Ugh, dealer says my car is a safety hazard heh

[Strahan]

I dropped it off Thursday night to have the cruise control checked out so I know what it'll need to get operable. Rented a new HHR to drive around in the meantime. Man, I feel like I'm in a cave when I drive that. Really high side door panels and small windows. But I digress.. I get a call today from the dealer and they said they cannot diagnose the cruise because the switch to turn it on is broken and they cannot get them anymore.

He said the tech who put it on the lift (why they needed to put it on the lift to check out my cruise I've no clue) said that it's unsafe to drive. The sway bar bushings are rotted to practically nothing and he said the right upper A arm is broken, and there is a grinding coming from the rear brakes. They didn't take the brakes apart to check, they were afraid it may fall apart heh. I guess I won't be doing the paint and body work I was planning on with my upcoming bonus, gotta get this stuff resolved. They wanted $250 to fix the sway bar bushings, $290 to fix the A arm, $80 to align it afterwords and no estimate on the brakes. Needless to say, I declined. I have a good shadetree mechanic that works for $20/hr, hehe. Just annoying as hell.

I also went and had two molars pulled today. Man that one left a huge hole. Talking, coughing, sneezing, they all make my head feel like someone is tapping it with a hammer. But my mom came through, she sent me 2 percosets and six vicoden. So aside from my irritation with the car I'm feeling pretty happy now :)

[forrest89sei]

That sucks!

Good Luck on the repairs

What molars did you have pulled BTW? lol

[A18A]

good thing you declined their offer, damn, thats alot of money

[2drSE-i]

dude do the sway bar bushings at least by yourself. That is like one of the easiest things ive ever done to my car is swapping sway bars, and when you only have to change the bushings its freakin easy!

[russiankid]

I call bullshit on the broke upper a-arm. If it was really broken, you would notice it. As far as I know, you won't even be able to steer well and the wheel would be inward.

[MessyHonda]

fix it...i ordered all the parts online and then put them on... and yes the sway bar bushings are so easy

[Civic Accord Honda]

$250 for sway bar bushings!?!?!??!?!?!?!?!?!?! u can get the energry susp ones for like $30 and it would only take about 30mins to install if that

[lostforawhile]

how to fix the cruise control is in the wiki in the service manual,it has a step by step guide. it's really easy, never never take your car to the dealer. as far as the cruise switch they are a dime a dozen used. see if someone closer has one, if not i'll send you one if needed. :wave: if you can't find the cruise repair thing, i have a really good section of repairing that in one of my books, i could scan it for you.

[88LXi68]

I honestly hate dealing with the stealership. my girlfriend brought her 2005 civic down for its 30k service and they basically "checked" some things and changed the oil for the $350 and they gave her, "well your pads are at 50%, we can change them for another $300". they really grind my gears

[A18A]

stealership.. good one lol

[forrest89sei]

LOL Stealership, Great one!

I have to agree, everytime we took my 86 LX to our dealer it would be a $100-300 Bill, They Charged my Father $750 To install 4 Struts, and Upper Rear Control Arms, YIKES!, Then when my parents got there 2006 CR-V Every damn bill would be like $120-250 just for basic service, so I looked at the manual and they had us on the SUPER EXTREME Servicing, Stupid Dealers...

But yeah you would notice a fucked A-Arm, bushings 95% of our cars after 19-22 Years are like that and they are really easy to change, grinding from the drums could be you needing new brake shoes

[Doward]

Um. If your A arm was broken, you couldn't DRIVE the car, as the WHEEL wouldn't be properly held in place ;)

[A18A]

is the "A arm" the upper control arm?

[AZmike]

It could mean either the upper or lower control arm.

