Brand new lower control arms

GreeNeons03 · Post by **GreeNeons03** » Fri Mar 06, 2009 2:22 pm

Well, I'm sitting here at the dealership waiting on my car. I can in to get and oil change and some stuff checked out. Turns out the bushings in my lower control arms where ripped up and shot. Guess how much to get them replaced, go ahead, guess, I'll wait.

$800!!!!!!! and that's with the oil change and without the serpentine belt that's starting to squeak and the timing belt that I'm 16,000 miles past time to change. I don't know how much the serpentine belt will be to get replaced but I know the timing belt will be another $500 which I can not afford. I can barely afford what their doing to it now.

Horray for no monies!

Nutmeg · Post by **Nutmeg** » Fri Mar 06, 2009 2:24 pm

Wow that's ridiculous when you could do it for yourself for A LOT cheaper.

GreeNeons03 · Post by **GreeNeons03** » Fri Mar 06, 2009 2:32 pm

Nutmeg wrote:Wow that's ridiculous when you could do it for yourself for A LOT cheaper.

That's the thing, I can't do it myself. I don't have the tools, knowledge, or space. Space is probably the biggest setback cause I could probably get help on how to change them here.

Boyscoutgonebad · Post by **Boyscoutgonebad** » Fri Mar 06, 2009 2:43 pm

ya that sucks man, dealer wanted to charge me close to $500 to replace the rear lateral links and end links. I haven't had time to do the repair yet but I have all the parts i need plus some extra upgrades along the way for under $100. If you can find a place to work on it it deff. pays off to learn how to do stuff your self. I just asked around until i found someone close that had some garage space.

latief · Post by **latief** » Fri Mar 06, 2009 2:55 pm

the easiest job i ever did ....you just need jackstands...and ramps to tighten everything up

go to the junk yard. or even get the parts you need from dodgeparts ....why the 800? in total, it should take them an hour to do, but you will need an alignment after that ...

theTeejmiester · Post by **theTeejmiester** » Fri Mar 06, 2009 3:07 pm

wow that is alot,a local garage is doing them for me in a month or so for 275,with me prividing the bushings.i bought my prothane bushings from modernperformance for 45 shipped,i realy hate doing bushing installs ect,so i am going to pay for them to do that crap for me

Neon4Life · Post by **Neon4Life** » Fri Mar 06, 2009 3:29 pm

dam man dont pay the dealership to do ur bushings it should cost you at the most $25 for a pair of new bushings and do it yourself.

hansken_yo · Post by **hansken_yo** » Fri Mar 06, 2009 3:36 pm

Lesson Learned? Do some research, ask us questions... Could have been a lot cheaper.

teamliviD · Post by **teamliviD** » Fri Mar 06, 2009 4:17 pm

WOW!! New control arms cost like $125 each with maybe an hour to install them @ $100 an hour that only $350 for the work. Where is the other $450 coming from???

GreeNeons03 · Post by **GreeNeons03** » Fri Mar 06, 2009 4:39 pm

I'll scan the invoice when I get home. I'm back at the dealership, my wheel is crooked. If I straighten it out, I got off to the right. If I cock it to the left, I go straight.

ragek23 · Post by **ragek23** » Fri Mar 06, 2009 4:45 pm

bushing kit on the lower control arms are like 40bucks, Just get them from autozone or modernperformance and have a local shop toss them in. As mentioned before it should be a 1hr job. If you buy the control arms I believe they come with all the bushings and its a much easier install.

hansken_yo · Post by **hansken_yo** » Fri Mar 06, 2009 5:01 pm

yeah... the bushings can be replaced for pretty cheap. The prothane LCA kit from modern for $55ish after shipping. The LCA itself for about $150 each from oemdodgeparts.com . NEW LCA come with bushings and ball joints, a definite plus. The work itself is easy overall, but challenging and slightly time consuming if you don't know what your doing. If you do know something about doing it or have some one who does know helping you, you can have it done in just over an hour.

GreeNeons03 · Post by **GreeNeons03** » Sat Mar 07, 2009 2:45 pm

Here's the invoice from yesterday:

latief · Post by **latief** » Sat Mar 07, 2009 7:52 pm

no alignment?

OB · Post by OB » Sat Mar 07, 2009 8:11 pm

$800? Don't get me wrong LCA bushings are a PITA, but that's ridiculous.

Sounds like they might have messed with your tie rods when they had the LCA's apart. Only toe will affect steering wheel position. Your bushings must have been in real bad shape if toe changed that much with new bushings! I just did mine last week and kept a close eye on the tie rod ends. After I put everything back together my alignment was exactly the same as before.

