Labour cost

[faddy]

Local independent has quoted me £100 as the labour only cost of replacing the four spheres (i'm planning to upgrade to comfort spheres) and two drop links on my Mk1 C5. Is that a reasonable charge?

[demag]

I would say its not a bad price and being an indie rather than Acme Garage he should know what he's doing.

[faddy]

being an indie rather than Acme Garage he should know what he's doing.

First time I've been there. On the plus side he bounced the corners and told me the rears were fine and only the fronts felt a bit hard. He'd never heard of comfort spheres (other than in the context of centre spheres on hydractive 3+) and seemed to have no idea what I was talking about when I mentioned the internal spike in C5 spheres.

[GiveMeABreak]

Well that's worrying for a start then. Are you really sure you want these things put on?

[411514]

Seems a fair price. I should imagine the mechanic is budgeting for 2/3 hours work for the lot, which isn't far off if he hasn't done many before.

I wouldn't really be too perturbed that the mechanic isn't aware of some of the more esoteric Citroen quirks.

Unless the budget is unlimited however, I would be a little be hesitant to change spheres unnecessarily. I changed the spheres on my Mk1 C5 firstly at about 180k miles, and to be honest I couldn't really feel any difference in ride with the new spheres. Thus, unless you think the ride has noticeably worsened, I wouldn't go expecting too much of a difference with the new spheres.

[Peter.N.]

Sounds expensive to me but then I have always changed them myself. If the existing spheres are in reasonably good condition replacing them with comfort spheres will not make a terrific difference. You should be able to bounce the rears about 3-6" and the fronts around 2-4". If its low speed vibration you are trying to eliminate the tyres will make more difference than the spheres.

Peter

[Quackers]

I pay £50 an hour for labour at my local independent Citroen specialist. So i think thats fair if its for 2 hours work.