Front Suspension

[Kryption]

How much should a front suspension cost? Like control arms, struts, cv joints, mainly steering components and an alignment after all those are replaced, I was quoted 2k.

 

[Dennisch]

What kind of car?

 

[Kryption]

1997 Nissan maxima se, 4th gen maxima, tough little engine too.

 

[Dennisch]

Have a look at Autozone, should give you a rough estimate of the parts cost.

 

[Kryption]

Well I've found an 8 piece steering kit, which pretty much has the parts that are bad on my car for like $125, it can't be too terribly hard to replace I don't suppose. I'm just trying to figure out where they got $2,000 lol. I didn't know how to replace the rotor, caliper, and flush brakes until last week when my caliper seized and I had to figure things out so I could still get to work.
but suspension and steering components are a lot different from brakes :/.

 

[Dennisch]

Control arms are easy. Nuts and bolts work. Unless the spring rests on them. Then it's a bit harder. Swaybar is easy. Steering requires a bit more thinking. When removing tie rod ends just count the amount of times you turn it while taking it off.

And the most important thing is to put all nuts and bolts back into place.

And when you're done, off to the alignment shop!

 

[Kryption]

You know, that doesn't seem too bad, a lot of the mechanics seems like.... common sense?
I just need to get the sizes and such for all the nuts and bolts, I don't like to re-use them :/. The CV joint is the one I'm most leary of replacing myself. it's times like these I wish I just had a Chilton for it..

My steering wheel is like.... |--'----|
when it should be like |---'---| It's way off to the left and has been for the last year. I originally bought it 2 years ago, replaced transmission, starter, sparkplugs and...2 coils :/ , replaced the drum brakes with disc brakes, and replaced the front brakes also. Transmission I didn't do myself. The rear brakes I had help with from a friend.

It's just 2,000 usd seems a lot when all the pieces are about $200 collectively.

 

[Dennisch]

Check out Youtube, it's filled with helpful videos about working on cars. It will show important stuff you need to know.

Oh and most nuts and bolts come new with the parts. The larger ones you can use again unless they're really bad.

 

[Kryption]

Check out Youtube, it's filled with helpful videos about working on cars. It will show important stuff you need to know.

Yeah, I love the age of youtube, but sometimes you just need that exploded view of the whole set up to get a concept of what you're dealing with lol.
Might need to look into getting one of these xD

 

[Dennisch]

While books like that might come in handy, having moving pictures does so much more.

I've been working on cars for 17? Years now and I occasionally go to YouTube for some much needed information.

 

[Kryption]

While books like that might come in handy, having moving pictures does so much more.

I've been working on cars for 17? Years now and I occasionally go to YouTube for some much needed information.

Yeah, youtube helped me a lot with the brakes, especially when you have only really changed your brake pads, it's useful to know the orientation of the rotor, and some little subtle positionings for the parts when you're putting them back on really help from youtube. Let's see what I can pull off with 1 jack and a ratchet.

 

[Dennisch]

Don't forget a big hammer.

Almost forgot.

GTP TOP TIP.

Start with spraying WD40 on the nuts and bolts you want to remove, preferably an hour or so before you start working, it helps a lot with removing stuff that probably hasn't moved since 1997.

 

[Kryption]

Don't forget a big hammer.

Almost forgot.

GTP TOP TIP.

Start with spraying WD40 on the nuts and bolts you want to remove, preferably an hour or so before you start working, it helps a lot with removing stuff that probably hasn't moved since 1997.

Fixing up this car over the years, has been fun though it's like a child to me even though I got it 2 years ago. I definitely have plenty of wd40, I wonder if this car has been worked on at all since the original owner had it, it only had 113k miles on it when I first bought it.

 

[SVX]

It's just 2,000 usd seems a lot when all the pieces are about $200 collectively.

Mechanics don't just charge for the parts, a lot of a workshop's quote is based on the cost of labour as well.

 

[Dennisch]

Mechanics don't just charge for the parts, a lot of a workshop's quote is based on the cost of labour as well.

Let's go a bit extreme and say that it's 750 in parts. That leaves 1250 in labour. Shop costs probably vary between 50 and 100.

I can not imagine that at a minimum they're going to be busy for 12 hours with the front suspension of a 90's Nissan.

 

[SVX]

Let's go a bit extreme and say that it's 750 in parts. That leaves 1250 in labour. Shop costs probably vary between 50 and 100.

I can not imagine that at a minimum they're going to be busy for 12 hours with the front suspension of a 90's Nissan.

I understand $2000 is extreme, but it did come across that his only consideration for the $2000 figure was parts cost.

 

[Dennisch]

I understand $2000 is extreme, but it did come across that his only consideration for the $2000 figure was parts cost.

Now that would be even more interesting. Perhaps he was offered golden parts.

 

[Pupik]

If I remember correctly, that Maxima's lower ball joints were not easy replacements (labor-wise), so entire control-arm replacements were common remedies.

 

[Dennisch]

If I remember correctly, that Maxima's lower ball joints were not easy replacements (labor-wise), so entire control-arm replacements were common remedies.

~ish.

You need to remove the control arm and have something like a vise to press them out and back in again. It's not that hard to replace them but since you're removing the control arm anyway you just might as well replace those too.

Edit.

Apparently the US has a different spec Maxima than Europe.

These are the ball joints a Euro Maxima has.

No control arms available though.