kathyw Posted September 15, 2011 Share Posted September 15, 2011 last weekend, I went to a subaru dealer for oil change, they found out the front left ball joint is broken, need to be replaced. two days, the battery is dying and I had trouble starting my car, towed my car to another dealership close to my office, they found out the front control arm bushing and front links need to be replaced. I googled and I believe my front suspension has probloms, but not sure which side is right, ball joint or control arm bushing? or do I need to change all of them? Could you give me some advice? Do I need to bring my car to another dealership for the third opinion? ps, my car is 2006 subaru legacy sedan, special edition. I live in MA, lot of snow and potholes were the trouble-maker Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idosubaru Posted September 15, 2011 Share Posted September 15, 2011 someone who knows what they're doing needs to look at it. it literally takes about 15 seconds to look at this stuff. normal maintenance is sort of out of the question here because 2006 is really too soon for this stuff to be wearing out. so it very well could be that both the ball joint and bushings are wearing out. i'm going to assume the ball joint has a torn boot and the control arm bushings are warn: ball joints are $30 and easily replaced. if you don't have any issues with the car i would start there and have that replaced. any mechanic can easily replace subaru ball joints, you get no value from the high dealer prices on this particular job if you can find a decent mechanic/shop to do it for you. i would leave the control arm bushings for now if they're not causing any issues - like alignment issues, noise, or tire wear - neither of which you mentioned. those are very rarely replaced....even on legacy's from the 90's that are 15 years older than yours. i've never replaced a control arm bushing but i've replaced countless ball joints - dozens. this all comes without me being able to look at it of course, just going by what you say. it would be nice to get another opinion from an honest mechanic that you trust rather than just another 3rd party entity trying to make a buck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kathyw Posted September 15, 2011 Author Share Posted September 15, 2011 Thank you so much for your input, grossgary! I just yelped a local car shop, luckily I found one close to me and have 4.5 stars with 7 reviews. called them and got an appt next Monday, see how they say. I will come back and update. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Please sign in to comment
You will be able to leave a comment after signing in
Sign In Now