Well, after my quest to find a person who knew how to do these lowering springs, I decided to turn to Craigslist. Buried deep within the Automotive Services section I ran into a guy who works at a Toyota dealer in Central NJ. He does work on the side at non-robbery prices.

He charged me $250 to install my TRD springs (and strut tower brace while he was in there). VERY reasonable compared to what i've been quoted at the dealer.

The guy knew his stuff. I'm definitely going to him if I ever need something done that i'm not comfortable with. I MAY even have him do my SC (though I currently have plans to drive to York, PA on Friday to have it done).

ylc9999@yahoo.com is his email address. He lives in Monmouth Jct. He goes by the name "Peter" (he's quite asian and his english isn't the greatest, but man does this guy know his stuff).

After that, I went to a local alignment joint with Alignment Spec sheets in hand... all said and done, just over $300 for a very high quality install. Less than HALF what the cheapest dealer around me quoted.

 

Does he also input the info into the computer? I guess it only matters if you care about warranty. If you do, and its strictly sidejob, then if something does happen and the Toyo system doesnt have your TRD spring info, they will be more likely not to warranty the work.

 

That's a good question, I'll ask him. I know he *could*...

 

Strut brace is an extremely easy DIY. $250 sounds kinda high, IMO.

 

Kinda high for what? Having a toyota tech install my springs and while he's in there do the stb?

I thought it was money well spent. In my area, even the crappier shops were asking for around the same price. North Jersey sucks like that.

Honestly, it all comes down to labor rates in your area. Case in point, my Supercharger install would cost $900+ here in North Jersey. But if I drive 2hrs to PA, it costs $400 because the labor rate is only $50/hr compared to $92+ here.

If I could find another place that would do the SC install for anywhere close to $400 in NJ, I'd go there...

 

I had a friend help me with mine. $50 and some dinner.

You just gotta know people, I guess.

 

i'd be ok with that if my car had more than 2000 miles on it The warranty is important to me, and if you have someone else do it, your warranty goes down to 12 months/12k miles. If a dealer does it, you don't lose anything.

Installing a major engine component is a lot different than putting in a set of springs.

 

Don't worry too much about the warranty. It goes fast (I'm already up to almost 12k miles after 7 months). Plus - unless they can prove that the actual mod is the cause of the problem, you're fine.

The S/C is the only thing I'd have a dealership install, since they have the ECU Reflash.

 

Yah, that's pretty much my thinking, but I still think paying $250 for the springs/brace install by a Toyota service employee was a bargain compared to having it done by a dealer... I'll only let this guy do my SC if he can put in the computer that my install was done by a dealer and i don't lose any warranty.

Short of that, I'm driving to PA for the install...

Interestingly enough, most of the dealers around here don't even have the tool required to DO the ECU reflash!

 

I know of a couple that do. Smithtown Scion in LI definitely has it.

 

I had a tech do mine on the side too for $150.00

Hey man you take what you can get, if he didn't tell me $150 I would have thought $250.00 was great compared to the dealer.

If you think your money was well spent & you are happy with the install, that is all that matters as far as I am concerened. Just my nickles worth of free info

 

i took mine to a reccomended shop and springs were $130

 

muhahahahaha - sorry, i just had to laugh at that part. good find tho!
- sh00k

 

Yah, good luck trying to find those deals in the Metro NYC area where labor rates are $100/hr and up.

 

haha yeah, but being in the IT industry, i'm around asians all day long This guy is JUST as disciplined as his IT brethren.