I’ve been hearing an occasional popping sound from my left front wheel area of my 2010 Kia Forte when the vehicle accelerates, decelerates, or turns. Took it in to a reputable shop and they said there was nothing wrong. Kept driving it and it got worse. Took it to the dealer and they said my lower control arm and strut are bent (well first they said they were “shot” and it took some prying to figure out what they meant by that). They want to charge me $800 to replace them but they don’t look like very expensive parts. Thoughts?
I pay $111 for a strut ( then mark it up ) and the control arm is not listed indicating a dealer item.
800 may not be out of line ( i need more time to research Kia dealer parts…ther are none in this town )
You , too, can phone research parts then allow for the labor…including alignment.
Rock Auto has control arms for 90, plus mark up plus freight.
If your shop is buying these same parts, I’ll bet the mark up is about 150 for each.
$800 for control arms and struts on both sides seems reasonable. I presume they want to do both sides, right? You might could get away with only replacing one control arm if the other is ok, but struts should be replaced in pairs. If it is both struts and one control arm, seems a little bit high, but not completely unreasonable. If you think it out of line, easy enough to figure out, visit a couple other shops and get comparison quotes.