GreeNeons03 · Post by **GreeNeons03** » Sun Mar 08, 2009 1:22 am

Yea, the bushings were torn and coming out of the LCA's. It was pretty bad, I should have snapped a pic with my phone

. And yes they did an alignment, twice. After they were done changing the LCA's, they aligned it, but when I drove off I noticed the wheel wasn't straight when I was going straight. So I went back and they aligned it again, and all was good.

hansken_yo · Post by **hansken_yo** » Sun Mar 08, 2009 5:38 pm

probably forgot to tighten something....

Can't say that I haven't done that before.

sullygully · Post by **sullygully** » Sun Mar 08, 2009 8:32 pm

They don't call em Stealerships for nothing. The worst thing is that they relaced them with oem parts, which means your bushings are going to crap out on you again in a 3 years.

ragek23 · Post by **ragek23** » Mon Mar 09, 2009 12:39 am

3yrs if you are lucky.

BlueBaron · Post by **BlueBaron** » Fri Mar 13, 2009 4:08 am

3 years? Must be nice. Mine crapped out every two years. Last change I did Energy bushings. They didn't even stay in place that long. That's why I changed the design of my LCA's.

I took my car to the dealer for the first change, with 3rd party warranty. They called me about 4 hours later, to say the company wouldn't pay for the arms, just the bushings. The dealer always replaces whole arm assemblies. Well at $200 each, versus the $50 the bushings cost... I took the car to a place that would do what I asked for.

Donkeypuncher · Post by **Donkeypuncher** » Fri Mar 13, 2009 4:46 am

That's the smartest thing you could have done. Real shops know the bushings are replaceable, stealerships do what the book says which is a rip-off.

03sxt · Post by **03sxt** » Thu Mar 26, 2009 1:15 pm

GreeNeons03 wrote:Yea, the bushings were torn and coming out of the LCA's. It was pretty bad, I should have snapped a pic with my phone . And yes they did an alignment, twice. After they were done changing the LCA's, they aligned it, but when I drove off I noticed the wheel wasn't straight when I was going straight. So I went back and they aligned it again, and all was good.

I'm in this same exact boat right now with my front LCA bushings. I recently noticed that my toe was off bad and I just had it aligned last October... That's how bad the LCA bushings are. I'm gonna' go check out Modern's website for the Prothanes and possibly order those. I already have a couple buddies waiting for me to get the parts so we can jump underneath. Any other bushing work I should attempt while I'm doing the front LCAs?

latief · Post by **latief** » Thu Mar 26, 2009 1:18 pm

sway bar (prothane) and ball joint boots (from dodge), you will thank me later !!!

NickKo · Post by **NickKo** » Thu Mar 26, 2009 1:27 pm

BlueBaron wrote:3 years? Must be nice. Mine crapped out every two years. Last change I did Energy bushings. They didn't even stay in place that long. That's why I changed the design of my LCA's.

This here is the post you are referring to, right ??

viewtopic.php?t=37089

I am seriously thinking of doing this to my own 2000, when the time comes....

http://thebluebaron.homestead.com/SubFrame.html

Very Cool.

- Nick

03sxt · Post by **03sxt** » Thu Mar 26, 2009 3:27 pm

I just ordered my Prothane bushings from Modern Performance for my LCAs. Woot!

latief wrote:sway bar (prothane) and ball joint boots (from dodge), you will thank me later !!!

Where can I find the sway bar bushings?

Post by **racer12306** » Thu Mar 26, 2009 3:39 pm

you must do some driving to have 116,000 miles on your car if it's an 03.

03sxt · Post by **03sxt** » Thu Mar 26, 2009 3:42 pm

racer12306 wrote:you must do some driving to have 116,000 miles on your car if it's an 03.

Who?

latief · Post by **latief** » Thu Mar 26, 2009 3:45 pm

03sxt wrote:I just ordered my Prothane bushings from Modern Performance for my LCAs. Woot!

latief wrote:sway bar (prothane) and ball joint boots (from dodge), you will thank me later !!!
Where can I find the sway bar bushings?

http://stores.shop.ebay.com/New-Edge-Pe ... mit=Search

pick what you need!!!

Post by **racer12306** » Thu Mar 26, 2009 4:47 pm

03sxt wrote:
racer12306 wrote:you must do some driving to have 116,000 miles on your car if it's an 03.
Who?

the OP

GreeNeons03 · Post by **GreeNeons03** » Thu Mar 26, 2009 5:03 pm

racer12306 wrote:
03sxt wrote:
racer12306 wrote:you must do some driving to have 116,000 miles on your car if it's an 03.
Who?
the OP

You talking about me? I don't have 116,000 miles on my car. I just roller over to 77,000 not long ago.