Olbert

I've just had a thought: What about shocks from car wreckers? How much would I be looking at for all four shocks from a wreckers place? And how trustworthy would they be? Especially considering the rest of the car has done a lot of kilometres and I don't want to plow $$$ into it just to have something else die on me.

That's what I want to hear! Thanks once again.

Awesome! You have been really helpful.

I just got it back from the latest 10,000km service - so the problem has occured within the last 10,000km. There was no sign of uneven wear on the front tyres, so it's probably fairly recent. I gave both front shocks an eyeballing and could not see a difference in height...though I didn't measure it with a ruler. I've also given it the old bounce test and both front shocks seemed completely fine from that point of view.

LittleRedSpirit suggested I get trade price - I have no idea (other than impersonate a mechanic) I would do that.

How would I go about getting trade? Should I just walk wearing workbooks and a flanno and ask "What can you do for me for a pair of E7008s and a pair of 341338s?"

The front left shock on my car is leaking grease and I have been told the back shocks are a bit old and have caused uneven ware on my rear tyres. I am planning to fix it all myself. I have seen shocks on ebay (from the USA) for less than $400 + postage for all four. I don't want to buy off the net because I am unsure of the quality. I got quoted from Repco $574 for both front shocks (E7008) and $161 for each rear shock (341338) - the guy mentioned they were Monroe shocks and did not come with springs. I would prefer to get them locally from a reputable dealer rather than the net - plus I would like to do the fix this weekend rather than wait forever for a package to arrive. Is $896 for all four shocks (no springs) a reasonable price? Can I get them reasonably quickly for a better price and still get good quality? Also I read on the net that people hire spring clamps from auto parts dealers. Is this an American thing? I asked about it at Repco and they said they only sold them ($72).

My front left hand shock is leaking grease on my 2005 Corolla and I am planning on fixing it myself (both front shocks). Unfortunately I won't be able to do so until I get back to my parents house (2.5hrs away) which I am doing this weekend. Before I can do that, however, I need to be able to drive to and from work this week and I was hoping to drive a couple of hours out of the way to go to an engagement party on Saturday (fix the car Sunday/Monday). Today my girlfriend drove a 5 hour round trip. At one point she hit a bump and felt the car go down but not come back up. She thought she had a flat tyre - but did not. She stopped, checked the car, found nothing and then kept driving. She didn't notice anything else abnormal on the drive. Is driving with a leaking front left shock a major issue that needs to be fixed immediately - before I drive any further? Can I get away with fixing it on Sunday/Monday after I do about 4 hours worth of driving with 3 people in the car and a small amount of luggage?

So definitely not worth fixing and selling, but it might be worth a trade in pre-fix. I am not adverse to doing these things myself - I've already replaced the O2 Sensor and a couple of other things. I just hadn't thought about it yet and when I wrote the above list, I'd just had the conversation and was listing the mechanics quotes. As I said, I'm not into cars - so I'm not sure without advice what can and can't be fixed by a non-mechanic. All that said, thanks for the advice! I'll look into shocks. I've also been advised by a collegue that coolant is $20 from Repco and not hard to fix.

I have a 2005 Corolla Ascent (base model, no modifications) with 260,000km on the clock. I've had it since km one and it's had an ok life - not much city driving, a lot of country km's. It's had logbook servicing for 200,000km then fairly regular servicing since then. It's had it's gearbox replaced at 215,000km. The front bumper is quite dodge but still works. It's got a few dints and scratches, as well as a cosmetic rust patch underneath the door handle on the drivers door (bloody roo!). It was just registered in Canberra in February. Aside from the gearbox, it's been quite cheap and very reliable and good on the petrol. I just got quoted $2000 to fix up the following issues: (I'm not a car person, so forgive me if I don't quite get the terminology right) crap windscreen wipers (they are currently pretty bad at wiping) $45 cracked serpentine bolt in the drive train $195 front shock absorber is dodge $844 (+wheel alignment $77) left inner cv clamp has a slow leak $118 coolant flush $118 both rear shocks $580 its going to need two new rear tyres next 10,000km (cos of uneven ware from the shocks) ~ $200 I've been to this mechanic a couple of times and he hasn't tried to bull$#!t me thus far, so I trust that all this actually needs doing. It's the mechanics opinion that the shock issues are because it's so old and that once I do that and get the other stuff fixed, the car will be good to go. He reckons that because it's a Corolla, it will last pretty much forever and if I spend this money now, nothing else is likely to go wrong for a while. This seems a lot to spend on my car. It's had a good life so far but I don't want to start throwing good money after bad. Should I get it fixed? How much (ballpark figure) is it worth to sell right now? How much (ballpark figure) is it worth to fix and sell? Should I attempt to fix some of it by myself by getting parts from Repco? Any help would be greatly appreciated.