X03

so i came back from trying to get an alignment done because my car has been pulling to the right and slowly getting worse, so i finally took it in today. the guy checked it out and said i needed: new front struts, rear shocks, steering box leaking, stabilizer shock, and the idler arm being the major reason giving the right front wheel a lot of play. well he said he can get this done for $675, but using monroe brand shocks/struts. if im going to replace all this i might as well go aftermarket bilsteins w/vogtlands. so pretty much should i just get the idler arm fixed by him ($145) or can i get it cheaper elsewhere?

YNVDIZW124

Let him do it because i did it on my car for $20 but it was a biaach! He's going to remove the exhaust to do it but i did it on mine with out removing the exhaust. Took me 3 hrs to remove the idler arm and 3hrs to put the exhaust back on! Oh and since i was under the car i changed the tie rods, drag link, and the stabilizer shock. I did all this the next day after the meet back 3 months ago because i had a broken ball joint on the drag link.

If you want to do it at that price tell him to go with kyb shocks because they cost the same as monroe and are a little better.

X03

lol if i knew what i was doing i would rather take those 6hrs and save 600 instead of vice versa

YNVDIZW124

Well if the 650 includes parts he's spending around $400 in parts and only making $200 but that's cheap for all that work! He also has to do the aligment after he installs all those parts so that's another $50.

X03

so how urgent is it to change my idler arm? because some other people said it could also be the wheel bearing, so i dont know if that guy is just giving me bs and trying to make some money off me.

AMG_Eric

well the steering shock cusions the blow when u hit a pot hole.

replacing struts is easy if you have an allen wrench and 2 jacks.

drag links and ball joints are straight forward. i have replaced my rear subframe mounts and after doing the 1st and it taking 1 hour the other one went in in 15 minutes. dont know about the idler arm.

btw struts are about 100 wholesale in KYB. that is for the front

ashman

I replaced my shocks mys elf took a couple of hours.

The front struts needed the springs to be compressed, and you need a special 21mm offset wrench to gett he bolt off. the allen is to hold the shaft.

The rears were not too hard either, same deal needed an allen wrench and I think it was a 17 or 19 mm nut. The hardest part is compressing the shocks/struts by hand to get them in.

I think you could do the front without compressing the springs, I did it for safety purposes..

Overall, It was not a big ordel to do them.

AMG_Eric

you dont need the spring compressor. just use a 2nd jack or a jack stand to hold up the lower arm. the top nut is easily spun off with airtools.

ashman

Well I didn't use air tools I did hand tools. and THe spring compressor was a just in case, so I did not have to support the arm, plus since I already owna spring compressor, I needed to use it to make it a worthwhile purchase.

Can't wait to get my car back so I can try out my fender roller

Like I said overall it wasn't a big ordeal, and you probably do not need to compress the springs with a spring compressor. I was going to change my spring pads anyway so I have the spring compressor for that purpose.

CaliE320

Alon,

I think you should roll your fenders first before they start spraying. Because your new paint will still be soft you might end up spider webbing or flaking if you roll the fenders after your new paint. Roll the fenders first so if there's any damage or body work needed to be done it can be done before the new paint.

~Cali

ashman

too late paint is already on the car.... it's not a big deal. I knw what to do to roll them. I am only going to bend the inner lip up , I'm not going to try to flare it out yet.

With the fender spacer and bending that inner lip up, I should have no issues int he front..

Rear is already rolled, and I don't plan on touching it for a few months anyway.

YNVDIZW124

IS NOT THE WHEEL BEARING! the idler arm makes it feel like there is something wrong with your wheel because it has play in the idler bushing! I went and changed all this stuff that's why i know what your talking about.

Also it is very urgent to change that thing because your wheel will have sooo much play in it that it's going to *** up your strut and tie rods if their not already fuked up.

This was my list of shiet i changed - drag link, all struts and shocks, tie rods, idler arm, steering shock, shock mounts, shock bump stops (sportline ones), and all sway bar bushings.


HAS ANYONE HERE EVER TRIED CHANGING AN IDLER ARM BUSHING? YOU HAVE TO TAKE HALF OF THE EXHAUST OFF BECAUSE THE BOLT WON'T COME OUT WITH THE EXHAUST INSTALLED.

AMG_Eric

this is how it is done all day long at shops around the country. they use a lift to lift the car. then they put a tranny jack under the arm then they jack it up a little and then removed the strut. you can replace the lift and the tranny jack with a jackstand and a good hydralic jack. btw the spring wont jump out at you. i have relaxed that arm all the way down and it didnt come out.

YNVDIZW124

Yeah and you can also use chains and all this other stuff but WHERE NOT TALKING ABOUT USING A LIFT OR HAVING A SHOP DO IT FOR YOU! I did all this in my driveway. If i had a lift i would have been done in 2 hours with everything.

When you install the spring back on you have to compress the spring to put the strut back in and this is when it could come out and hit you in the face!

jasong

You stated that you are having an alignment problem and then gave a list of causes. Yes ALL of those can have an impact but I would suspect the idler as the main culprit. All of that can be done by yourself including a very rough alignment but if you are a smart cookie and have someone ready to do everything for basicaly free labor then you would be wise to jump on it. As for the struts, you will probably be pleased with any set of new ones but if you really want to do some hard driving then come strong. I would just question the penny wise pound foolish idea of nickeling over all that work but then wanting to pay 100% more for struts that WILL not help the average driver other than to increase ones stature at the water cooler. I went with Gabriel's on my 300E and to my surprise, the car did not fall apart and it rides great too!

YNVDIZW124

I think i made the point that he needs an idler arm bushing. Gabriel shocks are good for the back specially since they are $19 each at napa but in the front i would go with bilsteins.

X03

thanks for the replies, ill have to just get that idler arm fixed first and just go from there, fixing everything else as we go

gutowskia

Some notes on the idler arm repair. I just did mine last night. I bought a repair kit which includes the bushings and the bolt. The bolt has to be pushed up in order to remove which is blocked by exhaust. The good news is that I did not need to disconnect the exhaust. I removed the lower bushing and then pushed the bolt up along with the upper bushing. This gave me enough play to tilt the bolt and slide it out of the way around the exhaust pipe. A couple of weeks ago I replaced the engine mounts, so the engine is sitting a little higher. Perhaps this is the reason I had enough room to remove the bolt. If you don't have enough room to remove/replace the bolt, consider disconnecting the engine mount and raising the engine a bit vs. messing with the exhaust.

Hope this helps.

seth1066

Sorry this info is a little late! If the exhaust is blocking the bolt, simply cut the hex head off, the bolt will then drop out. When you replace it, just insert the threaded end up towards the exhaust (the hex head end is now on the bottom) and install the self-locking nut.

Why don't they do it this way from the factory? On the off chance that the nut, if on the bottom, gets sheared , the bolt won't fall out and you'll still have some steering capability, enough to pull over. Most techs I know use this short cut.