Car troubles - help!!

[onthetown]

I'm hoping some of the mechanically-inclined Playgrounders can help me out here...

I'm talking about a 2000 Pontiac Sunfire, for future reference.

My car, in short, is a piece of junk. My mechanic and the car dealer sold it to me as my first car back in October 2009 and both told me it was in great shape for such an old car. There's some rust on the body but they said it was fine.

Anyway, over the past few months I've had nothing but repairs done on it. It's suddenly not so great. Today it was in a different shop for a fan belt tensioner and brake lines, and the guy called me back to tell me that they found two more things wrong with it. I could not understand him for the life of me, so I need some help understanding what I'm in for. The guy on the phone wouldn't give me any estimates and said I'd have to get it repaired before he could tell me a price, but he's not my regular mechanic and I'm not going to blindly do that. Here we go:


The strut mounts are seizing up. He said it's not too bad yet and I can leave it alone for a couple weeks. I do not know what strut mounts do and I don't understand anything I've found online (I'm clearly not a car person). I don't know how much it will roughly cost to repair them. I'm apparently supposed to be hearing a clunking sound when I turn my wheel but I've never heard it before.
The... right front rear control arm? is seizing up/going dead or something as well. I couldn't understand a word of what he said for this one. It sounds sort of important. He said I could leave it alone for a few weeks, and again I don't know what sort of money I'm looking into here.


How important is this stuff? What will happen if they die, separately or together? And can anybody give me some sort of an estimate on replacing the parts and the labour and whatnot? I don't expect an exact number (every place seems to have a different price for the labour), it'd just be nice if somebody who had experience with either of these knows what sort of money it will take to git-r-done.

As an extra note... I do a lot of driving in that car. I have to take it out to the country (20 minutes each way) every day and it's hard driving, very hilly and fast. Some days I have to go more than half an hour out in the same kind of driving, but worse roads. It's for work, so I don't really have a choice. There's a lot of body rust, the oil is being changed today, everything else seems to be in place. I'm just curious about those two things.

[Force]

Eeyikes. Both of those are suspension parts having to do with how the wheel is attached to the car. Probably a good idea to get those fixed if/when you can.

BTW, 2000 is not old. I drive, on a daily basis, a '91 Buick Century that runs like a champ.

[Erloas]

Well I don't know cars really well, but I know some things about them.

As for a quote, at least in the USA they use a flat-rate system where any given task has a standard time required to make the repair. It has its good points and its bad points, I know when my cousin was a mechanic he complained about it some because a task might be rated at 3 hours but once you start in on it you spend 1 hour of that just trying to get a rusted bolt off, end up taking 4 hours for the job and can only charge for 3. On the other hand if everything goes well and you get it done in 2 hours you still charge for 3 and come out ahead. The problem from a mechanics standpoint is that the easy quick jobs are generally quicker then flat rate but the big jobs almost inevitably run longer.
If Canada uses the same system I don't know, but with that in mind they should be able to give you a fairly close estimate. Usually they give the estimate for the obvious problem and add the caveat that it could be higher if they find addition problems when taking things apart (but here they have to get you to approve the a additional work before they can do it).

I'm sure there are places here that don't do it like that, but they are supposed to (I think its part of ASE certification, it might not be required by law, so if they have no certification they could do whatever they want)


Struts and control arms are both suspension. They probably aren't really expensive parts, but they are probably very time consuming parts to change. In reality though the car might ride poorly but its not likely to cause any "keep the car from running" problems. If they break yes, but most suspension things just wear out and don't suspend like they are supposed to.

I would be surprised if those repairs didn't run into the $1000 range. And likely "once they see more" they are going to see pretty much the whole suspension needs changing and I wouldn't be surprised if they quickly got the repair up to almost what the car is worth.


What I would do is call some other repair places, ask for a quote on replacing those 2 parts, and ask what the potential problems are if they are not replaced. Someone who doesn't currently have your car is much more likely to be honest then someone that does.

A 10 year old car is as old as it was well taken care of. If it was driven really hard it could be pretty much shot, but if it was well taken care of it could easily last another 5-10 years.

[Cyrion]

When a mechanic won't give you an estimate, it's time to get a new mechanic! If he can see the problem, he's got some idea of the parts he'll have to replace and should also be able to ballpark a labor estimate for you.

If both things he identified are good for a couple of weeks, don't feel pressured to get them fixed just because he says so. You've got time to get a second opinion. They may indeed need prompt attention, but the mechanic who won't give you an estimate sounds shady.

[Zen Monkey]

I agree with the others who say that they wouldn't use a mechanic that won't give an estimate up front. Shop around and you'll find others that will.

[onthetown]

Here in Canada, in my province anyway, it's by the hour for as long as it takes. Today's repair is coming to about $500.

And... over $1000? Yikes...

The mechanic who won't give me an estimate is from a big chain called Canadian Tire. They have a bad reputation around here but I was desperate to get the brakes done as I've run them practically into the ground. I'll call my regular mechanic later on.

[Erloas]

Today's repair is coming to about $500.

One thing I've noticed is that any repair to car that isn't general maintenance always comes to about $500. More if it has anything to do with the transmission. Since you had 2 things that needed to be fixed I figured it would be twice the normal $500 everything seems to costs.

There is a time with older cars where at some point they just aren't worth fixing. You basically just drive them into the ground. Just do basic maintenance and don't do any major repairs and once it stops running you just replace it.
Its a really hard call to make between when its a good idea to keep making repairs and when a car is just going to keep having problem after problem and its going to be cheaper to replace it. You've only had the car for a bit over half a year so its hard to say.

You can also easily find a lot of things that "look questionable and might need replacing soon" on an older car. Sometimes they do go out soon, sometimes they last a long time anyway.


Edmunds.com says a 2000 Sunfire is worth between $1500 and $3000 depending on who is selling it and what condition it is in. Perhaps ironically the reliability rating shows everything as moderate except the suspension which is rated at good.

[onthetown]

One thing I've noticed is that any repair to car that isn't general maintenance always comes to about $500. More if it has anything to do with the transmission. Since you had 2 things that needed to be fixed I figured it would be twice the normal $500 everything seems to costs.


I'm actually having three things done today (fan belt tensioner, brake lines, oil change) so $500 isn't bad.

I'm saving up for a truck but I don't have the money for any other vehicle right now. I have a job waiting for me but the government lady has to fit me in for an interview sometime next week, meaning it could be another two or three weeks before I get to start working again (takes ages to get things through the government)... So buying a new car isn't really one of my priorities.