There's a local shop around here I trust a lot because of a similar story.
My truck was still under warranty when one of the front shocks started leaking oil real bad. Not wanting to replace with factory junk I got a set of the Rancho RS9000XL shocks and had this local shop replace them (I normally do 100% of my own work, but it was mid-January, 10 degrees, and the springs on my truck are too big for my spring compressor).
About 2 months later I was getting a crazy squeaking from the front end when I hit bumps. By this time I was JUST out of the full warranty but still had the lifetime powertrain warranty and my fear was something in the CV joint since I had a similar problem fixed before.
Anyway, I take it to the dealer and they tell me the shock mount bracket & bushing are bad and need to be replaced. In addition they have to replace the shocks...the ones I just put in, with factory ones. Because they claim the aftermarket shocks caused the mounts to go bad. All-in-all, they wanted just under $600 in parts & labor to replace the shocks & shock mounts. I told them to blow me, in not so many words, and took my truck back.
I went back to my local guy who I've used forever, and left it there. He calls me a few hours later, says the upper shock was loose. My truck uses a coil over shock type setup and the shock shaft mounting nut wasn't torqued enough. He tightened it and didn't even charge me.
It's nice to find trustworthy mechanics and people who don't try to screw you.
like this: