Bushing and buick rendevous??

[chanfish]

my wife took her car in they said her bushing is seperating. i rode with her saturday and i heard a "humming" noise from the front sounding like a low tire. is this noise consistent with a bushing going bad? how immediate is this? take in tomorrow??thanks....

[Jeremy airjer W]

No, they are talking about the front lower control arm rear bushing or front bushing. I don't remember where this one is but I do know it is the round bushing for the lower control arm. They separate from the metal sleeve and allow the control arm to drop down onto the subframe where they can make a clunk noise over bumps or with jerky turns.

The hum, depending on what it sounds like can be tires or a wheel bearing. If it starts about 30mph and changes intensity as you steer the car left or right it is the wheel bearing. If it never changes intensity steering than it is likely tires.

[ilovefishing]

i have a cousin whohas has the rendevous and has replaced both front bearings 2 times so far, pretty crappy for only 95,000 miles good luck

[chanfish]

yes we replaced both front wheel bearings at about $850..the humm is gone on the front end...thanks everyone for your consideration here.

[rmk600]

I just had one on my wifes Aztek starting to make noise. The bearing assembly was $112 and it took me only about a hour to do it. $850?

[Jeremy airjer W]

I just had one on my wifes Aztek starting to make noise. The bearing assembly was $112 and it took me only about a hour to do it. $850?

I know its hard to comprehend but automotive shops like any other business like to make money. They do this like any other business by charging more for parts and charging for the time it takes to replace the parts. I use the burger analogy all the time. I can go to cub and by a pound of hamburger for $3.50, 8 buns for 99 cents. I can get 4, 1/4 pounds burgers on buns, for under a dollar a piece and for about another buck I can include fries, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, cheese and condiments or I can spend $7.50 at a restaurant for the same burger.

There is no relevance to the argument of cost between doing it your self and having it done for you.

[chanfish]

agree on all points. i did price the parts and labor at two different shops.. these were a bit more since abs. no way i could do this myself.. wifes happy, got to go watch my kids play ball. the priceless stuff... just wanted to share since i did find out that these bearing failure seem to be very common in gm vehicles. more power to these mechanics, they deserve every dime. i believe they call this opportunity costs in the business world and if i get more fishing in then how can you put a price on that?? thanks. i am out.

[OakdaleFMR]

My sister in laws went both went out at 40K miles so we had ours checked before the warranty ended and both had to be replaced. If you do a google search it is a very common problem.