Car Repair Question

[JigMe]

Just got back from a local car shop, and technician said my both of my front&back strut, upper & lower control arms, ball joints and lower brushing needs to be replaced. My car is 2002 GS300 with 150k Miles, should I spend $3k replacing them?  Pretty much the entire suspension system needs to be replaced, can I drive the car w/o fixing it?

 

 

[tomustang]

Sounds like your tech wants 3000 of your dollars.

If it was that bad he wouldn't release the car to you.

First, go to rockauto.com and price out Upper and Lower control arms, and the Ball Joints, see how cheap they are.

Second, if you'er that worried go get another opinion, for 3 grand many people would jump on that if you paid them.

[Anghellic]

My opinion would be to take the car to another shop and let them look at the car and see what it is they say is wrong. To me 3k is a lot of money to spend on that. I am not in any way saying they are wrong or anything like that but a second opinion is a great thing to have. I would not inform the other shop what anyone has said. that is just me though. You can drive the car the way it is but you will go through tires quicker than normal. Not to mention vibrations and handling issues that will arise.

[JigMe]

My opinion would be to take the car to another shop and let them look at the car and see what it is they say is wrong. To me 3k is a lot of money to spend on that. I am not in any way saying they are wrong or anything like that but a second opinion is a great thing to have. I would not inform the other shop what anyone has said. that is just me though. You can drive the car the way it is but you will go through tires quicker than normal. Not to mention vibrations and handling issues that will arise.

So, it is not a safety issue? She is not going to just lose control on the highway right?

[jherm87]

If a ball joint goes you can. They hold the control arms together. I would replace those for sure. If tout can rock the tire back and forth I would do it right away. Always get a second opinion

[Dwight Hottle]

Like jherm87 said the ball joints are the dangerous link in the system. If they fail the tires goes from vertical to horizontal. Get a 2 nd opinion.

[Dwight Hottle]

Like jherm87 said the ball joints are the dangerous link in the system. If they fail the tires goes from vertical to horizontal. Get a 2 nd opinion.

[Dwight Hottle]

Like jherm87 said the ball joints are the dangerous link in the system. If they fail the tires goes from vertical to horizontal. Get a 2 nd opinion.

[craww]

Thats ridiculous....Price the parts out first, some times imports can have random excessive prices. In alot of cases the ball joints are part of the control arm; your ball joint goes bad, you need a new arm altogether. Definitely get another opinion, if you can find a reputable shade tree kinda guy, it's not a massive undertaking.

[retiredbosn]

Just got back from a local car shop, and technician said my both of my front&back strut, upper & lower control arms, ball joints and lower brushing needs to be replaced. My car is 2002 GS300 with 150k Miles, should I spend $3k replacing them? Pretty much the entire suspension system needs to be replaced, can I drive the car w/o fixing it?

Do u notice any noises, vibrations or maneuvering problems? If the strut is bad you will get a large thunk (bang, noise) whatever when hitting bumps, potholes etc. It would be extremely rare for your entire suspension to be bad after 150,000 miles. Notice any unusual tire wear, noise or vibrations when braking? IMO it sounds like you're being scammed, get another opinion.

[derekxec]

get another opinion and if you do need all that get the control arms with ball joints already in them and check out rockauto.com because wow 3k for a couple hours job is crazy

 

i would do it myself and get the alignment close and take it to a shop just for alignment

 

edit: checked rock auto and you are looking at around $650 shipped for parts lol

[SirSnookalot]

In all likelyhood the car needs to be repaired, the question would be is it worth the expense for a 10 year old car.  I can't address another's financial situation and whether it's cost effective or not for them. I would get another estimate and I would not waste my time in trying to figure out what the parts cost unless I was going to fix it myself, which I would never do. 

I don't put major money into a repair unless it's a work vehicle making me money.  A 10 year old car is getting close to the bottom of it's value and 1-$3000 repair is not going to make it worth that much more.  A couple of grand today but what's going to be needed to repaired in a month or 2, I'd probably look at replacing the car, but ya gotta do what you can afford.

[flyfisher]

Seems odd to me too that all those items will need replacing at the same time.

