Hi,

I need struts front and rear on my 91 maxima GXE, and CV boots. I've done a search and everyone talks about getting kyb gr2's front and rear at Taylorautomotive.com for $175. When I look up the parts, they are total of $250. the front's are L3000-30829 and 30830 and are $70.71, and the rears are l3005-30835 and cost $54.05. Am I looking in the wrong place, or have the prices zoomed up since april of 2003? What's the currently cheapest option for ordering these online?


Also, if I am going to have my local shop install them, are there any other parts I should buy or will need?

Also, while I am ordering parts does it make sense to buy the CV boots or a remanufactured axle online? Are there other parts I will need for the CV boot replacement?

Finally, will a shop get annoyed if I bring in my own parts, and thus deprive them of the parts profits? Any tips on how to get an accurate estimate of the cost of labor?

 

Many will. and rightfully so. shops rely on not only the labor but the parts markup to pay their bills.
There are shops that will let you use your own parts but they usually raise the labor to compensate or will tell you that if the parts are wrong or defective you have to pay them to remove and reinstall em again.

 

And just to add to that, are you dead-set on getting the KYB's? Cuz I've been having great results with my ST (Suspension Techniques) struts, and I've had mine for a few months now. Look up their website for the prices, but I think I paid less than $40 bucks each.

 

I think somebody was selling some of those ST's on ebay a while back. They looked nice, but I didn't have the funds. Glad to see someone's using them and we can get feedback, cause they are a little cheaper than the KYB's

 

Still need answers to the other questions in my post....anyone know if I need other parts, etc? (Read the first post.) Thanks for the help.

And are people saying that I shouldn't expect to save money by buying my own parts and having a garage install them?

 

Well, it all depends. Pretty much like internetautomar said, the shop will, as a general rule, up the labor costs to offset the lack of money from not buying the parts for you. I wouldn't expect MUCH of a savings, in the bigger scheme of things. Unless, of course, you do the work yourself.

If you're handy with a wrench, you'll save even MORE by doing the CV boots yourself. I've done both, and I think the boots are just slightly easier to do than the struts. But some may look at it the other way around.

And if you're looking to see if there are other parts to get, you may want to replace this one seal (and I can't exactly remember the name of the seal) when you pull the CV's. I think it's mentioned in the FAQ's, though. Also, the dust boot around the struts may need to be either replaced or repaired if they've never been touched before.

So, bottom line is that unless you've got a good bud doing your install, the savings will be negligible at best whether you bring in your parts or not, unless you install stuff yourself.

 

what are the ST struts comparable to? GR2? tokico?

 

I think ST told me they compare to GR2's, but cost less. If I'm not mistaken, I believe they told me that the same people that originally designed KYB's started a "splinter company" of sorts; hence Suspension Techniques.