Control arm and swaybar link needs to be replaced. Questions.

[CtrlAltDestroy]

I have a 99 GST Spyder.

I'm not terribly used to working on cars, but I've done some basic things and I'm fairly mechanically adept (I'm an instrumentation technician).

My suspension has been loud lately. I also haven't been feeling well. So I took my car to Sears to get them to diagnose it and I figure I'll just do the work myself. They tell me that my left front lower control arm is shot and it's popping out of the joint/socket. Also my driver's side swaybar link is simply snapped. They took me into the bay so I could see for myself. They want close to $600 for the parts, labor, and an alignment. Screw that.

I have a repair book... somewhere but I can't look at it until I get back home. Until then i figure I'd ask some questions here.

1) How hard is it to change those two parts out? They didn't seem too complicated but is there anything I need to know or look out for?

2) Are cheap parts a-ok? Can I buy something cheap from Autozone, O'Reilly, etc and be good or should I buy something better?

3) Is an alignment really necessary? I only ask because I just had it aligned last fall after replacing the inner tie rods and it's kind of an annoyance to have to do it again.

4) I see this recall here Here. Am I right in thinking that this is the same part? Assuming that it is and that they run my VIN and it hasn't received this recall yet, what are my chances of having a Mitsu dealer do the work on my 12 year old car? Will they deny me if they see the broken swaybar link? Will they align it?

Misc stuff for kicks and giggles.

My top doesn't seem to be waterproof anymore. I get the typical corner leak and I checked the seal. Looks like I need to invest in scotchguard until I can afford a new top.

When I bought my Spyder it had the 10 spoke 1G GS wheels on it, but I didn't know that at the time. Weird. They're beat up by now. I really should buy new wheels.

 

[scott91370]

1) They are very simple to replace. (see #4)

2) If you can get the sway bar link at Auto Zone (etc. that's fine). This should take about 10 minutes to do.

3) Alignment should not be changed when replacing these parts, especially the sway bar link.

4) My 96 was covered under the recall. If yours is affected they will fix if because it is a safety recall, not a Tech Service Bulletin.

Sunroof Check: http://web.archive.org/web/20060514...ix.com/users/manualcd/gift/dsm/2g_sunroof.pdf

 

[96 420a-t]

Replacing that lower arm will change your alignment. Especially if the ball joint has play in it.the link pin won't.

 

[7naYRu7_rs]

you can change your lca without any alignment issues. Autozone parts are a definite go, i just think of them as a piece of metal, and to change these parts they should be incredibly easy. most likely the tools your gonna need are a 14mm & 17mm sockets and ratchet i believe...but yea its pretty easy