Hi,

I approached one of the Briskoda listed dealers to see how much it would cost to fit Cupra console bushes.

I have the bushes already so this quote was just for labour.

I was quoted £268.

Does this sound reasonable ?

I was expecting about £35 per side as I have seen the post with the step by step guide whereby the bushes are removed and replaced without affecting the alloy subframe castings.

I was told by the Briskoda dealer that I needed a alignment after the fitment but if the suspension has no camber/caster adjustment and the track rods are not changed then I cant understand how fitting good bushes can make the geometry unequal if it was ok b4 and no adjustment possible ?

The rear of the Skoda Fabia VRS has neither Toe or Camber so a 4 wheel alignment is pointless ?

Even if it was £50 per side with alignment for £50 then the total would only be £150 +VAT...

I dont get it ?

My other car is an old Evo4 and it has sdjustable front castor, camber, toe and rear adjustable camber and toe. Every setting is mm accurate so 4 wheel alignment is crucial. If the Fab VRS has no adjustment then why does it need adjusting if the front subframe is not loosened or moved ?

Anyone care to explain why its costs so much so I can understand ?

Jonathan

PS:I have not said who the Briskoda partner is because I dont want bad feeling but it seems very expensive to me.

Edited 16 October, 200916 yr by vrsjon

£180 no more.

Sorry, what do you mean by 'Briskoda dealer'? There's no such thing - which Skoda dealer was it?

Or I see you're in Warrington; worth calling Awesome GTI for a quote on the work. They're in Irlam.

Steve

i think what Jon means is a Briskoda Partner , i.e. someone who advertises on here

i thought it was a bit dear also

Ah right, OK. Well no harm in mentioning who it is - people are allowed to comment if they think the quote provided is too expensive IMO

Maybe you can do them for a better price Ric?

Hello vrsjon,

My local garage charged £40 for labour (incl VAT) for each side, to fit new (alloy) suspension consoles, with bushes already fitted and threw in the steering re-alignment.

Consoles (genuine SKODA) at £71 approx each. (Total job = £222.00)

If I were more fit I would have downloaded pictures from this site and done them myself, but only renewed bushes themselves, cost's about £16 all-in.

Have seen forward metal wishbone consoles with bushes fitted and new lower swivel ball-joint fitted about £28 each side, on internet.

Loads of photos on this site to show 'HOW TO'

Ian. 17/10/2009.

Edited 30 October, 200916 yr by giandougl
Spelling not all very good!

I have renewed several of these as a DIY-er (for myself and other people - i,e. couple of my son's friends who have an Ibiza and a Polo with the same chassis).

First time it took me about 3 hours to do both sides, leaving the consoles in-situ. I have a reasonable garage/workshop and a good range of tools, but even so it was a first time 'finding out' type of a job.

Subsequently I've found its actually easier and quicker to remove the consoles from the car and mount them in a vice. As a matter of course I've also been renewing the front wishbone bushes (only £3.95+VAT from AVS for Lemforder items - so worth the effort IMHO) and also the ARB bushes (about £3 each) - this only takes about 15 mins a side.

So I reckon I could now do the whole job in about 2 hours as a DIYer - so work out a cost using your local independent's labour rate for a ball-park figure.

I think its worth having the wheel alignment done because if the old bushes had deteriorated then its highly likely that fitting new bushes will slightly move the position of the wishbones and throw the toe out slightly. Its also worth having it checked every now and then to find out if anything is 'bent' or otherwise deteriorated. Of the four cars I have done, two were still within spec after doing the job and two needed minor toe correction. All had camber/caster within spec.

Alignment need not be expensive. I use Leicester 4-wheel alignment centre, Mayfield Road. They have a Jim Bean 4-wheel laser aligner. Cost for a check is £15 and if adjustment is required the cost rises to £25. They do the job properly (you can watch) and you get a pictorial printout and 'before and after' printout. Some places charge stupid money (e.g. £70 just to do a check) with inferior equipment.

i guess you mean a partner of the site, and im guessing from that price it was either a main dealer, or Awesome Gti as they charge a fortune for wheel alignment

Sorry, what do you mean by 'Briskoda dealer'? There's no such thing - which Skoda dealer was it?

Or I see you're in Warrington; worth calling Awesome GTI for a quote on the work. They're in Irlam.

Steve

i believe this quote is from awesome,as thats about what i was quoted to do mine a while ago.....:confused:

Oil and BRUN you are Correct !!

Funny how they can charge a fortune for wheel alignment when the car in question has ONE ADJUSTABLE SETTING :confused:

http://briskoda.net/unit-18-automotive-services/fabia-cupra-console-bushes/130000/

Here we go. Bargain.

