sidespar

I had my struts and strut mounts put in recently, but I am still having a problem with a "clunking" coming from the front right (a little from the left) of the car when i go over small bumps, or even just let off the gas real fast (causing a jerk from the bad motor mounts). Anyway, I jacked up the car and I play with the wheel and i hear this banging, so i look at the control arm. when i move the wheel at 3 oclock and 9oclock, the control arm attachments shake back and forth. it looks like at least one bushing is totally shot.

I took it back to the shop and had the guy look at it (I don't know why he couldn't confirm that it was the control arm before) and he said that, yep, your control arm is shot. He recommended getting 2 whole new control arms rather than just the bushings because it would cost so much money to press the bushings and because the control arms are banged up. BUT, I am wondering what audiworld thinks - how difficult is it to replace the control arm bushings, or will a machine shop have to do this?

And - if i have to buy two whole new control arm units - where is the cheapest place to do this? Apparently they are different for different chassis models. My chassis model is the one with the two-holed ball joint. Bimmerparts.com lists one chassis control arm at 77$ and another at $300. Please tell me that my chassis is the cheap one, because i can't really afford 600 + labor for new control arms.

Anybody who has worked on these before, can you tell me what my options are (if what have described, does indeed sound like bad control arm bushings).

lyonelll

It is a good idea to take them to machine shop to press in the bushings.Where are You located,I'm in MN and junker near me has a car with 2 decent looking cast 3 bolt CAs at just 9$ each if you Do need them.

sidespar

he's not ripping me because he's not selling me the arms, maybe he could just be ripping me on labor for putting them on, but i could probably put them on myself. how much would it cost to get the bushing pressed? he said a machine shop would rip me off at 200-300 dollars (I guess thats if they do EVERYTHING).

fast_kwat

You need a new mechanic

lyonelll

give a call to a couple of machine shops-shouldn't be that expensive

YucatanAudi

a lazy mechanic or one without the proper tools (press, etc), so he's thinking he'll have to send it out and charge you , blah, blah, blah....

2nd that you need a new mechanic.