anta Posted January 18, 2015 Share Posted January 18, 2015 Hi there Recently I hit the kerb pretty hard and smashed my alloy wheel, so needed to get a new one. I took the car to local garage, they changed the tyres (front), but while driving out they said the car is pulling too much to one side so suggested checking wheel alignments. It turned out wheels are out, specially front one passenger side (the one I hit kerb with). They checked suspension and said bushes are perished that's why cat is pulling to one side and recommended replacing lower arm wishbones on both sides. They quoted me with the price of £382 (two wishbones, two hours labour and wheel alignment after job is done). Is this price reasonable? Looking at the parts on the Internet seems that I can get them cheaper than £89+VAT for one. Anyone replaced their wishbones? How much did it cost you and how long did it take? I think I might be getting ripped of on the labour. Car: Ford Focus Sport 1.8 TDCI 2006. Thanks, Ann Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
STEADS Posted January 18, 2015 Share Posted January 18, 2015 You should be able to get the wishbones for around 20/25 a piece from a decent motor factor pretty straight forward to replace two bolt holding it to chassis and then your ball joint nut that price the garage is charging you is imo extortionate even trackings from around 20 quid from a tyre fitting place .. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stef123 Posted January 18, 2015 Share Posted January 18, 2015 Are they replacing the arms with genuine Ford parts? If so that would go some way to explaining the price. I would be careful about using cheap aftermarket parts as usually the bushes on them are a load of rubbish - not saying there aren't good/cheap ones out there. On the mk2 there is 1 bolt through the front bush and 2 on the rear bush, then the ball joint to release. Working on the driveway with no air tools I would allow an hour a side. As above regarding tracking, I pay £15-£25 for mine at my local tyre centre depending on how much adjustments they need to make. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anta Posted January 18, 2015 Author Share Posted January 18, 2015 On the paperwork they gave me it says part number tc2108 and tc2109. Looking on the internet it comes up as a part made by Delphi. I could really get them myself for 70 odd quid rather than 89 + VAT on the top of it. I had a look on europarts and online automotive and I could get wishbones for half of the quoted price. It's just the case of fitting them. I've seen somewhere a tutorial with pics of how to do it, gotta show it to my other half and see whether we can do it ourselves. I don't really fancy paying nearly 400 quid for that. It makes me wonder now whether before when we were changing engine mounting and water pump at that place we weren't ripped off by them. It cost us then over 500 quid... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stef123 Posted January 18, 2015 Share Posted January 18, 2015 If your other half is confident with a socket set then I don't see why not. It's not a complicated job, the only difficulties are when bolts don't want to come out but changing wishbones is quite straight forward.If you do get stuck or have any questions you can always fire on here and someone will help you.Get a tin of Plus Gas dismantling fluid - will help to release the bolts a bit easier. eBay item number - 231308423514 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vendee Posted January 18, 2015 Share Posted January 18, 2015 Ann, you should be fine with Delphi arms but Stef was right when he commented about cheap aftermarket arms. I've fitted a cheapy replacement lower arm to a Ford Ka many years ago, only to find it lasted about 8 months. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anta Posted January 18, 2015 Author Share Posted January 18, 2015 stef123 & Vendee - you are both right, no point to replace wishbones for cheap ones i.e. low quality one if they gonna last only a year. I do fully agree with that. My current ones lasted for 94k miles which is not bad, taking into account having a close contact with kerbs couple of times. I do consider changing for Delphi ones, they are the ones the garage wanted to use. I can get them for 77 quid each, whole garage wanted 106 quid each. What about FAI ones? Anyone had any experience with them? stef123 other half should be ok with socket set, just gonna have to ask engineers at work to borrow me some tools. If the worse come to the worse, I'm just gonna get the parts and ask garage to fit them (just not the one I just used). Shouldn't cost much if you saying it's about an hour job. Interestingly, I was quoted it's gonna take 2 hours to get them fit... So not only they making about 60 quid on the parts, but they also get extra 60 quid for labour. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
williamweb Posted January 18, 2015 Share Posted January 18, 2015 I don t want to put you off but replacing suspension arms can be a difficult job.I replaced all the arms on the rear of my Focus MK 1.I don t know about the front wishbone but be prepared for the bolts to be rusty and seized on,after all it's on the underneath of the car. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anta Posted January 18, 2015 Author Share Posted January 18, 2015 I fully understand that William. Before we start doing it, I'm gonna ring few local garages to see how much it would cost to get wishbones replaced with parts being provided by us. So this way we always got a back up if it all goes wrong and we can't do it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
