WTF I need help!

[Stealth]

ok like 4 months ago, we brought the car into the garage because the front end was making all this noise, first let me say that my uncle and his brother own and run the garage, anyway they said that the left side was all bent, and somone(pointing at me) had to have hit a curb head on really hard to have done the damage it needed a ball joint, tie rod, and the control arm, it was 600$ First let me say I never hit anything. If I remember correctly the front end started rattling again after like 1-2 weeks but it only happend maybe once every couple of weeks, I jacked the car up like 3 weeks ago to change the tranny fluid and the strut started making a pressure release noise. and the wheel started grinding, I thought the strut was defective and it neede new bearings. anyways we brought it in thie morning and he said the control arm is all bent down like 2-3 inches and it pushed the strut into the wheel well and crimped the brake line or whatever. they want 550$ for a strut and control arm, he said the same thing it hit somthing really hard to do the damage, and its not garented cause WE did it, niether me or my dad hit anything, he said hittign a pothole or somthign would do it, then his brother said it would have had to hti somothign alot harder then a pothole, WTF is going on, We've had so many front end problems with this car. does anyone have any ideas or explanations what could bo goign on with the car, and what to do about the garage??? :x

[mihela816]

How the hell do you bend a control arm? I jacked a median with my car once and didn't bend it. The control arm mounting ears on the subframe bend before the conrol arm does anyway.

[sl3196]

I bent a control arm when I hit a curb at 30mph.

[White93z34]

how long have you owned this car?

 

sounds like someone did some prety hardcore damage to it at one point.

[Stealth]

We've had the car for 2 years and 5 months, the thign is the bumper was flaking when we got it and under the bumper it says 1995, also the wire and light bulbs are different on tboth sides of the front end, why would the control arms be bending, and your saying you would have to hit somthign pretty hard? anythign guys I really need to know

[White93z34]

these cars aren't exactly young anymore, its very possable that it was wrecked early on in life and the body was fixed and the suspension looked "good enough" then, which has led up to the problems you have today

 

EDIT: after re-reading your posts what other front end problems have you had with it?

[Stealth]

like 7 tie rodes 6 ball joints, clukning ratteling, struts, control arm, bearing plates, not being able to figure out the problem :x

[White93z34]

like 7 tie rodes 6 ball joints, clukning ratteling, struts, control arm, bearing plates, not being able to figure out the problem :x

 

yeah i'd wager that its been in some sort of hardcore colision at one point in its life.

[93CutlassSupreme]

i'd sell it and cut your losses.

 

no sense in putting large amounts of money into a car that isn't worth shit

[Stealth]

cant sell it, it didnt pass the emmisions test cause the egr is fucked, so we got a conditional pass

[93CutlassSupreme]

with suspension problems, and egr problems (know how much a new egr valve costs) i'd get rid of the car.

[supreme_style21]

Have you ran a Carfax on the car? A collision of supposed magnitude has a very good chance of being listed with Carfax.

Also, I feel sorry for those that live in states requiring inspections.

It does sound like an accident.. a shady repair job at that, with all the wrong wiring and whatnot. Perhaps it is time to look for another ride.

[Stealth]

I live in canada dont think carfax works

[slick]

with suspension problems, and egr problems (know how much a new egr valve costs) i'd get rid of the car.

 

With all of these egr problems, I could be 75% of the replaced egr's didn't need replaced. The ports that run from the intake to the egr valve gets clogged up really bad. Just spray it out with carb cleaner, and go at it with one of those small pipe cleaner things.

[Stealth]

ok new question, do you have to pay for the labour if the parts are garentead or the garage didnt fix it properly?

[sl3196]

ok new question, do you have to pay for the labour if the parts are garentead or the garage didnt fix it properly?

 

The garage should fix it for free if they didn't install the parts properly. Good luck with that though.

[WhiteOut]

To answer to the previous question, yes you do have to pay for labor, even if it does suck. The garuntee only covers the parts, not any associated labor. If however the garage did screw up during installation they should pay for it, the opperative word here being should. As in they probably will not.

 

Secondly I'd guess the same as the others on the board, the car has probably been involved in some sort of accident and as a result the suspension geometry is probably off. Thats basically going to cause the strut to load the weight of the vehicle onto the control arm in an abnormal fashion which is causing your problems with not only the control arm but the rest of the drive line and front suspension. Honestly it probably would be best to get rid of it at this point because there's really no way to fix the problem without spending more than the car is worth. If indeed the front suspension is truly out of whack your going to have to start worrying about not only busting a control arm, but blowing a spring or breaking a drive shaft. And it simply doesn't make any sort of financial sense to be continually throwing $500+ at a car thats only worth $1500-2000.

[Stealth]

ok heres what origonaly happedn I totaly forgot, I drove the car off of some car ramps and landed on the frame and the wheels hit the ground also, the ramps were a good 10 inches off the ground. the part of the frame where you jack the car up on the front end is bent because of the car landing on the ramps. does that sound like it would cause the problems?

[sl3196]

It could have caused it. I drove my cutlass off car ramps once and all it did was bend the spots where you jack the car with the factory jack. I had no steering problems or anything.