Went for an aligment at firestone and got a to do list!!

dodgeneonzl · Post by **dodgeneonzl** » Sat Apr 10, 2010 2:21 pm

alright, so i changed out the LCA bushings for the front and went to firestone for an aligment (lifetime alignment) and while i know that my rear bushing is probably shot... but look what i got!!! What the hell is this!?!? i'm not very familiar with the terms... but i'm assuming that the most expensive part is the ft and rear arm assay.... i'm assuming that's the control arm for the front and back??? what the heck!? i just changed out the bushing and ball joint for the front... Can someone look through this and see if any of this is justified repair?? Thanks!!

ragek23 · Post by **ragek23** » Sat Apr 10, 2010 3:34 pm

Wow looks like they replaced just about everything other than the steering rack and tie rods.

Jo-XL · Post by **Jo-XL** » Sat Apr 10, 2010 3:41 pm

It says recommended, looks more that they advise to get those parts fixed in stead of allready done it?

darthroush · Post by **darthroush** » Sat Apr 10, 2010 3:56 pm

^^^ +1

ragek23 · Post by **ragek23** » Sat Apr 10, 2010 6:41 pm

Trailing arms go on the rear and the price is same as modern's so that's not bad.

I have no idea y they want to replace the front trailing arms tho. Cuz we dont' have any. Id say they just want to stiff you. The rear control arms probably need replacing and if thats true those prices are a little high. Modern has them for 140 for a kit. You will need 2 kits tho.

Neon4Life · Post by **Neon4Life** » Sat Apr 10, 2010 6:45 pm

I say look over it urself. deffinately do the work yourself and you'll save a ton of money.

dodgeneonzl · Post by **dodgeneonzl** » Sun Apr 11, 2010 12:54 am

I know that i needed to change out my rear control arm bushings... but my questions is... i don't seem to have any problems with front or rear control arms... I used to get vibration with the front until i changed my bushings and ball joint and now my steering wheel feels smooth as butter...

They told me that it's almost impossible to adjust the rear wheels because the bushings are shot... (which is understandable) but then they went and told me about some bolt on the rear was loosen and that they have to replace that bolt in addition to the arms... which i'm assuming is the "trailing arm bolt" in the paper...

So... personally i think everything is fine, they just want to stif me because i'm only doing a free alignment so they're not making any money. But just in case... how do we know if the rear control arm needed changing? I've been to a different firestone for an alignment before and none of them told me to change the rear control arm.

nicksdad06 · Post by **nicksdad06** » Sun Apr 11, 2010 6:54 pm

did they do the alignment for u though? u shouldnt really have to adjust anything on the rear unless u have the adjustable trailing arms or u have a camber kit. also make sure u get paperwork for what they adjusted

darthroush · Post by **darthroush** » Mon Apr 12, 2010 7:57 pm

My alignment wouldn't hold on the back either, due to bad bushings. If it won't hold the rear alignment, it wouldn't hurt to replace them. They are very easy to do.

dodgeneonzl · Post by **dodgeneonzl** » Mon Apr 12, 2010 11:47 pm

I'm not sure if they did it or not... they told me they can't align the rear so i told them to just align the front... they said they've already aligned it but they didn't print it out when i ask for it. Also i found that the steering wheel isn't straight... meaning the steering wheel is still crooked to the left when going straight... (it was like that before the alignment...) so i dunno, i suspect that they didn't do the alignment.

darthroush wrote:My alignment wouldn't hold on the back either, due to bad bushings. If it won't hold the rear alignment, it wouldn't hurt to replace them. They are very easy to do.

darthroush, is it pretty easy to change the rear bushings? It seems like the bolt for the rear control arm is pretty big... and weouldn't rust be a big PITA? My car's an '04 and 135k miles and the rear bushing hasn't been changed.

OB · Post by OB » Tue Apr 13, 2010 12:38 am

Sounds to me like they're talking about your tension rod bushings, not the lateral arm bushings. In this business, the term trailing arm is almost always used to describe a positioning arm/rod i.e. torque arm, tension rod, etc. There are several names for the same thing.

If those bushings are bad (most likely the ones that are on the spindle-side) they would indeed make it difficult to adjust rear toe, since the eccentric adjusters have a very small threshold of adjustment to compensate for severe wear.

darthroush · Post by **darthroush** » Tue Apr 13, 2010 7:47 pm

dodgeneonzl wrote:
darthroush wrote:My alignment wouldn't hold on the back either, due to bad bushings. If it won't hold the rear alignment, it wouldn't hurt to replace them. They are very easy to do.
darthroush, is it pretty easy to change the rear bushings? It seems like the bolt for the rear control arm is pretty big... and weouldn't rust be a big PITA? My car's an '04 and 135k miles and the rear bushing hasn't been changed.

Yeah. Four bolts. We pushed the bushings out with a vice, cleaned up the holes, and put the new ones in and bolted them back up. It took twice as long for the paint to dry (I touched them up since they were off) as it did to remove the arms and the old bushings and then put them back together.

Post by **occasional demons** » Tue Apr 13, 2010 11:16 pm

OB wrote:Sounds to me like they're talking about your tension rod bushings, not the lateral arm bushings.

These:

P4510826 $52.00

Rear Tension Struts feature a high-durometer bushing material designed for heavy duty and competition use. The revised design results in improved toe stability (reduced bump-steer), which virtually eliminates rear wheel hop under heavy braking. Provides more positive suspension control for improved driver feedback and dynamic stability.

I believe that they come with the front bushings also? For $52 list, it is a bargain.

dodgeneonzl · Post by **dodgeneonzl** » Wed Apr 14, 2010 12:51 am

Hm... ok, so i'm assuming that's for a pair of them right? L&R. I just did some readings on it... and there's also the bayonette bushings, i'm assuming that's number 26 on the diagram? (picture taken from occasional _deamons's other post)... So do i need to replace those as well? because i'm assuming the tension strut form modern performance doesn't come with it. Thanks!!

http://i265.photobucket.com/albums/ii22 ... ension.jpg

darthroush · Post by **darthroush** » Wed Apr 14, 2010 3:40 am

The tension rods don't have anything to do with alignment though, do they? They only adjust the lateral/trailing arms.