is it worth replacing the rear upper control arms on a 2010 honda civic with 86k miles? they lso said I need struts.
I would get a second opinion. Take the car to another shop, only tell them the symptoms your car is having, not what the first shop said.
Unless you are driving the car in an off road rally, seems way too early for these parts to require replacement.
Worth it? You are kidding, right??
A few hundred bucks on a 9 year old car with only 86K miles car that will likely run 300,000 miles? The car is worth at least $5000 any day of the week.
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I should have known better. I took the car to Monro Auto Service And Tire Centers in Herkimer NY (not my usual place) to have the inspection done. This was done due to convenience and timing. I knew it needed brakes since i could hear the metal scraping. They tried to tell me i needed rear lower control arms, struts and a bunch of other stuff. They were trying to sell me on 1500 to 2k in repairs that my gut told me was BS. I asked them about the brakes since that seemed like a real obvious one. There response was “your brakes are fine, you have about a year left on them!” I couldn’t believe it. The effing brakes were scraping metal to metal.
Long story short I took it to my usual place for second opinion and sure enough they replaced the front brakes and rotors and inspected the car. They said there was nothing wrong with any of the other items at all. They asked if Monro looked t the wrong car…lol
Lesson learned! Thanks Everyone!
I had a similar problem. I had been using an independent garage for over 20 years. The management changed and when I would bring either of my vehicles in for routine maintenance, they would always find another problem. At first, I believed them. However, they thought they ought to replace the struts. I said that I needed to wait until next month. I went to my independent tire store for a tire problem and they said the struts were fine. The next time the vehicle was due for an oil change, I went to the dealer. The dealer’s inspection showed no problem with the struts. The independent shop lost a customer.
From what I see your car uses shocks and coils on the rear, not struts. As far as the rear control arm, remember high school geometry, that 3 points determines a plane? The control arm defines one of those 3 points. So if you want the rear wheels oriented in the correctly aligned plane the control arm has to work. Whether you need new ones, only a shop inspection can say.
My Wife’s niece was in town with a 3 year old Honda Pilot. The front tires were bald, as she never had them rotated. She and her mother,(the one with the credit card) went to a Goodyear store because the tires were Goodyear. Without leaving his counter the salesman quoted $2600 for front tires and brakes.
After an inspection the front brakes were found to be fine, and 2 tires were installed for well under $400.
Just an FYI, it takes 5 links to control the wheel. A plane is 2-D construct, a wheel is in 3-D and requires two more constraints to prevent rotation of that plane about the additional 2 axis.
An A-arm counts as 2, a strut rather than a shock also counts as 2. A normal strut suspension with 1 A-arm, 1 strut and one steering arm is 2 + 2 + 1 = 5. A 3 link strut rear is 2 + 3 = 5. A Mercedes multi-link has 5 individual links and a shock absorber (which counts as 0) for a total of 5.
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I’m not seeing it. Since a wheel’s projection is a circle, it’s orientation in 3D space is uniquely defined by a plane (presuming you define its orientation by the center line of the wheel for example). But its exact location on that plane still requires 2 more points, x & y in Cartesian coordinates. For example if you draw a circle on a sheet of paper, the circle’s planar orientation is the same as the paper’s, but the location of the circle on the sheet still requires the x & y location of the circle’s center. If that’s what you are saying I concur.
Part of the discrepancy here may be that a control “arm” doesn’t hold the wheel at a specific point in space referenced to the car’s chassis. A control arm can itself rotate on its bushing. If that’s what you mean, yes, no disagreement there. But it overly complicates the issue of what a control arm is for, and why the OP needs it to work, imo. Interesting discussion though.