troy45 Posted January 18, 2015 Share Posted January 18, 2015 Could be that the bushes need replacing, but if the car was driving straight before you hit a kerb and now it isn't, then perished bushes doesn't make sense to me. impacts with kerbs don't suddenly make the bushes perished. What are the odds it's slightly bent a trackrod on that side? - replacing bushes and arms won't fix that but would be masked by the fact that they'll likely have to do the alignment after changing the arms in any case as the new bushes will change the position of the arms in any case. If the bushes do need doing then there's always the alternative of going for polybushes, it's just a messy job cutting the old bushes off your current wishbones. Changing the wishbones isn't too bad a job - wheel off, drop undertray on that side then a couple of big bolts 1 front 2 rear, maybe height sensor bracket, and some 'gentle persuasion' to split the ball joint (or use a splitting tool). Again the alignment would need doing afterwards. If you do go for new arms, Delphi are a widely used OEM supplier so it could even be that they were Ford's original supplier for the wishbones in any case. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
williamweb Posted January 18, 2015 Share Posted January 18, 2015 To Troy45,I think ants is looking for an inexpensive job,poly bushes are only going to make the job expensive,I know because I fitted them to my car. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anta Posted January 18, 2015 Author Share Posted January 18, 2015 Troy45 - haven't really noticed before car pulling to any side. After changing the tyres they wanted to check wheel alignment as car was pulling to the right and then it turned out that it's way out. They were going to align the wheels but first they checked suspension and said that bushes were perished, so aligning the wheels won't help. As I said they offered me wishbone replacement on both sides, but I decided to look around first rather than paying nearly 400 quid. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
troy45 Posted January 18, 2015 Share Posted January 18, 2015 To Troy45,I think ants is looking for an inexpensive job,poly bushes are only going to make the job expensive,I know because I fitted them to my car. They were £50 looking on eBay? I'd agree though if you're adding in labour costs then the extra work to replace the bushes would end up costing more. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
williamweb Posted January 18, 2015 Share Posted January 18, 2015 Can wishbones be bought with poly bushes in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stef123 Posted January 18, 2015 Share Posted January 18, 2015 @William - The rear arms are a nightmare to replace, the front however are much simpler. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IINexusII Posted January 19, 2015 Share Posted January 19, 2015 i had both my front lower control arms done for £200, thats from an independant ford garage with genuine ford parts Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anta Posted January 19, 2015 Author Share Posted January 19, 2015 Made a few phone calls today. Can get both wishbones replaced including parts for either £170 or £200 (better quality). Alternatively, can get the parts myself and pay 50 quid for fitting them. I've seen there are some offers on wheel alignment and can get it done for £15. Before I commit to anything I may take the car to different garage to check whether the bushes are really perished or maybe there is something bent. Couple more questions from me-there are two sizes of wishbones for focus - 18mm and 21mm and I saw on one website that if I check engine number that will 'tell me' which size is correct. Is that true? And one more, shall I stick to Delphi wishbones or FAI? These might be silly questions really, but when it comes to cars my knowledge is very limited :) Thanks a lot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
williamweb Posted January 19, 2015 Share Posted January 19, 2015 Call your local Ford parts department to find out about the size of the wishbones.I always fit Original Ford parts,more expensive but that's the way I go. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
williamweb Posted January 19, 2015 Share Posted January 19, 2015 Or look at fordpartsuk.com the part number can be found there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anta Posted January 27, 2015 Author Share Posted January 27, 2015 Little update. Changed both lower wishbones at different garage and it costed us £220 which is still better than nearly 400. BUT, they couldn't do wheel alignment as they got too busy and advised to come tomorrow as car is still pulling a bit to the middle. As I had day off anyway, I thought I could probably go back to 'rip off' garage just to do tracking as it was roughly same price. Anyway, went there, they put the car on the ramp and turned out there is still something wrong with it. It looks like the wheel we hit the kerb with (left one) is more 'inside' than the other one. Right wheel looks straight while left top part is deeper in the car. Plus, guy also was showing me that 'damaged' wheel sits higher where good wheel got more space on the top. I hope you get what I mean.. My English ain't so good when it comes to describing this sort of things. Anyway, bloke said it might be knuckle joint, the whole wheel hub may need changing however he's not sure. Gonna take the car back to the garage that fitted wishbones, however I thought I may ask you guys for some ideas, as you were very helpful last time. Thanks, Ann. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
williamweb Posted January 27, 2015 Share Posted January 27, 2015 I think you should go to the garage that fitted the wishbones and wait and see what they say.By the way what size are the wishbones? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anta Posted January 27, 2015 Author Share Posted January 27, 2015 Lol William good question if only I knew. If I look by the part number that is on the invoice, then it comes up as 21mm. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
williamweb Posted January 27, 2015 Share Posted January 27, 2015 Ok thanks for that.If it s a Ford part the number will have 7 digits in it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anta Posted January 27, 2015 Author Share Posted January 27, 2015 I don't think they are ford original parts. 9 digits. I think they are made by q-drive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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