I’ll just add my two cents for what it’s worth from my arm chair. It shouldn’t be the end of the world to replace a couple of control arms but the thing needs to be on a lift or at least raised enough to do the work. Then a lot of swapping parts like the bearings, brakes, etc. So yeah a little work and in a shop by the hour unless you know someone.
As far as getting the parts, I have been to several pick your own places and the thing is you have to do everything yourself with only your hand tools. Rusted bolts? Can be a challenge with none of the tools you’d have at home. Then depending on how they have the donor car supported, can you even get access without them getting the fork lift out. I’d want to pay the $5 entrance fee just to see what all was going to be involved. So then I would rather have the yard take the parts off, but a 99 is old enough so a lot of yards are not going to have anything that old except for the self-serve yards.
So I dunno, lots of just logistical headaches with the whole cost issue up in the air with whoever would do the work. Hard to just give up but gotta be realistic too.
The repair shop may not guarantee the results of their work if you supply the replacement parts. I doubt you’d save much $$ doing that anyway, other than by purchasing substandard parts, which isn’t in your own interest.
I have a friend who works at a wholesale plumbing supply store. He tells me the plumber-customers he talks too on a daily basis all say the the most common problems they are called to repair turn out to be jobs fixing a problem caused by the home-owner purchasing plumbing parts from a big box retail store. The parts look the same, but aren’t the same as parts from a pro-plumbing supply shop. Thinner, less expensive materials, thread imperfections, etc.
Looks like these lower control arms are available on car-parts.com, not too expensive, $50 each or so. Find a shop that’ll get them and install them, once they confirm that the body isn’t too rusted out otherwise.
Does this mean you just purchased this vehicle a month ago?
If so, have a mechanic give a complete inspection before repairing or replacing anything. These control arms could be just the tip of a never ending iceberg on this car.
Or, it could be all that it needs. But get a competent and complete inspection FIRST.
With the one spring gone and the other on the way, it’s going to be a little hard to move it around from shop to shop. With no spring, the shock is the only thing keeping the wheel from disappearing underneath, I think.
First, thanks to all of you for your very helpful and insightful advice.
This weekend I was waiting for a friend to pick me up and I saw my neighbor working on a car in his driveway. Come to find out he’s a mechanic, has been for decades, and has been working independently for about 6 years, making money for himself and working his own hours.
He took a look at the rear end and said the same thing you guys were here, and told me he could do it for me no problem for $300 in labor. Also said to get new because he wouldn’t trust used because of what Michigan does to cars and the fact it’s on the underside in general.
While talking with him I saw he very competently and methodically take apart the driver side of a '00s KIA, remove its strut, grab the replacement, then cuss out his client’s box (and the client) for being labled L when it contained an R, grumble about having to do all that work again for no reason, and then pop the strutt back on with just as much ease (with as much ease as a car that old will give.
He was then, in about 10 minutes, able to test my remaining shocks on that side, Jack it up, then pull the escaped coil out. He then proceeded to very sternly tell that while still technically drivable it really should only be to work (~5mi away) and fixed ASAP.
He definitely seems like a guy, to me, who knows what he’s doing.
While talking with him I saw he very competently and methodically take apart the driver side of a '00s KIA, remove its strut, grab the replacement, then cuss out his client’s box (and the client) for being labled L when it contained an R, grumble about having to do all that work again for no reason, and then pop the strutt back on with just as much ease (with as much ease as a car that old will give.
Reminds me of my night school auto-shop experience. Tried and tried for over an hour, couldn’t get the bolts to turn, the ones holding the rear shocks on my truck. Asked instructor for guidance. He inspects the problem, tries pulling on the wrench a couple times, no go, then brings out the blue torch, cuts the bolts off in like 60 seconds … lol …
