Still More Repairs Needed on My Pathfinder

By Mrs. Accountability on April 11th, 2009

You think you’ve replaced everything, only to find there’s more to replace. I asked Mr. A if I should just cry uncle and take on a car payment. Sheesh!

My PF was doing this really scary rocking thing when I hit a bump, or had to take a curve on the freeway. We took it in and had it looked at. The mechanic thought he took care of the problem by replacing the lower ball joints, and the rocking did subside somewhat, but as the days went by I found it was still doing it, especially on the freeway curves.

So I took it to my alignment guys that have a shop close to my job. They are so awesome. They check my alignment any time I am concerned about it, for no charge. Their diagnosis was the upper and lower control arm links, aka bushings. The arm control links are outrageously expensive, only available from the dealer. They estimated almost $500 for the parts, and another $250 for labor and tax. I did some research online and found this article, where the guy describes exactly the same problem I was having. At the end he explains that you can save a lot of money by replacing the bushings that go into the control arm links. I guess the big problem is most people can’t press the bushings into the rods and you end up having to remove the arm control rods, then take them to a machine shop and have them pressed in for a charge. We found the eight bushings online for under $70.

So Mr. A is going to do this repair so we can save the money on labor. I’m so glad he can do auto repair, too.

Mrs. Accountability