Toyota Wants $4000 to change Rack and Pinion?

Long story short, took the truck in after putting a lift on it for an alignment. 4wheel parts says it has cracked lower control arm bushing, loose tie rods and the rack and pinion has an internal leak.
I brought it to my local Toyota dealership to get a quote on the work.
I just got told they want to charge $3980 to perform just the work on the rack and pinion.
and another $2000 for control arm bushing and tie rods?

Are they smoking some ?
or are those really the prices to change out some steering pieces.
How hard is the work done to change out the rack and pinion?
I did it on my 02 Tacoma, took me about 4 hours.

Guess I'm just sticker shocked, since I usually do the work myself on vehicles.

 

This is one that sounds like it’s more involved than your Tacoma. If you’re used to doing the work, do it. These days labor far exceeds parts, especially if you source a deal on parts. Keeping an older vehicle only makes sense anymore if you can maintain and repair it yourself.

 

Prices on everything continue to rise. It is out of control with no end in sight.
Insanity at its finest!

 

Well to conclude this. 4wd Parts came to the rescue.
They are going to do lower control arms, SPC uppers, new rack + tie rods and finish it off with an alignment for $4300.
I am supplying the O/E rack from Toyota, that's included in my total.
My simple lift turned into an expensive bill. Lesson learned, if it ain't broke don't fix it.

 

It really seems like manufacturers are trying to make cars disposable.

 

Now you’re getting it!!

 

Giga-casting or whatever they are calling it and similar ideas. Big cast chunks that use to be a lot of smaller assembled parts. Or parts sold only as big subassembly units instead of individual pieces. Good for initial assembly at the factory but can be annoying later for repairs.

 

Got a good story for this one... I used to work at Sky Harbor, and we had 2 break rooms one on the 3rd floor with 5 GE domestic refrigerators if I remember correctly, and a 6th one on the 1st floor break room. Don't know when they were purchased as they preceded my arrival, but the building was about 3 years old and fridges appeared fairly new.
Well, one day the 1st floor fridge broke. As they were planning a replacement for the 1st floor refrigerator, within a week 4 of the 5 fridges upstairs also broke. So the front office replaced the 5 fridges with commercial refrigerators. The lone GE fridge held out about 6 months before it went as well, which was also replaced by a commercial fridge. The planned obsolescence is in fact real.

 

I'm paying $1600 to have a fuel pump replaced on my tundra at the dealer. It's insane!

 

^^^^WOW!! That is pricey!

 

Or you could go literally ANYWHERE else and save a chunk of change. Fuel pump replacement is really quite easy.

 

Don't I know it

 

Gotta be the third swap?

 

I dropped the tank 3 times during the s/c work. Then truck got hit. Ran fine. Sat months waiting for repair. Then all of a sudden didn't run. Thought I tried everything, but it was taken to dealer for recalls and diagnosis. Turns out, it was the high pressure fuel pump I left in the tank. Dealer actually just called to tell me it's done, and getting released back to the body shop

 

Dealer service work:


I have three local mechanics I will go to if I don't want to tackle an issue myself before EVER darkening the door of a dealer service department.

It would have to be something major to involve those jokers. I had the needle bearing issue; bought the ECGS bushing to DIY. I'd rather spend $200 and knock it out on a Saturday morning than have my truck stuck at the dealer for a minimum of 3 days.

Having warranty work done is just expensive in other ways.

 

That’s why we have this forum to help each other out and tackle repairs so we never have to darken the dealer’s service bay

 

I got extremely lucky. While I was stationed in South Korea for a year, I paid a buddy to powder coat my wheels and swap out my inner/outer tie rods.

He hit me up and said the steering rack was shot and there would be no point in swapping out the inner tie rods.

I ordered a new rack from Toyota for like $850ish delivered to him… he PC’d the wheels and got new tires I paid for mounted/balanced. Then dropped the truck back off at my house.

He only asked for $1000. (To PC the wheels, swap tie rods, and the rack)

I paid for all the parts/shipping, tires and associated fees.. but still… like $500 to PC wheels and $500 labor for all that.

I sent him $1500, and he was confused. I told him thanks and he saved me a ton of money.

 

If you're confident in your skills and have done similar work before, you might consider sourcing the parts yourself and handling the repair. Otherwise, it might be worthwhile to get quotes from a couple of independent mechanics to see if they offer more competitive rates.