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To fix or not to fix? Have to redo my whole front suspension
Hello All,
I haven't been around here in a while, but still daily driving around my '00 bird. It is at about 210,000 miles now.
I recently bought some $500 winter tires and took it to the frame shop for an alignment, only to find out a slew of other problems.
I understand the balljoints and tie rod end, as for the control arms he said the bushing was smashed from hitting something, but it appears to be together still.
Not sure what affect control arms have on setting an alignment so can someone enlighten me if this is even a necessary correction?
It is a reputable place but I just want to make sure I'm not wasting money here. The tierod and balljoint you can tell have too much movement.
I can probably do the tie rod ($20 ac-delco) and upper balljoints ($40x2 moog) for $100 in parts by myself. If I dive into the control arm problem, I'm noticing aftermarket A-Arms are around $400 per pair. Buying stock A-Arms and stock bushings again would probably not be worth the effort of swapping them. With the amount of rust on this car and these all being the factory originals, it may become a big mess trying to take it apart.
I'm also see alot of people complaining about aftermarket A-arms calling them a waste of money anyway. Some people saying they move the wheel to the wrong spot in the wheel well, wrong height, etc. I did see the black friday deals from spohn/bmr etc. but still, $400-450.
All in all, I'm wondering if I should just drive it into the ground and let the new tires go bad after a year or two. Its going to be hard locating all these parts locally with how little I see this stuff coming up in the for sale section nowadays. On top of all that it could use new front shocks and springs as I have originals from a 99 SS. No sense changing everything and keeping those.
This kind of shows the bent part of the control arm near the bolt.
Wow your loaded with rust. How does the car look in general? I just finished up rebuilding my front end suspension wise. I did the work myself and it wasn't that bad. I bought all new Moog bushings and ball joints and got loaner tools from the parts store. I bought some used parts from here and off of ebay. I did not want to waste time repairing parts as they came off my car, had parts done waiting to be put on. There are pictures in some of my posts on what I did. I think i'm at 335,000 miles. If you want to keep the car do it all if not run it into the ground. I plan on keeping mine so it was a no brainer.
If you can spare having the car down for a while, I would say go for doing it yourself. I redid my front suspension which included replacing the bushings on the upper and lower control arms as well as all ball joints. I also replaced the inner and outer tie rods.
While I was in there, I cleaned up the arms and knuckle as well. I used a wire brush adapter for my drill to knock the worst of the rust off. Then I soaked my parts in vinegar. Thing is to immediately put some primer on there after removing the parts and drying them off or they will flash rust. It does not take long to do so either.
I did have to take my lower arms to a shop to have the old bushings and ball joint pressed out. I also had them press in the new ball joints. The new bushings went in easy with the loaner tool from any car parts store. It's a lot of work but it is a great feeling when it is all done. And I did it for a lot cheaper than what the shop is quoting you and I cleaned and painted my parts. Again, this is if you have the time for the car to be down for a while.
On my last car I didn't want to deal with the hassle of new control arms or pressing in bushings so I just got the moog replacement bushings and had a shop replace them.
If the bushings are still original then it is no surprise they are destroyed by 210k miles. They really should be replaced before then.
That lower control arm looks pretty bad, put up some more pictures it might do you well to buy some used and recondition them. Living up north will eat away at an undercarriage, ask me how I know.
That lower control arm you have likely needs replaced, and if you're going to do any bushing you might as well do all the bushings/ball joints while you're at it. PM me if you can't source a replacement LCA locally I think I have a couple in my garage.
I just bought 2 Dorman UCAs and 2 Mevotech LCAs for $200 total...After considering the labor/part costs of buying bushings/ball joints seperately - this was a no brainer.
I would like MOOG all around but Ill deal with this for another 100k miles
I just bought 2 Dorman UCAs and 2 Mevotech LCAs for $200 total...After considering the labor/part costs of buying bushings/ball joints seperately - this was a no brainer.
I would like MOOG all around but Ill deal with this for another 100k miles
Sounds like the best way to do it.
OP, It's not just about went they break, but what happens when they do break. I have seen the aftermath of it happen. The wheels collapse and the vehicle comes to a complete stop.... Hard stop. And then your stranded until a Flat bed comes to scoop it up.
If your DDing it in bad weather, I would think this would be more of an incentive to do it. The prices are reasonable and it looks like they only with the worst parts.
OP, It's not just about went they break, but what happens when they do break. I have seen the aftermath of it happen. The wheels collapse and the vehicle comes to a complete stop.... Hard stop. And then your stranded until a Flat bed comes to scoop it up.
If your DDing it in bad weather, I would think this would be more of an incentive to do it. The prices are reasonable and it looks like they only with the worst parts.
What parts are you describing that fail the upper or lower control arms? In 2013 I actually replaced the upper control arm bushings and balljoints with moog, and these are the balljoints that have now separated, so I'm not exactly sold on moog being the quality part it used to be when it was made in the USA. Getting a wrench on those upper control arm bushing bolts was a nightmare. I'm waiting to hear back from Moog's customer service on warrantying these parts.
Originally Posted by user_ls1
I just bought 2 Dorman UCAs and 2 Mevotech LCAs for $200 total...After considering the labor/part costs of buying bushings/ball joints seperately - this was a no brainer.
I would like MOOG all around but Ill deal with this for another 100k miles
How did you like the mevotech parts? I see them for $70 each on rockauto. I wonder if it is a reconditioned factory part or a complete remold, although that might be too expensive to make business sense for them.
I know guys who have tried them on another platform, and had issues with their ball joints failing in a year, A poor boot design that that wouldn't stay in place and let crud in, one guy got a brand new tie rod end that was cracked. I had some sway links from them (figured I'd try the not-as-important parts first) and they were mediocre and didn't last.
My front and rear suspension was rusted not that bad though. I sent a little over a week removing everything and removing the rust.
I purchased the Mevotech upper and lower control arms and had a shop replace all the bushing and lower ball joints with all MOOG. Upper is easy to do yourself.
I can't tell if that K-member is worth saving or not. It is a lot of work but worth it if you want to keep it.
Your Front lower control arm rear bolts are likely going to look worse than mine did.
I pulled most everything removed the rust and painted it.
I just got the run-around on the Moog K6462 upper arm balljoints. Moog/Federal Mogul tells me all warranty is handled through the point of sale with the original retailer and does not touch warranty claims. I contacted the original retailer and was told the Moog K6462 only has a 1 year warranty and so they can't do anything for me. Moog is now on my **** list and I won't be buying their parts anymore. 'Premium balljoints' should not fail at 2 years.
Tell the retailer they're stupid because Moog says they are lifetime on their premium suspension parts and 3 years on their bearings and cheaper "RK" series suspension parts, and if they don't like that to take that up with Moog because you've got the warranty work right there that says they're obligated to handle it. No Moog part carries a 1 year warranty that I've seen, especially not their premium ball joints.
Sounds more like a problem with the retailer, not Moog.
I had no problem with getting a 3 year old tie rod end swapped under warranty at Advance Auto.
Does anyone know what the bolt/nut sizes are for the frontend lower control arms? I've tried looking it up but my dealer doesn't show bolts in their online parts catalog anymore.
It looks like a nice grade 8 hex bolt that I can get from a hardware store incase I break all mine off.
11-27-2016, 02:22 PM
To fix or not to fix? Have to redo my whole front suspension 