Maybe you can do them for a better price Ric?

i could do Steve, but if i encounter a problem whilst doing it at work, the car is stuck there, and i get into trouble on a Monday :rotz:

and problems do occur , i remember reading about Ross doing some and iirc the bolts wouldn't come fully out of the front wishbone mount, hence rendering the whole console U/S

Oil and BRUN you are Correct !!

Funny how they can charge a fortune for wheel alignment when the car in question has ONE ADJUSTABLE SETTING :confused:

I think that you have missed the point here, yes the rear beam is not adjustable (normally), but the front cross member normally gets dropped to get the consoles out, and that cross member has no indexing or pinning to return it to the original position, also there is a lack of indexing on the lower swivels. Okay, as lots of people say there is not much clearance on the lower swivel bolt fixings, but enough for a smart garage to say that four wheel alignment is required after this work has been done. If they didn't then how would you feel about them saving you lots of money only for you to discover that the car did not run true and/or wear out its front tyres pretty quickly after you got these nice new bushes fitted? Taking the car back and having them give you "we thought that we'd save you some cash - sorry!" normally does not go down well with customers, and reporting that back here would not help things - would it?

What moving the cross member about does is equal the camber error and try to centre the front to the rear wheels - ie aligning the four wheels!

BTW, I paid that sort of money to get a good VAG indie sort a Polo out - ie replace the voided bushes with Cupra ones.

Oh and yes I did do the sums and priced buying new consoles > get Cupra bushes fitted > replace the consoles myself > get four wheel alignment done - it just did not make sense money wise.

Edited 17 October, 200916 yr by rum4mo

I think that you have missed the point here, yes the rear beam is not adjustable (normally), but the front cross member normally gets dropped to get the consoles out, and that cross member has no indexing or pinning to return it to the original position, also there is a lack of indexing on the lower swivels.

You don't have to drop the front crossmember to get the consoles out - its a case of removing the wishbone and then undoing the 2x 18mm AF bolts and 2x 16mm bolts, and then the 2x 13mm bolts which locate the ARB saddle clamp to the console. The console then just pulls out sideays.

There is very very little adjustment possible at the lower balljoint retaining bolts. The consoles can move a little on refitting, but the camber and castor are largely determined by the position of the front wishbone front bush, which is in turn located by the bolt hole in the crossmember - which can stay undisturbed.

I think a wheel alignment check for say, £25, is reasonable. I had mine done for £15 each on a Jim Bean. There is another place not far from me which uses exactly the same equipment but charges £69 for a check!! I guess its something people don't have done very often so its not a 'known price item' and garages charge with what they can get away with.

You don't have to drop the front crossmember to get the consoles out - its a case of removing the wishbone and then undoing the 2x 18mm AF bolts and 2x 16mm bolts, and then the 2x 13mm bolts which locate the ARB saddle clamp to the console. The console then just pulls out sideays.

There is very very little adjustment possible at the lower balljoint retaining bolts. The consoles can move a little on refitting, but the camber and castor are largely determined by the position of the front wishbone front bush, which is in turn located by the bolt hole in the crossmember - which can stay undisturbed.

I think a wheel alignment check for say, £25, is reasonable. I had mine done for £15 each on a Jim Bean. There is another place not far from me which uses exactly the same equipment but charges £69 for a check!! I guess its something people don't have done very often so its not a 'known price item' and garages charge with what they can get away with.

I think that you will find that dealers and probably VAG idies DO drop the cross member, remember that the OP is using dealer or VAG indie - so is not doing or paying for a DIYer work-around. I had a look at this job before paying someone to do it and can see why its gets done this way. I've heard that easing one end of the cross member down slightly is enough - but why when the alignment, by now has probably been messed up by kerbs and potholes.

I'd think that most "good" four wheel aligners allow for 60 > 90 minutes of adjusting as a good rough estimate to what is normally needed to sort out the average rusted car suspension.

if you only take off one side at a time there's no need to get the wheel alignment done tbh, also be careful if you are going to use a press or a vice to press out the bush, i shattered one of my consoles doing that

I think that you will find that dealers and probably VAG idies DO drop the cross member, remember that the OP is using dealer or VAG indie - so is not doing or paying for a DIYer work-around. I had a look at this job before paying someone to do it and can see why its gets done this way. I've heard that easing one end of the cross member down slightly is enough

I'm baffled as to why the crossmember would need to be dropped. On the cars I've done it simply doesn't need to be touched. Its not a workaround, that's just the way you can do it. I fail to see why anyone would do extra work for no benefit.

You WOULD need to drop the crossmember if you were changing the ARB for a new/uprated item, but we're not talking about that here.

I'd think that most "good" four wheel aligners allow for 60 > 90 minutes of adjusting as a good rough estimate to what is normally needed to sort out the average rusted car suspension.

That would be an astonishing amount of time. When I fitted the WALK kit and RARB to my Octy II I had front and rear alignment done and adjusting the front toe, rear toe and camber took about 20 mins all-in. Total cost was £35 (£15 to check and £20 for doing the adjustments).

