Control arms

JAFO

Registered User
Having the upper control arms/ball joints swapped out today. Dealership said $575, a good local mechanic is doing it for $305. Wondering if I should have tried this myself, but I've never done it and I was worried that they wouldn't last until the weekend. Driver's side was popping really bad. Should I get an alignment after this? I'm going to get the lower ones done in a couple of weeks, just to have them all done and the same age. Should I just wait until then for alignment or will it be grossly out of whack?




FYI *Already hit refresh 10 times to try to post this...
 
On a scale of 1-10 with 1 being.. "I can turn the key and run the car only.. and maybe put gas in it by myself", and 10 being.. "I can rebuild the entire drivetrain in my sleep", the upper arms are about a 5. If you've worked on the SC very much, its one of the easier jobs.

$305 is probably reasonable for the job, $575 is too much. Parts alone are around $100. A moderately experienced shadetree mechanic can do it in about 2 hrs.

No alignment is necesary for the upper arms. If you're going to have one done, wait until the lowers are finished, otherwise they'll just have to redo it. I'm going to have to do mine soon, probably this month.
 
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