Adventures in car repair
The other day I heard an unexpected clunk from the back of my car as I was parking. The next time I drove it, the clunk reappeared when cornering. It's never a good feeling when you know something is wrong, but don't know what it is or how much it will cost to repair.
Today I pulled the tire and found the stabilizer/sway bar linkage was broken on the driver's side. It took an hour to get the remaining nut off; in the end I sheared it with brute force. At least it came off without the use of a torch or hacksaw.
The part was $12. The total project time was three hours. The casualties: one broken socket and a few scraped knuckles.
Prior projects on this car:
- replaced rear brake pads, rotors, and calipers
- replaced power window motor
- replaced brake lamp
- replaced serpentine belt
- various filters, etc
(It's nice having a newer car that doesn't require much work!)
Prior projects on previous car:
- replaced oxygen sensor
- replaced rear struts
- replaced entire exhaust from the manifold back (using only ramps!)
- replaced tires
Comments
$12 part and three hours of labor is pretty good. Much better than $250 dollars and a week on Sam's foldout, which is what I had to endure the last time my car broke down. I'm glad to hear it wasn't something super expensive.
Posted by: Craig | January 13, 2006 10:36 PM