Anyone have any advice on this topic? Jeep is in the shop for replacing an Idler Pulley and they said that the Front axle joints/U joints are REAL bad and need to be raplced. They're quoting 450 dollars for parts and labor (3.5 hours of labor) is that fair? How hard is it to do? Any information on this topic would be awesome. THANKS!!!

I smell a scam. This wouldn't be a chain type shop would it?

If you didn't bring it in for that I would pass.

Nope, its is a mom and pop place run by a couple in Southern Wisconsin.

I was quoted about $450 (from a dealer) for replacing my U-joints. I said "no-thank you". A year later I had them replaced when I had my transmission rebuilt - only $20. Perhaps they already had everything taken apart, but it's about a $20 part, so they basically threw in the labor.

I've looked online and it seems pretty straight-forward to replace them. I agree that it might be a few hours labor (maybe more if you've never done it), but they're quoting over $100/hour, which sounds steep.

Check out this info at Autozone.com:
http://www.autozone.com/servlet/UiBroker?ForwardPage=az/cds/en_us/0900823d/80/15/41/24/0900823d80154124.jsp

I recommend shopping around. Someone is likely to do it for less - or you could give it a try and see how far you get.