Anyone know of a website that offers FREE information about estimated labor costs?

I need to replace the control arms, how many hours should this take?

 

Book is 3.4 for replacing both sides.

 

My understanding is that there is a upper and lower control arm on each side. If both upper and lowers were replaced on both sides should I expect to pay double the 3.4 hours labor?

What are the safety issues with driving on this for a while? I was told that a bushing was bad and the control arm was beyond repair.

 

No UCA, the knuckle is bolted to the strut, which is bolted to the chassis.

 

Well if u were in NYC i could have sent to my mechanic he would probably do both for $100 flat.Hes been the family mechanic for 7 years.

 

Symptoms are as follows.. when I hit the gas the front end jerks from one side to the other (felt through the steering wheel first). Feels like wind pushing on the front of the car. If I take my foot off the gas then it happens again. This doesn't happen while breaking or while turning corners unless I am hitting the gas while going around a corner.

I suspect that the old cv axle on the passanger side needs to be replaced. the drivers side cv axle was replaced about 3 months ago along with the both inner and outter parts of the passanger tie rod. I just had the drivers side tie rod replaced today along with the power steering belt.

 

bad struts?

 

Could be.. never changed them out since I got the car in October. The front of the car doesn't bounce while going over bumps

The car had 175k on it when I bought it.. its now got 185k three months later

 

186,00 on my 95, and i just did the lca's at my guy for 200.00 flat. my steering feels loose as well, im thinking something else is loose or bad like a mount. mine feels like she pulls a little to the left when i hit it like the mount on the passenger side is bad. you do your lca's you might as well do a set of shocks and springs and drop her. dont forget strut mounts as well.

 

Autozone says $244 for both control arms, the local shop down the street says they will install for $238.

 

Those symptoms sound like LCA's to me. That's exactly what I was experiencing. I can't remember the name of the org member...but there is someone on the board that sells them and I believe they are cheaper than $200. I think the name is SnoMax...you should check him out.

 

Check ebay. I ordered mine from there last week.

 

check out your sway bar links. mine was doing the kinda the same thing on the passenger side and i found out my sway bar link wasnt even bolted to the LCA, check it out

 

Ok thank you for the suggestion!

 

get them from rockauto.com, i just got a pair for 189.00 shipped and they're lifetime warranty as well. beefy lookin as hell too.

 

don't buy the ebay junk, I bought mine for the 4th gen, it broke down 8 months later on the road, the lock pin for the lower ball joint broke off, had to get the LCA replaced, turns out the opening for the ball joint was improperly shaped which caused excessive stress on the lock spring/pin.

You can also have the bushing and the ball joints replace on your current LCAs.

 

Got both control arms replaced, no more jerky feeling when I accelerate. next stop.. new struts. Thanks everyone for your help!

 

How much did you end up paying?