I have a ‘02’ VW Golf GTI, my upper strut mounts broke, I talked to someone at the dealership and they told me it would be about $650 to fix!!!, they said they would also have to replace the springs and bearings etc… I don’t have that kind of money so I was wondering if this is something I can fix on my own? or should I leave it to the professionals?
Sounds like you need it fixed, but not by the dealer. Use the mechanic finder under ‘Actual Car Info’ to find a VW independent mechanic, he should be able to do it for less.
Find an independent mechanic and save some money. VW dealers are notoriously expensive.
Unless you have experience as an auto mechanic, and lots of tools, it’s unlikely you can fix this yourself.
I’ll third that. If you have to ask whether you could do a strut mount then you shouldn’t even try. Just find a regular mechanic.
How many miles are on it? You probably don’t need new springs, but most of the cost in this job is in disassembly. If it needs to be torn down to do the mounts I wouldn’t put the old struts back in there.
Odds are this involves strut replacement also and the price quoted is not that bad. Changing struts can be hazardous to your health or even fatal if you don’t know what you’re doing.
I’m in agreement that you should price this around at an independent shop for comparison purposes but odds are the price will be close to this.
I do respectfully disagree with the premise that VW dealers are notoriously expensive. After working for 2 different VW dealers that were multi-franchises the labor rates were the same for VW as they were for SAAB, Honda, Fiat, Subaru, etc. and parts markups were also about the same.
One option may be to find some good used units that are complete and ready to go in. This procedure is much, much simpler and safer.
Consider this another vote for having the work done by an indy shop. There’s no need to take an 8 year old car to the dealer (esp. one that’s out of warranty).