Clutch/TOB recommendation in San Diego
 

Hey guys, dreaded TOB is starting to go bad so i'll be using this opportunity to get it changed along with the clutch. What shops do you recommend in San Diego area and what are you guys paying? Stealership charged me $155 just to tell me its going bad and wants another $2000 for the job (lol). What indies do y'all recommend?

BTW called Evasive in LA just to check and they quoted me $500 for labor. No wonder they are booked up to March.

update: RNZ Conceptz quoted me at $500. AAMCO surprisingly was second cheapest at $770. i called about a dozen places. Posted in the local subie group and some shadetrees also offered to do the job for about the same money but i heard back from RNZ. Also found an exedy clutch kit and revised TOB from 86speed for $250 shipped so really not so bad at all.

Average place was quoting me something like $900-1200 for labor and obviously a parts markup. I think the trick is checking with places that know our cars and worked on them like Evasive because the 86 is a pretty "easy" car to do a clutch change on, especially if you know your way around the platform. Typical auto shop is just gonna look up the book time and quote you based on that even if in reality they can get it done quicker than that.

Didn't get my TOB done at RNZ, but they did a great job with my alignment, so I would recommend them.

I just did the TOB and clutch and might have decent advice to offer.

I paid 125 for a clutch disc from the dealer(they price match) ~40 for the tob from verus.com, 35 for random shift linkage bushing etc the mechanic recommended, 60 for motul trans+diff fluid, and $180 labor(he said hed charge 60-80 and I laughed at him and gave him more than double).

He drifts a turbo brz and is a mechanic by trade and did it on a sunday as a side job at his place of work, and I was under the car w him the entire time. His boss was fine bc he got the 60 for fluids.

My advice is poke around your local community, reach out to the local frs/BRZ page. You are going to find some folks that have dropped a frs/brz trans many times. Im pretty active in my local community and dont expect everyone to have the connections I do, and that's OK. 500 really isnt bad.

Change the tob early into its signs of failure(squeaking on cold start) and you wont have to replace the output shaft. He scotchbrited my flywheel+pressure plate bc I replaced my clutch before it was worn to the backing plate and they looked beautiful.