local dealer did an inspection on my moms 95 Merc gr marquis. Among other things,they recommended upper and lower ball joints,sway bar links and alignment at a cost of $1042.00.
This car only has 58200 miles on it and she says shes noticed no unusual vibration,steering probs or probs with ride in general.
So my question is ,Is this really necessary?..I dont think so and Im gonna talk to the service guy at the dealer for a more detailed explanation.Ill get back with a reply afterwards.
This is why free inspections are never really free. My guess is your mom’s car will do just fine without any repairs at all. Tell her not to authorize anything until you get a second opinion.
Get a second opinion. When you do, ask to see the car in the service bay while up on the lift. Grab the tires at the 12-6 o’clock positions and push/pull in opposite directions. Bad ball joints will show up as “play.” (FYI, a bad tie rod will show up as play when doing the same thing in the 3-9 o’clock positions…so try that out also.)
The “alignment” is usual and customary whenever work is done on the steering/suspension components, to get everything installed properly. In fact, it’s impossible to truly “align” a car with worn components here, 'cause there’s too much “slop” to get an accurate reading of the current alignment.
Unless you’re seeing unusual tire wear, I wouldn’t do anything, especially with such low mileage.
Every time I’ve gotten a complimentary inspection, they come up with a list of a dozen things to do that cost thousands of dollars. I ignore it, for the most part, and keep driving.
There’s rarely a good reason to take an out-of-warranty car to the dealer.
Last time I went to a dealership service dept. (for warranty work) nobody in the waiting room seemed to escape without spending 100’s of $$, except me, and they tried mighty hard to hook a suction device to my wallet.
You probably want a second opinion but just because its a dealer doesn’t mean the work won’t be needed soon.
I got a dealer inspection and a car wash coupon a few weeks ago on my Pontiac and they reported nothing wrong. Last oil change on the Acura, I got a dealer inspection and suggested wiper blades which I did for $14. It is 16 years old after all and even with low mileage, it has seen quite a few bumps in the road.
Get another opinion before authorizing anything of course.
There’s nothing wrong with performing an inspection at all. It’s only a problem if the inspection is abused and a customer is sold a bill of unneeded goods.
The flip side of that coin would be to perform no inspection at all which could then allow a ball joint to separate and send the car cartwheeling into the ditch.
Ball joints are not always a black and white issue. Sometimes they’re worn without much if any noticeable free play in them and with the wear indicators showing they’re fine.
The car only has 58k miles on it but it also 16 years old. This means 16 year old aged and congealed grease so it’s entirely possible the ball joints and links are worn. A car may also drive fine while in this worn condition.
A few recent cases with my own vehicles. A month ago I had to replace both lower ball joints in my Lincoln, again, and those Hecho en Mexico Moog joints were 13 months old with about 16k miles on them. (Moderately bad but no slop in them.)
Next weekend I am going to replace, again, both of the Hecho en Mexico Moog outer tie rod ends on one of my daughter’s cars; the same tie rod ends that I just installed last April. (Mildly bad but no slop in them.)
And to head off any question about those parts, they were properly installed and thoroughly greased through the Zerks upon installation.
As to the potential question, well how did you know those parts are faulty if there is no slop in them? The answer would be because of a nearly unnoticeable wander at times and a strong gut feeling. Separation of the parts in question and a physical inspection by hand showed all 4 of those parts to be bad without question.
Thanks for all the answers! Im definitly getting a second opinion.
As for going to the dealer,my mom is 84 and trusts said dealer. I dont
believe Im gonna change her way of thinking on that at this time. But she
definitly wants a second opinion and Ill make sure she gets one.
Thanks again!
Get the second opinion. I don’t think I’ve ever had to replace ball joints or tie rod ends on any of my cars with under 100K miles on them. I suspect many dealers and other service departments are offering free inspections with the economy being like it is. If they can’t get your money honestly they’ll turn to dishonest ways.
I have never had to replace tie rods or ball joints on any car I owned with grease fittings. I also never had to replace repackable wheel bearings.
I have had to replace a lot of the sealed -for -life ones. To me sealed-for-life means the life of the grease.
If you lived around here you would see a lot of failed ball joints, tie rods, tie rod ends, sway bar links, and many other things not even related to the suspension at comparatively low miles.
The road surfaces and environment has a lot to do with it and in the case of the OP the car has comparatively low miles but the 17 year old grease in those components probably ceased to be a lubricant a long time ago.
Who knows; the dust boots on the ball joints could have rotted out 10 years ago and there’s nothing in those joints but grime.