 

Control arms don't just wear out really but bushings and ball joints can but it usually isn't a catastrophic failure.  You generally know before it happens that it is oging to go at some point.

 

Definitely get a second opinion and if you are slightly mechanically inclined it really is a pretty easy job.

[A-Jay]

In all likelyhood the car needs to be repaired, the question would be is it worth the expense for a 10 year old car.  I can't address another's financial situation and whether it's cost effective or not for them. I would get another estimate and I would not waste my time in trying to figure out what the parts cost unless I was going to fix it myself, which I would never do. 

I don't put major money into a repair unless it's a work vehicle making me money.  A 10 year old car is getting close to the bottom of it's value and 1-$3000 repair is not going to make it worth that much more.  A couple of grand today but what's going to be needed to repaired in a month or 2, I'd probably look at replacing the car, but ya gotta do what you can afford.

 

Sound advice right there.

 

Appears as it's time to make a choice.

 

Either spend the money on the repair (and I'd go to a dealership but that's another whole thread entirely) or

use the $$ for a down payment on another ride - new or pre-owned.

 

There is no right or wrong answer here only opinions.

 

And the only one that matters is Yours.

 

Finally, where safety is a concern I'll put it to you like this: would you jump from a plane with a parachute that is guaranteed to open 70 % of the time ?

 

Good Luck

 

A-Jay

[derekxec]

Seems odd to me too that all those items will need replacing at the same time.

 

Control arms don't just wear out really but bushings and ball joints can but it usually isn't a catastrophic failure.  You generally know before it happens that it is oging to go at some point.

 

Definitely get a second opinion and if you are slightly mechanically inclined it really is a pretty easy job.

 

seems funny to me too that the control arms would need to be replaced unless the ball joint is molded into the arm or something which i havent really seen...and really you can go down to autozone or most other auto parts stores and they will loan you tools for free just put a deposit 

 

also the way mechanics work is they have a book and it says how many hours each job should take..thats how much they charge but they usually dont account for the fact that they will already have everything off so they can replace multiple parts at the same time saving a lot of time

[Brian Needham]

Just got back from a local car shop, and technician said my both of my front&back strut, upper & lower control arms, ball joints and lower brushing needs to be replaced. My car is 2002 GS300 with 150k Miles, should I spend $3k replacing them?  Pretty much the entire suspension system needs to be replaced, can I drive the car w/o fixing it?

 

did you go get your oil changed, then they came out with the list of what "really" needs to be fixed?

its a classic tactic.

I would get checked out, but I am leaning towards none of that is in dire need to be replaced.

[derekxec]

this happened to my mother at a jiffy lube...she went in for an oil change and they came back with a $500 bill lol...they said her alternator was bad so they changed it during the oil change and tried to charge her $500 for it 

[TrippyJai]

Plenty of great advices here. You should also find yourself a honest mechanic who owns a shop and build a relationship. Maybe ask a few buddies if they know anyone as well.

 

My whole family takes our cars to the same place for oil changes and repairs. Over the years, we've built a relationship and even became friends with the owner of this small shop. I would refer many people to him and even purchase brand new sets of tires, batteries, etc at a more expensive price just to let him earn extra money. In return, he's helped our family a lot with the advices he's given us alone. Not to mention all the little fixes and inspections that he doesn't charge us when we have a problem. It works both ways.

[Anghellic]

I agree with the others on the repair. I cant help but wonder what it was for the reason to get the car checked? How does it drive? any noises or vibrations or anything unusual?

[JigMe]

Do u notice any noises, vibrations or maneuvering problems? If the strut is bad you will get a large thunk (bang, noise) whatever when hitting bumps, potholes etc. It would be extremely rare for your entire suspension to be bad after 150,000 miles. Notice any unusual tire wear, noise or vibrations when braking? IMO it sounds like you're being scammed, get another opinion.

 

I didn't notice any noises, or vibrations.

[JigMe]

did you go get your oil changed, then they came out with the list of what "really" needs to be fixed?

its a classic tactic.

I would get checked out, but I am leaning towards none of that is in dire need to be replaced.

yeah, I came out with an estimate for those repair jobs.