Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Modifications Suspension Need Help

Spatt and I put my Eibach kit on about 3 weeks ago (give or take). I went today to Belle Tire to get the wheels aligned. After an hour of standing there, they finally take my car in. They get it up and come back and say that my cards needs a "front end overhaul" before they can align the wheels for me. This really surprised me because Spatt and I did look to see if anything was bad. I may not know too much, but Spatt knows enough to be able to tell if something needs to be replaced, I'm sure. Anyhow, here is a list of the parts they said I need, the prices and the labor associated with all of it.
Left Front outer tie rod - $55.42
Left Front inner tie rod - $99.78
lower control arms - $168.85
"bushings bad. Right front ball joint loose" - $189.73

They quoted the job at 5.4 hours and said $350 for the labor. The guy said he was going to 'hook me up' and call it $200 for the labor. The alignment was going to be $59.50 and the R&R of the tie rods was going to be $60. Grand total was around $850.

Does this seem right? I know Belle Tire is known for saying you need a butt load of work when it isn't necessary, so how would I check to see if this is accurate? I have no problem buying the parts and getting someone local to do them (CEG'er) or possibly doing it myself again with someone.

To add insult to injury, turns out the Assistant Manager is the guy who has been calling my girlfriend for about 3 months trying to get with her, haha. I saw the business card sitting out on the sales counter and I couldn't believe it. I was pretty pissed when I left, or I would have made a little scene.

I'm going to. I just don't know where to take it. Stazi was going to be doing some work on it next weekend. I may just wait until then to have him look at it. I knew the price was bogus, just didn't know where to go from here. Waiting for Stazi to look sounds like a good idea though.

Ryan seeing as your car is a 98 E0, it probably has the horizontal style bushings, which tend to be a LOT more resilientthat the POS vertical style that all 98+'s have. When those go on a vertical setup, your best scrapping the entire A-arm and buying new ones as you get a new ball joint too in the process. IIRC, you can get upgraded replacement bushings for the E0, the E1's etc have non replaceable bushhing. Also Bill Jenkins for one sells replacement lower ball joints too (same for all years of Contour)which are actually better than the stock ones as they have a grease nipple on them that allows you to maintain them.

I would NOT be surprised to hear you have trahsed lower ball joints with the age of your car, but hopefully your tierod ball joints are fine as they require a realgnment for sure when you replace them - mind you replacing the lower ball joints requires a realignement afterwards as well.

Check out with Bill Jenkins the cost of two new a-arm assemblies, complete with bushings. I'll bet they'll be at least $100 each, but it may be more cost effective to swap out the entire thing if they have several worn items attached to them.

I'll assess them when you bring the car in and give you a firm answer on what needs to be replaced and what doesn't. Once againI would be able to replace any of those suspension components for you if need be.

if he has the early style 4 bolt front control arms check the price on some 01 Cougar control arms. For some reason they went back to the 4 bolt style on those cars Maybe they'll be cheaper??? I do know those control arms aren't the cheapest

what do they mean by inner tie rod? did someone install a steering box in a contour?