I have a 2010 Hyundai Elantra with 185,000 miles on it. Things are tight financially right now and so I’ve been trying to get this car to last as long as possible before investing in a new one. A year or two ago, a mechanic told me that I needed to get a bunch of work done on my car. We did some of it but saved the front struts and CV axles and are now trying to decide if it’s worth it to spend the money on this. So, I’m asking for some advice from all of you. Is it worth spending the money? Will my car fall apart if I ignore these repairs? I need to get at least another year out of it but don’t want to spend the money if it’s not necessary, however, I don’t want to end up wrecking the car by not doing the repairs.
Are you getting any clicking noises when making tight turns, like turning into a parking spot??
Are you getting a weird vibration under harder acceleration, but goes away as soon as you ease up on the throttle??
If yes to either, then replace the axle(s) soon…
Why did they suggest/recommend strut replacement??
I do get clicking noises when I turn. I don’t get weird vibration with hard acceleration. I honestly don’t remember why they made these recommendations, unfortunately.
It doesn’t seem to go up and down like a yo-yo, no. So, I guess it’s best to replace the CV axles and struts at the same time? Also, good to know about the alignment.
I don’t know how old this is but just a word of caution on the cv joints. You can do them yourself for a little over s100 each if you are talented and have tools. That’s what we did when we were broke and built skills.
Now my riviera didn’t click but on my 60 mile commute, I felt a vibration fi4 th3 last ten miles. I got to work and pulled into my stall and backed up to realign the car. The joint ripped apart and all of the ball bearings fell out. No going forward or reverse. That night my wife was able to gather all the tools together and we went and got an axle. I spent a couple hours in the parking gsrage putting it in sn$ was home by ten. Otherwise it would have been a tow and pro repair. Not my first rodeo so I knew all the tools I needed and there was a compressor I could use for th3 axle nut.
Now mine was the race that broke but just saying you can be left high and dry if th3 joint breaks.
My advise is to get an est for both and prepare for that price, then take it in to do the axles and ask them to check the struts (and other steering and suspension parts), if might not save much if any money by doing the axles and struts at the same time, if the struts are not blown out or broke in anyway, skip them.. But if it has been awhile, you might have ball joints, tie rod ends, bushings et that need/require replacing before the struts do…
BTW, I would replace the sway bar links at the same time as the struts…
If I remember right, the links were attached to the strut. Had to cut them off and remove th3 strut for room to cut them from the sway bar. Depend on the type I guess and skill whether to do them with or without the struts.