Rear Control Arm Bushing

[amateurfishing]

anyone have experience with these? cost?

[Scott K]

On?

[amateurfishing]

02 explorer XLT

[Scott K]

I have replaced a couple lower control arms because the bushings were bad. I know then, the bushings themselves werent serviced separately.

I never had an upper on the rear go bad, but they are serviced separately, and pretty easy to do.

It should be less then an hour to do. Bushing look like they are about $40, control arms are a couple hundred.

[amateurfishing]

well....umm...shop quoted me $130 for each bushing and 4 hours for labor. said have to take entire wheel assembly off on each side including brake components, they said it was noticed when do standard tire rotation during oil change. these are lower rod bushing they told me they rated 7/10 for wear.

[Scott K]

I dont want to argue with the shop that quoted you the job, but this is what my book shows. If you do both sides, regardless of if they are upper, or lower, it is 1.5, or .8 for one side. I have done many of axle seals, where it is pretty much the same job, and it is pretty easy.

[amateurfishing]

just to compare apples to apples is that for control arm or bushing?

.....and would 4 wheel drive matter?

[Scott K]

That was for a 4wd, and if they were doing the lower, bushing s arent available. If they were doing the upper bushings, it is even easier then removing the control arms.

[Jeremy airjer W]

Are you sure we are talking about bushings?

The labor and parts sounds more like they a replacing wheel bearings?

[amateurfishing]

called shop this a.m. to make sure i understand everything correctly as i suspect i have. as pic shows estimated shop time by 1/10th is 38 (or 3.8 hours), and the second line is cost for 2 lower arm bushings (1 for each side) not the entire lower arm unit, just the indivudual bushings

....and this is for a 02 explorer xlt 4x4, 140,000 miles

....between above info & online research last nite, sounds like a hose job to me, should cost MAYBE half that

[Scott K]

I do see aftermarket does have bushings for the lower now, but list isnt close to that. But there are 3 bushings on the control arm. If all 3 are bad, I could see the parts quote, and then some. But chances are they arent all bad. I would take it in for a second opinion.

[Jeremy airjer W]

I'd have to agree with 4WS on this one. Get a second opinion/estimate.

[amateurfishing]

things just are not adding up

called a dealer, they said you can only do entire arm replacement and this quote does fall in line with a dealers, BUT only if it is for entire arm replacement and not just bushings which shop claims there quote is for

also napa auto parts says you can get individual bushings but there is a front and rear for back tires. 4W says there are 3 bushings, Napa auto says 2, and shop says only 1 per side...?????

would shop labor be any different to replace entire rod than bushings only? would it be better to replace entire rod right away with bushings? shop says everything else is great, just these bushings worn & they rated 7/10 on wear. If dealer quotes me basically same price on doing entire rod should i just go that route instead?

[Scott K]

Ford only sells the control arm, and doesnt have replaceable bushings. So, they would only replace the control arm as an assembly.

As for the bushings, there are 2 that bolt the control arm to the frame, then 1 that bolts the knuckle to the control arm. So technically there are 3 on the control arm. If I was to do the job, I would recommend the lower control arm assembly from the dealer, just because those bushings dont press in and out of the control arm very easily, as I have done ones that are similar to these.

But I would take it to a different place for a different estimate. Let them look at it, and price it out, without telling them anything other then, check out the rears for something loose.

[amateurfishing]

i have had 2 places tell me they would only do entire assembly and both were very close to the estimate just for "bushings only"

got 2 other quotes for bushings only and they both came $250 less than my current shops "bushings only" service

also called local auto parts store where my shop says they get supplies from...guy at store quoted me $50 for "knuckle bushing" while guy at shop claimed he was looking at exact same site & said he could not get it for lower than $110. major fish smell regarding this on paper estimate that i have. dont understand why my shops price seems so out of wack compared to 4-5 other places i have checked, may be time to take business elsewhere.

any recommendations/referrals for in elk river?

[Scott K]

While you may think they are pulling something over on you, and they may be, it may be an error on the service writer, or on the parts guy that they called to give him the quote. Let say they called Napa, and the parts guy told him list prce was $110, thats what he goes off of, now it could have been an error on Napa, and not the writer, or the writer could have heard it wrong, or wrote it down wrong. But then again, he may have been trying to hose you as well.

If this shop has treated you well for a long time, and hasnt hosed you in the past, I wouldnt leave them for this once. If they have been shady in the past, or havent done good work, then time to jump ship.

[amateurfishing]

thx 4W

[shizzy]

they said it was noticed when do standard tire rotation during oil change.

hmm, did they show you or just tell you? Is it wearing tires? making noise? did you notice anything before?

2nd opinion for sure.

[fish_eat_sleep]

It was noticed by them during a Standard tire rotation? You didn't take it in to be examined or notice an issue while driving on your own? My instinct says if the price is off, and they brought it to your attention... Well yeah you get where I'm going here.

A service guy once recommended that my dad schedule an appointment for a transmission flush at 32k (He's old, but not THAT old...) and a service guy told me I needed a transfer case output shaft seal & a list of other stuff on my next visit after an oil change even though iv been informed to keep an eye on it for over a year, this guy made it seem like i was gonna get stranded and die on a snow covered road. I don't mind a list of things to watch for in the future but that was slightly overboard. Stick with people you trust.

[Scott K]

On may vehicles, a tranny service is recommended at 30k

[amateurfishing]

just told me, i have not noticed anything, no mention of unusual wear on tires? if this is legit would it make noise or something for me to watch/listen for?

actually said vehicle was in great shape other than this issue, we do take very good care of our vehicles & keep em for life, i have been driving 3 times on snow covered lakes using 4WD, dont know if that may be an issue with this.....

[fish_eat_sleep]

On may vehicles, a tranny service is recommended at 30k

Manual says its some kind of fill for life stuff in the Fusion. For my nissan anyway, I was told flushing not always good especially with more miles? I think it was more of a sales pitch than a required maintenance being after an engine oil change. I hate paying for stuff that I don't really need.

[Scott K]

Most late model vehicles are running lifetime fluid. But I would still change it at 100k.

Follow your owners manual.