I’m having the ultimate Fix or Replace dilemma. My car is very old with about 140,000 miles on it. It’s paid off, but it’s got something funny going on. There is a lot of sway on the car in the back. Every time I hit a bump there is some nasty fishtailing.
It’s a bit of a mess. I took it to the dealer and they quoted me about $2000+ to fix my front and rear shocks and struts. That is almost more than Kelly Blue Book value on my car. So I took the car home and started to ponder a replacement. My boyfriend and I discussed having him fix it, but we were thinking that he needed a spring compressor, which he doesn’t have. I went out and test drove a bunch of cars this weekend thinking that I’ll have to trade-in my car and get something else.
Since I’ve got a bunch of car enthusiast friends, I sent out an email crying about my car and my options for a replacement. I get back some options ranging from:
1. In response to getting a convertible: “You’d look great in a ragtop!”
2. “Find a private mechanic.”
3. “Go for the WRX!”
4. “I love GTI’s!”
5. “Heat the coils and turn it to a lowrider!”
6. “I can fix it for cheap!”
#5 made me laugh. It’s from a guy who holds a Speed Week. I trust his taste in cars and performance sources/options.
#6 piqued my interest. #6 came from an old friend in DC who buys clunkers, drops in refurbished engines and is generally extremely handy. He’s a bit of treehugger hippie and frugal to boot, so I figured it was worth a visit and a discussion.
My friend took the car for a spin and agreed that there was sway but he lifted the car up on a jack and took a good look-see. Turns out I really do need front strut and spring replacements, but the rear strut assemblies may be not. He showed me the sway bars under the car. The driver’s side was fairly straight, but the rear passenger side was bent at a 20 or 30 degree angle. My genius of a friend decides to put the jack under the bent sway bar and lets gravity do its thing for free. Very interesting. I drive home and most of the fishtailing is gone.
My friend and I order some parts for delivery to his house and we agree I’m coming back later in the week so he can do all the work for me before the weekend.
What is extremely troubling is that the local garage near my office as well as the dealership did not mention the bent rear control arm as being the main source of my sway problem. Boyfriend suspected this but didn’t have a chance to bring his lift out to the front of the house. (It’s a pain in the neck and my car barely fits behind the house.)
Get to know your car. Seriously, I’m saving myself about $1000 or more having my friend do the core of the work. I’ll still take the car into a shop for alignment once everything is replaced (The front shocks do need to go, but the ‘low ride height’ and ’spring sag’ makes no sense at all. I’ll be writing the dealership to complain about this. The car does not have a rakish tilt for the 7″ too low in the front and the 4″ too low in the rear. The wheels aren’t too high in the wheel wells so I think they just fed me a lot of b.s. based on what I told them what I thought was the problem vs. what the problem actually was.
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