[Strahan]

Yea, when I went to Autozone the lady at the parts desk was like WTF is an A arm? Then the older parts guy was like "control arm". They said it was the upper right side. I was wondering the same thing myself.. if it was broke, why does it drive fine? Perhaps they mean it's cracked or something (but they said "broke"). -shrug-

Anyway, yea, their price is f'in nuts. Autozone said like $60 for the arm and my regular mechanic said $100 to put in the a-arm, swaybar and bushings. I don't have a good place to work on the car, so I usually have work done by him. I figured if I'm going to replace the swaybar bushings, may as well get a beefier swaybar while I'm at it. I was thinking of the Suspension Tech. 24mm swaybar, plus it comes with poly bushings already so should be good to go.

I had the upper right side rear two pulled. Not wisdom tooth, just regular ones. Thankfully now two days later the pain is mostly gone. Just sucks not being able to eat right yet.. gotta let the sockets heal up. My woman came home with some fried chicken that I couldn't eat, uhhhh man smelling that I was cursing her lol.

[2oodoor]

hell man I would put it in for less than half that if you are buying a whole arm intact with bushings, that is too simple.
"Broken" just does not sound like any word I would use to describe the conditon of an A arm.

[AccordEpicenter]

they prolly mean around where the shock tower is where the control arm bolts to, they rot out bad on these cars. If those are pretty rotten and you have alot of other stuff wrong with it, consider junking the car. Ive seen quite a few 3gs junked over rust, particularly in that area

[lostforawhile]

if it's rotted out there find one at the yard drill out the spot welds, remove it, remove your upper tower,and weld in the new one it's not that hard to do. everyone forgets all modern cars are put together with spot welds. it's a matter of finding,marking and drilling them out. they are all made from pieces that can be removed and replaced. what looks lijke a solid piece of metal are stamped pieces all tacked together with a bunch of these welds. you can get a spot weld drill out tool from companies like eastwood, the car is put together like a giant jigsaw puzzle.

[AccordEpicenter]

you could but its not worth the trouble if the car is already a shitbox. Esp because if you fuck this up you could have considerable alignment issues. Unless you really know what your doing this could become a clusterfuck real fast.

[Ichiban]

if it's rotted out there find one at the yard drill out the spot welds, remove it, remove your upper tower,and weld in the new one it's not that hard to do. everyone forgets all modern cars are put together with spot welds. it's a matter of finding,marking and drilling them out. they are all made from pieces that can be removed and replaced. what looks lijke a solid piece of metal are stamped pieces all tacked together with a bunch of these welds. you can get a spot weld drill out tool from companies like eastwood, the car is put together like a giant jigsaw puzzle.

The car was put together by the equivalent of Japanese hillbillies. If you have half a clue and the tools to do it, it can't be that hard.

[lostforawhile]

you could but its not worth the trouble if the car is already a shitbox. Esp because if you fuck this up you could have considerable alignment issues. Unless you really know what your doing this could become a clusterfuck real fast.the thing about hondas is the japanese are very precise in things like weld location, in other words the spot welds from car to car are often in the exact same place,making it pretty east to line the parts back up.

[Ichiban]

the thing about hondas is the japanese are very precise in things like weld location, in other words the spot welds from car to car are often in the exact same place,making it pretty east to line the parts back up.

Especially when a machine does it. They aren't going to change their mind and say, "No, spotweld HERE instead".

[Doward]

Especially when a machine does it. They aren't going to change their mind and say, "No, spotweld HERE instead".

roflmao - exactly what I was going to reply with :D

[lostforawhile]

roflmao - exactly what I was going to reply with :Di had to replace the metal hatch bumpers on the bottom side of my hatch door,mine is an 86 dx,these came from an 89 lxi, yet the drilled out spot welds still lined up perfectly.

[bank2me]

Hah Japanese those funny lookin little guys. I have to do the sway bar end links on my car too were can you get the energy suspension bushings?

[MessyHonda]

Hah Japanese those funny lookin little guys. I have to do the sway bar end links on my car too were can you get the energy suspension bushings?



i think autozone has like a custom kit...but i would upgrade the sway bar with the vigor bar...its 16mm