I work at a skoda main dealer and we do not drop the crossmember, We do 1 side at a time in order to prevent any unnecassary movement. We do check the tracking just in case. our charge is aprox 1 1/4 hours. but i can normaly take 50 to 60 mins for both sides. hope this helps

I think that you have missed the point here, yes the rear beam is not adjustable (normally), but the front cross member normally gets dropped to get the consoles out, and that cross member has no indexing or pinning to return it to the original position, also there is a lack of indexing on the lower swivels. Okay, as lots of people say there is not much clearance on the lower swivel bolt fixings, but enough for a smart garage to say that four wheel alignment is required after this work has been done. If they didn't then how would you feel about them saving you lots of money only for you to discover that the car did not run true and/or wear out its front tyres pretty quickly after you got these nice new bushes fitted? Taking the car back and having them give you "we thought that we'd save you some cash - sorry!" normally does not go down well with customers, and reporting that back here would not help things - would it?

What moving the cross member about does is equal the camber error and try to centre the front to the rear wheels - ie aligning the four wheels!

BTW, I paid that sort of money to get a good VAG indie sort a Polo out - ie replace the voided bushes with Cupra ones.

Oh and yes I did do the sums and priced buying new consoles > get Cupra bushes fitted > replace the consoles myself > get four wheel alignment done - it just did not make sense money wise.

well i did the sums and i can do the job for 16 quid,i think these companys are having a laugh.....big style,252 quid for labour on a job that doesn't take a competent diyer 3 hours is taking the p**s and that includes wheel alinment!!!!

if you only take off one side at a time there's no need to get the wheel alignment done tbh, also be careful if you are going to use a press or a vice to press out the bush, i shattered one of my consoles doing that

I read on the Step-by-step guide ( http://briskoda.net/fabia-technical-guides/fabia-wishbone-bush-replacement-diy-guide/101781/ ) that in order to remove the old bushes from the alloy consoles you use a hacksaw blade to cut thru the rubber material and into the outer ring of the bush as it is made of Nylon ?

After the ring is cut the tension of fitment is reduced so the old bush can be driven out quite easily in situ.

If this is so, then I can't understand why pressing out a Nylon and rubber bush could crack a console casting unless the press was in direct contact with the casting ?

Edited 18 October, 200916 yr by vrsjon

I can't understand why pressing out a Nylon and rubber bush could crack a console casting unless the press was in direct contact with the casting ?

it may surprise you to know that i'm not a complete ejit:thumbup:

the bushes on my 2.0 fabia had an aluminium outing casing (like the cupra ones do) and they had obviously got stuck in due to corosion

it may surprise you to know that i'm not a complete ejit:thumbup:

the bushes on my 2.0 fabia had an aluminium outing casing (like the cupra ones do) and they had obviously got stuck in due to corosion

(no offence intended)

That more than justifies it

I thought (wrongly) that all the bushes would have a nylon outer sleeve but is it only the Fabia1 VRS that does then ? or are some Alloy and other steel and others nylon ?

Jonathan

Awesome are having a laugh with prices, they charge more than Demon Tweeks, Main Dealers etc

i really dont know how they are still in business, ive said about the wheel alignment charges for the Fabia to Sarah many times, and Al aswell actually, it just cannot be justified IMO on the Fabia, yes for other cars as a lot more work/time could be involved

ill be honest though, i do work at a main dealers and as such i get preferential rates on labour etc so i guess i do have a biased opinion as i dont pay retail prices, so make up your own mind lol

also what are people referring to when your saying front 'cross member', i work in parts and to me, and the lads in our bodyshop, the front cross member is the large bar behind the bumper, i cant think at the moment what else you could mean, as the console bush is in its own housing/casting which can be removed..............are we talking about the subframe ?

Edited 18 October, 200916 yr by BRUN

also what are people referring to when your saying front 'cross member', i work in parts and to me, and the lads in our bodyshop, the front cross member is the large bar behind the bumper, i cant think at the moment what else you could mean, as the console bush is in its own housing/casting which can be removed..............are we talking about the subframe ?

'Crossmember' is a bit of a generic term and mechanics tend to use it for any metal bar or pressing which runs the width of the car.

In this case (Fabia) I think Skoda actually call it the 'assembly carrier' - so yes, its a kind of subframe, its the bit that the consoles bolt to.

it may surprise you to know that i'm not a complete ejit:thumbup:

the bushes on my 2.0 fabia had an aluminium outing casing (like the cupra ones do) and they had obviously got stuck in due to corosion

Aluminium inside aluminium is a bit of an engineering nightmare. I wouldn't attempt to press them out. First cut through from the centre to the outside so that the bush is 'split'. The gently tap the bush outer in an inwards direction a few mm. This frees things up.