I have been told that I need new steering knuckles - both sides - play in wheel at top -and that bushings can not be replaced - hence the new knuckle. Is this true? $1400.00 for both. I’ve been reading about replacing just the bushings. What’s the real story - 98 cadillac deville sedan
Replacing the bushing is feasible but you may have to do some searching to find a direct fit bushing. You might consider checking with O’Reilly auto parts if you have one in your area. In my area they’re about the best for trying to match something up.
If not, there is another option but a shop will probably not want to do this. As a DIY deal it will work fine.
A few years ago my daughter’s Mitsubishi also suffered upper rear knuckle bushing failures. This led to the car wallowing on the road, through turns, etc.
No direct fit bushings were available and new knuckles were about 250 apiece (a special order, dealer only item).
Since neither of us had a desire to spend 500 bucks on a pair of bushings I removed a knuckle, pressed the old bushing out, and made a few measurements.
I then machined a pair of solid aluminum bushings out of a piece of T6 aircraft aluminum and pressed those into the knuckles.
Total cost about 4 bucks for the aluminum and a couple of hours of time. I drilled a couple of holes in the finished product, installed a grease zerk on each side, and after about 2 years now have had absolutely no problems at all with this.
For 1400 bucks any kind of work-around is preferable IMHO.
Thank You for the reply - I think I found bushings on-line. I’m going to pass all of this along to my real mechanic - not the one who wanted $1400.00 - and see what I’m up against.
Aren’t car repairs fun! You’re right about the feel on the road. I knew something just wasn’t right.