[davidg]

my wife's Uplander has a broken strut mount and a worn out tie rod end. The local tire shop does not want to do the repair as they say you have to pretty much strip that side of the vehicle to do it. The dealer is going to want and arm and a leg to replace less than 100.00 worth of parts so i thought i would check into doing it myself.

anyone have a clue where i can find a manual for a 2006 Uplander to see what is involved?

 

[mytmouz]

Try one of your local national chains like O'Wronglys or Auto Wrong. They have a selecti0n on hand, or can order it if not in stock...

 

[Ingersoll444]

Uplander? Thats the GM minivan/suv/stationwagon kinda thing right??

Should not be that bad of a job realy.. I surprised they dont what to do it. You would have to remove the strut, and doing that, you would need a spring compressure, and there is a little danger invalved if you have never done one before.

 

[davidg]

have not looked at Orielly's yet, was in AutoZone the other day and all they carry is Chilton's which does not list the Uplanders that i saw.

yeah, it is the minivan/SUV crossover. They tire shop said what he saw in teh procedure was you had to remove the freaking windshield wiper for the passenger side and a bunch of other stuff. he said he COULD do it, but that they generally don't like to do jobs that will take more than 1 day. jsut too much work and he would not feel right about the charges. The dealership said that they could do it for 250.00 labor plus parts, BUT we have to buy the parts from them and get them to do teh alignment. by the time you total it out it comes to about 1k. whereas the parts alone are only about 75.00, plus 30 for the alignment from teh tire place.

 

[ar2stp48]

Just did a quick search on evilbay and got 39 items. Many are owners manual but there were some repair manuals. Have you called the dealer parts dept to see if a factory tech manual is available? Did that once for a MB 330D and got all manuals for half what they were going for anywhere else.

 

[Ingersoll444]

have not looked at Orielly's yet, was in AutoZone the other day and all they carry is Chilton's which does not list the Uplanders that i saw.

yeah, it is the minivan/SUV crossover. They tire shop said what he saw in teh procedure was you had to remove the freaking windshield wiper for the passenger side and a bunch of other stuff. he said he COULD do it, but that they generally don't like to do jobs that will take more than 1 day. jsut too much work and he would not feel right about the charges. The dealership said that they could do it for 250.00 labor plus parts, BUT we have to buy the parts from them and get them to do teh alignment. by the time you total it out it comes to about 1k. whereas the parts alone are only about 75.00, plus 30 for the alignment from teh tire place.

Thats very common for minivans. The wiper cowl normaly is a removable part. At least on the Fords I have worked on its not that bad. About a extra half hour work. Frankly I would look for someone else to do it. Did you price out the dealer yet??

 

[davidg]

yeah, parts and all the dealer is almost 1k to do it. i can get the parts at any local parts house for under 100.00, the dealer wants about 500 for them!

i have done it before in the past on older trucks/vans, but not on a minivan. i have a buddy i might can get to help who has the compressor for the spring. worst case is i borrow it from him or go buy my own/borrow from Autozone/Oriellys.

there is one other place in town besides the dealer that i would TRUST to do it, i gotta run teh van by there to see what they say though.

 

[ar2stp48]

Several of the parts houses rent tools like spring compressor--very reasonable price. Be careful and take your time using them and you will have no trouble.No need to buy a set for one job.

 

[Ingersoll444]

Dont forget to add the cost of a alignment into the quote. Im sure the dealer is, make sure the independent shops are also. Frankly I am not a big fan of the chain places. Working at a dealer parts dept I just see SOOOO many things go over the coun ter to them, that never gets sold to anyone else.

We just did a caddy front strut tops the other day at the shop. We had got the OE parts, and one was wrong, and could not get it, so I went aftermarket. They were real nice. The GM's seem to be the one time that the aftermarket seem to do a better job then OE!!!!!

 

[davidg]

well, i did the strut mount this afternoon. it took a while but was not really that big a deal. of course, there was not a loaner/rental spring compressor to be found so i bought a 35.00 one from Orielly's. probably never use it again, but now i have it if i need it.

the wiper removal was the tough part. there is a funky rod connecting the 2 in addition to the actuator arm. this 2nd rod does not appear to come apart, so i had to remove the motor from the mount, undo the mounts on both wipers, remove the wiper resevoir, then work the mounts out as a single unit the width of the van. once that was out of the way it was a piece of cake. i actually started unbolting the old mount at about 6pm. by 8:30 i was going for a test drive down the road!

i am gonna call the tire shop monday and see if they will replace the tie rod end since it has to have an alignment anyway. the end should be a fairly normal job, nothing in the way of it, so hopefully they will do it. i think they just did not want to fool with the removal of all the crap in teh way of the strut mount!

 

[DJ in WV]

Check the Haynes series of repair manuals. They do leave out a thing or two occasionally but are generally good from my experience. As mentioned above, special tools can be rented.

I get my Haynes from Advance Auto Parts, BTW.

 

[Ingersoll444]

If you have the time I would do the tierod yourself. Its a easy cake job. The biggest issue is that you need a alignment, but you need one anyways so why not. Save yourself the hours labor bill.

 

[D-Dogg]

Davidg,
The service manual has a part number like everything else on the car. I paid $120 for the one on my VW, but it was worth it.

Call the dealer if you still need one.

 

[davidg]

yeah i still need one. but my dealer here, unlike the JD dealership, is a PITA to get stuff like that. i am still waiting on the owners manual 4 months later! i found the OM online for free and just saved it on my computer.

 

[FergusonTO35]

David, congratulations on a job well done. Next time you see those shops that didn't want to do the job be sure to tell them how easy it was!! I have always used Haynes manuals for my vehicles. After working as a dealership tech for a number of years I can honestly say the Haynes manuals are way more user friendly. I don't know how many times I came across stuff in a Toyota factory manual that even our master tech didn't understand because it was so poorly written. P__ poor service information and a total lack of training from the manufacturer is one of the reasons I quit the dealerships.

 

[davidg]

well, reviving an old thread because this peice of junk has broken the same mount AGAIN. this is the 2nd time since i replaced it, about every 15k miles it pukes the front passenger side mount. good thing is the part is warrantied from Orielly for life, so hopefully i don't have to buy another one. though since they already warrantied it once they may not honor it again. bad news is i leave Tuesday heading out of town for 2 weeks so she has to drive it with a broken mount and me 900 miles away.

 

[ms fowler]

Too late for you, but here is a link to a library website that has auto repair help online'

http://arrc.ebscohost.com/?key=10.1.20.23_8000_127139215&site=autorefctr&geocustid=s9108413