Contol Arm advice

[Teri Reed]

Preamble - Not a chance in hell that I have the ability, knowledge, tools or even a friend who could do this the inexpensive way. And I can barely retain all of the useful information that gets posted here. Sorry. So any advice beyond that would be very much appreciated.



2001 4WD



I have a history of inner tire wear.

--Do I recall from other posts that if my Control Arms need replacing then this could be a cause?

--If the camber/caster needs replacing would it also help in alleviating the inner tire wear?

--Are the Control Arms only for the front? (see above preamble before laughing)

--Understanding that there will be variance by shop and location, what would a ball park estimate be for having a shop replace the upper Control Arms?

--What is the average mark up on parts at a shop? i,e,. if the Control Arms cost $70 if I bought it directly what would a shop charge? Right now they want 235.00 per arm.



Ok, after 45 minutes of posting and editing I think that is as clear as I can get.



Any input would be appreciated. If you came and took care of all of this for me it would be even more appreciated. :haveabeer:

 

[scott degroot]

It's possible that you could have worn control arm bushings that are causing the front end to not hold an alignment adn therfore have inner tire wear.



Caster and camber is not something that you replace, they are angles that get adjusted when you have the front end aligned. For the record caster does not cause tire wear. If you are going to get the upper control arms replaced then install the kits to adjust the camber and caster at this time so you don't get charged to do it later.



Your vehicle only has control arms on the front of it.



Depending on the labor guide that the shop uses it will be anywhere from 1.4 to 3.2 hours to replace the control arms. The correct labor time is 1.4 hours to do both and this is what is quoted in Alldata but some places will try to use the Mitchell time of 3.2 hours so that they can charge more.



The mark up on parts is hard to say as different shops charge different prices and also not all shops get the same discount so that's not a question that I am going to get into any further. What I will tell you though is that online you can find these control arms anywhere from $35-$100 a piece depending on manufacturer but remember that what you can buy it for online is usually always considerably cheaper than whay your local shop can purchase the part for.



When was the last time you had your vehicle aligned? Do you rotate yout tires every oil change? What brand of tires are you using?

 

[Teri Reed]

l1tech - After much research and several shops in the last 48 hours you have confirmed what I was told by the shop I would trust most. Appreciate the details as it helps me put the picture together and connect the dots. Before this I had a bunch of information I wasn't real sure what to do with.



Bottom line though is that it boils down to your last 3 questions. Regular alignments in addition to monitoring the tire pressure are not my strong points. Correction - WERE not my strong points. Basically this is all coming back on me for being lazy.:smack:



Again, I appreciate the time you took to reply. I trust the information that comes from this board.