hi my 2005 300c has play in the steering wheel looked under car and its the steering coulum coupler the u joint is shot. i went to dealership and they said it is the whole coupler that needs to be replaced which is $199 i was wondering if just the u joint can be replaced insteed of the whole coupler. they told me it cant be done any ideas? it is item 2 in pic
Sounds about right to me if the price includes parts and removal/installation labor.
Even if you could find the component parts of the universal joint, and someone capable of swapping out the wornout piece(s) for the new components, and have someone other than the stealership do the work, it would probably cost the same or more.
$199 is just for the coupler, i was thinking why not take the coupler off and pound out the u-joint put new u-joint on and wholla, and put back on probly a $5 fix
It's probably because they don't have just the U-Joint as a service part. More and more items are packaged and sold as "assemblies". You'd have to source the u-joint from the sub-supplier to the firm that provided the assembly to Chrysler. Or, take it out and measure the u-joint, then source that by size.
Or, go find a wrecked one (not a frontal collision but a side or rear quarter collision) and take the assembly out of that vehicle.