of spares for my weekend work..on the spare rack today:

new strut carts ( 45 ebay)
new front rotors ( 40 ebay)
new rear drums ( 30 ebay)
new timing belt ( 12 ebay)
case of honda atf ( too much @ dealer)
two axels..looks like accord manual trans..but the length is wrong..might be for prelude..got screwed on that deal (kinda..the cores are worth what I paid for the rebuilt ones)
spare tires full size (3 off all junkers that I have dealt with in last two years..I'm too far from home to count on a temp spare)
drivers side window ( junker)
power window master ( ebay..didn't need it, the control unit was missing...got that off ebay for $6!)

and piles of stuff I hope I never need to use...

busting the axel nuts is a pain..use a ball joint fork..try using a puller and you'll crush the studs ( watch the boots)

good quality jack stands a must

go for it!..we're all here to help

Mark almost forgot that the control arm bolt may be stuck in the lower control arm which will prevent you from doing your axles. If you do try it yourself that is the bolt you want to check cause if it stuck then you will have problems. I dont know you mechanic ability so dont want you to get in any trouble.

Oh shit Rob, good point there. I did forget about that one! Yeah, I remember hearing your horror story about that lovely little bolt. I had the same trouble on my coupe too, but thanks to my dad, I know a little trick that makes that a fairly painless bolt to get out.

I didn't have to take off the arm to change the axles..but I'm always interested in a new trick..care to share?

All three of my accord coupes have had them stick. My latest accord i was able to wack one out but with a lot of work and heat. If your up to the task that would be one thing to check before you get into deep. Just see if the both comes loose it is not threaded and will tap out if its gonna come out. But dont be surprised if you take it to the shop and they call you adding on a lot more money. You can do the following but will be expensive and what the shop would do:

1) if the bolts are stuck order new control arm/fork/bolt/nut but this will run about $166 a side from honda.

2) cut the bolt staight off the control arm get the bushing/bolt for about $19 and pay to have the new control arm bushing pressed in.

3) talk to mark about his plan which i think i know what hes doing

But this mainly happens to cars that deal with the winter elements so you may not have to worry about it. I would suggest to check the bolt first if your gonna attemp this. But the shop is gonna rape you even more if this is the case and they were already way to high with the first quote.

I agree with Rob completely.

Here's option 3: (I can't remember if I told anyone before, but if not, sorry, b/c this does save some headaches.)

Here's what to do:

99.9% of the time, that nut will come right off, but the problem is getting that damn bolt out of the bushing. So here's what I did on both mine... Take the nut off, then grab the biggest damn breaker bar you can find, slap that 17mm socket on it, and try and spin the bolt. Chances are it won't spin, if that's what happens you'll end up snapping the head off the bolt. Don't worry, that's what we want to happen. Now that the head is off the bolt, you're ready for the operation. Just locate a shit load of thick washers that have a large enough hole to slip over the threaded end of the bolt. Put one or two of wahsers on the threaded end, rethread the nut (make sure that you are able to thread the whole nut on the bolt. If you can't, remove one washer and try again.). Now, grab that breaker bar and tighten the nut. Only tighten the nut so that the amount of thread showing out the end of it is equal to the thickness of the washers that you put on. Remove the nut, put more washers on and continue. Essentially, all ur doing is "walking" the bolt out of the bushing. Now all you need to do is donate 10 per bolt/nut combo to Honda to get new ones. Just remember, when you reinstall the bolt, on the fluted part, gupe up a little neverseize before you put the bolt back.

**edit** damn, I always write too damn much.

with everything except rust..sahring tips with web users has taught me a thing or two, and I was a dealership grade mecahanic beore I got out and went white collar

Damn Mark i thought you were gonna say to take apart the CV Joint and reinstall it in the car. Thats a good idea and if you have the right tools it can speed things up like a grinder on compressed air works wonders. :-)

yep Rob that does work great, and ur right a die grinder or just everyday airtool would have helped, but this was the only thing that I could do with the few tools I had available to me at the time.

But ur right about removing the end of the axle. I think that's what Steve did with his. Let's add that as an option 4 to ur list.