Sammys Auto Repair, Hicksville LI

[83evans]

Hey all,

I was referred to this shop by a fellow jeeper and told they do good work. I was wondering if anyone on this site has had work done or can speak on what kind of jobs they are capable of? Testimonials?

I like to do everything myself, but some jobs just arent worth the time or I dont have the right setup.

Sammy's Auto Repair
30 Herzog Pl, Hicksville, NY 11801

Much appreciated!

 

[XJLI]

Never heard of em. I know you posted before, but what do you need done? If you want to make a trip out to LI I have a buddy who does fab work on the side and two more who are mechanics and have a garage and do auto repairs on the side. I'd say come out to me and I'll do it but I'm farther east and don't have the space at my apartment.

 

[83evans]

I have a death wobble i cant fix. I have tried everything i know and done a ton of research. I even took it to a shop upstate thry said they fixed it then i just drove back downstate and it is definitely not fixed. I took it to a good mechanic. Figured maybe a jeep shop will be able to identify root cause since they probably see it more often. Thanks for mentioning your buddys. Im willing to take it just about anywhere at this point as long as thry can fix it.

 

[83evans]

For anyone else that finds this post and is in my situation, I did some research and Sammys seems legit. Lots of positive reviews about that shop on other forums. I actually made an appointment today and will try to post back after the work is done.

I found another LI shop: Goonies Garage in Holtsville NY (711 Furrows Rd) and will be making an appointment there if Sammys cant fix it. That shop also had a lot of positive reviews on multiple forums and is not too far from the city.

 

[XJLI]

That guy goonies isn't the best IMHO. i've seen some not so great stuff come out of there and its mostly kids with beater XJs bringing their shitboxes to him or people with JKs and money and no brains. YMMV.

anyway, how'd it go?

 

[83evans]

They've had it for 2 business days. I called to check on it they said "its a big job" and they needed to wait for Sammy who would not be back until Monday. So they will keep it over the weekend which kind of sucks for me..

I get the feeling that "its a big job" actually means that they havent figured out what to do about it yet and need Sammy to tell them what to do, but he is not there today. I've had it into another mechanic and they were clueless for a couple days, then replaced some bushings and "adjusted front end" and gave it back to me--band aid fix.

I will post final result when theyre done. I dont want to take it to Goonies but that will be the next stop on this wild ride if Sammy cant find and fix the root cause.

More to come!

 

[XJLI]

Then they don't know whats wrong, hate to break it to you. A XJ front end is pretty simple, and there are only a few things that can make it "behave" a certain way.

what are the specs? Is it a 5" lift with stock control arms and stock steering? Is it a 3" lift with all JKS components?

 

[SleeperXJ]

How are your tires?
I've had a couple of episodes of death wobble due to worn/cupped tires.
If your tires have plenty of life find a shop that does tire truing.

 

[83evans]

Got a call from him. Hes tellin me its cheaper to put a whole new lift on. And he wants to put new tires on. The tires are worn but not horrible.

I bought it with the lift already installed so couldnt tell you what brand everything is. I think its about 3".

Tires are BFG ATs with about 40k on them. B/c of rear lunchbox lockers they wear uneven and I had the backs rotated to the front, but the wobble started before I had that done and like I said they are not dangerously low.

Im thinking do either the lift OR the tires and see if that resolves it. I feel a little taken advantage of here. What do you guys think?

 

[83evans]

The lift is definitely old, probably close to 10 years, so I dont doubt that some of the components are worn out and need to be replaced, and it might be easier/better long term to just buy and install a new kit. I think its fishy that he wants to sell me a whole new set of tires at the same time, without checking to see what the result is after fixing the suspension issue.

 

[XJLI]

Sounds like a typical worm out Cherokee to me. A 3" lift won't give you death wobble with stock arms and such, but if they have 250k on them they will.

 

[83evans]

the xj itself only has about 130k on it, but I bought it with the lift already installed and that was back in 2008. Like I said above I believe that some of the components are worn out by now. Plus my 33' BFG ATs need to be replaced and one of them is dry rotted--it happens to be on the front of the vehicle at the moment.

So he wanted to do new tires and a new lift kit. I told him to hold off on the tires, we can rotate the one that is really bad to the rear for now.

It has a 4' with 2 in spacers on it right now. Decided to go with 6.5' RC X series and remove the spacers. The kit is 900 and he wants to charge 800 for labor. I would love to just do the work myself but all my tools are upstate and the jeep is already at his shop in Hicksville. I dont feel comfortable driving it back upstate with the death wobble the way it is. So pretty much gave him the go ahead on the new lift. I will probably replace the RC shocks eventually once I recover financially and after new tires get put on.

I will keep this updated and let you know how it turns out.

Any feedback please let me know. I heard mostly good things about RC x series on the forums.

I feel kinda sh1tty that I have to pay someone to do the lift for me but that is the situation I am in right now.

 

[XJLI]

Is there any way you can, uhh, cancel that???? The 6.5 RCX is a short arm kit without control arm brackets. It will be just as shitty. Please, buy a real kit. You don't need any more than 4" total to run 33s. I know how it will turn out. Shitty. Because this guy recommend a 6.5" kit which is far and above any size lift needed for a cherokee on tires less than 37" and stock axles. a good 3" kit, some lower control arms, good shocks, and a good trackball are what you need.

anyway, good luck.

 

[83evans]

Thanks for the feedback XJLI.

I already have control arm brackets installed with the current kit.

The rationale behind the 6.5 lift is that I am already around 6 inches with my current lift and the spacers. I dont want to go any lower. If I'm getting a lift it will be the last one I put on this jeep and I might as well go big or go home. I want to preserve the look it has now and keep my options open for bigger tires or other mods in the future.

I dont do very much off roading right now, and I'm confident that this lift would accommodate anything I will be doing in the near future and I wont need to worry about any suspension related issues hopefully for the rest of this jeep's lifetime.

 

[XJLI]

3-4" and 33s is the sweet spot for XJs. I had 6" lift on my last XJ but that was on 3/4 ton axles and all jeep speed race-ready suspension... I literally couldn't get it lower because I was determined to used the deavers springs and the larger axles and mounts pushed me higher than I wanted to go.

Your truck though. It should be fine for now as long is it gets done right.