Well i got a new alternator put on the other day and the guys who did it call me up to the shop to tell me i have really bad front steerng and suspension parts. so i get there and the guys lift my car and starts showing me on both sides the inner tie rod, lower control arms, both axles, upper control, and ball joints are all bad. he starts pushing, pulling, adn wigglings the wheel and it really looks ugly. He tells me it gonna cost about $1,189 for parts and labor. plus i have to try and get it done all at once or my aligning will be messed up. Now this is the best news i've gotten in a long time....NOT! the shop owner told me i could try and get the parts myself and he could put them on for me if i could find anything cheaper but not cheap.

 

its not hard to do any of those parts. are you sure they are all bad?

You will have to get an alignment NO Matter What if you mess with the tie rods, regardless if you replace everything or not.

The tie rod ends aren't too hard, the upper ball joints aren't bad. I actually have some UCAs with good ball joints for sale right now in the for sale section.

THe lower ball joints aren't hard, but they have to be pressed in at a shop, which will cost 20-30.


You could easily do everything yourself for $250 if not less.

and as long as the parts aren't completely bad, there is no reason not to do them one at a time when you get money

 

i work @ autozone man you can get almost all the parts there for about 190-250 bucks and its just plug and play installations they even rent all the tools (ball joint press) you need to do it, and after that just get an alignment from like good year or something with a lifetime alignment , 100 bucks or so

labor 4-6 hours

money saved 800 bucks

go to autozone.com and look up all the parts print it out then go to get them @ the store

 

Word man. I can't tell you how much money I've saved doing everything myself it's got to be upwards of like 10 grand.

 

Sounds like he is trying to ride you for money.

 

I got all 4 ball joints off ebay for $114. There was also a kit that included the tie rod ends and sway bar links (I don't have a sway bar on the VX). Axles were $50 to $60 at O'reilly's.

Shop for lifetime warrantee stuff if you plan on keeping the car a while. I've had my car for 365,000 miles and have changed the axles 3 or 4 times under warrantee. The lower ball joints can be a bitch to get out but just beat the crap out of them with a big hammer and they'll come.

Take all the money you save and buy something cool, or start an retirement fund!

 

well i have noticed the drivers side wheel has been getting alittle less tread on it from the other tires. so theres gotta be some truth to what he says. all the parts he qouted me were form O'rellys autoparts. Right font upper contal arm: 105, Left front lower contal arm(from honda): 259, Right inner tie rod: 77, lower ball joints: 61, both axles: 178, alignment: 69. and the whole labor was gonna be 247. If i can do any of this pretty easyly myslef and save some cash im all for it. will i be needing any big specil tools for this. other than the ball joint press stated?