yesterday I took my car into the local repair shop to have a weird steering problem fix, exhuast leak, and noise from the back right tire. They called me today saying what was all wrong with it...
Front manifold studs, one busted inside, the other one missing. (already knew that though)
both lower ball joints
both lower control arm bushings
front/rear parrallel links (what in the heck are those????)
flex pipe rusted badly

Talk about a bad news phone call, and I am leaving next week for Florida! I just called up a friend who works on cars. He said he could fix most of it and knew where I could get the flex pipe fixed for a good price. But, he never heard of parrallel links.

 

parallel links are in the rear...it's pretty much your upper suspension arms..the front does not have these.

to be honest the price is not bad..because it seems like you let mainteance go on the car..so now u go to a shop you'll get a huge bill.

 

Too bad you're not close to Oklahoma.. I'd do it all for $350 in labor.


That's all regular maintenance stuff to be honest..
front control arm bushings are a PIA to replace. email me if your shop tries to make you buy new arms. I'll do it for $150.
rear parallel link bushings are an easier fix. should cost about $50 for the parts and $100-150 labor.
Ball joints are $25-50 each and should also cost about that much to replace.

don't mess witht he flex pipe.. just buy a whole new Y pipe from warpspeed performance. www.warpspeedperformance.com


so yeah, even with me doing all the work, I'd charge at least $1000 for all that stuff, including parts. the exhaust studs themselves are a $6-700 job for a mechanic.

 

If you get ANY studs fixed on a head, get all of them replaced! You've got it disassembled far enought to get to one, do them all! Parts to do one head is about $30 (gasket and hardware). I have a feeling you have TWO broken studs, not one broken and one missing. These just don't fall out. So unless you KNOW someone didn't put it in at all, it's most likely broken. I just finished doing both front and back heads myself and if I were to charge shop rates I'd have to get about $350-450 in labor for the fronts and about $800 for the rears. That would be for one stud or all 6 cause it doesn't take much more time to replace them all. I wouldn't suggest that a inexperienced person try to do either head himself. Unless they had a lot of time and a second car to go fetch parts and tools with.....

You REALLY need to learn to do some of your own wrenching. A lot of this stuff is fairly easy to do the basics on. Things like the ball joint and parallel arms aren't all that difficult. But you'll end up spending $300 just have them installed by someone else.

The bushings are a little different as you most likely would have to take the Lower control arms off and take them to your machanic to have him press the old bushings out and the new ones in. That could save you $100 or so.

You could do the ball joints and parallel arms in the morning and then drive down to the alignment shop in the afternoon.

If you want to start adding performance parts to your car, the rusted flex pipe is a good reason to start. The Warpspeed Y-Pipe (the flex pipe is part of the y-pipe) is a good unit and one of the least expensive one out there for a mandrel bent unit. It's about $200 plus install. Again, the install is something most backyard mechanics can do themselves or you could pay $50-75 to have a shop do it. If you're not interested in performance upgrades I have a good used stock y pipe I'd sell for $50.

If you can get a mechanic to do all that for $1000 then go for it and be happy.

 

well, to the one who said I let all this stuff go for a while, I didn't. I just bought the car 3 weeks ago and didn't realize any of this stuff.
My friend and I are working on it this weekend and the beginning of next week. We picked up all the parts that are needed (ball joints, bushings). Tomarrow, I am taking it to get the flex pipe replaced, and then my friend and I are replacing the ball joints, and bushings. Next monday we will start on the manifold and finish it up. If all goes well, it should be ready on next Thursday to take to Florida.

 

what kind of noise was it from the back tire??
i hear a noise from my left back tire when i pass over potholes...i cant figure out what it is.

 

it is like a thumping noise, as if something in the drink is bouncing around. I think it has to do with the suspension/bushings.

 

tell me u got a good deal because what u noticed now you should've noticed 3 weeks ago when u bought the car.