Struts and outer tie rod pricing
 

My outer tie rods and struts are burnt on my '05 S60 T2.5 AWD. I thought I'd just run by the local repair shop (The dealer already quoted me $1250 for just the struts).

He came in at $1280 for struts, strut mount, sway bar links (he said these have to be replaced when you replace the strut) outer tie rods, and an alignment using after market parts like Monroe.

Just pricing those parts from Amazon I can't really get past $400 or so. Does $800 in labor make sense here? It seems way out of line.

Need to get the balls to make the a DIY adventure :-)

The sway bar links do not need to be replaced at the same time, so right there he is making stuff up.

$800 is way too much.

2.5 hours for the struts and mounts.
.8 for both front sway bar links (even though this partially overlaps since they are halfway out when doing the struts)
1.0 for both outer tie rod ends.

So 4.3 hours tops. Plus their alignment charge, which I can't see being more than $100 at an indy shop.