My 89's repair estimate

I took my car in the other day to get inspected. Bought it 2 weeks ago, and runs beautifully, right?
Well the mechanic i went to said it needs a lot of work.
In one of my previous posts I mentioned my brake problems, so I understood and believed the mechanic with his brake diagnosis.
But he tells me that my front coils need to be replaced, and my rear control arms need replacing, and the struts probably.

Now I dont know much about these parts yet, but I do know my car runs fine and I dont think i have any problems with my suspension like he says. I took a look in the wheel wells and all the parts looked solid to me.
Maybe im just ranting on.. but i'd like you guys opinion on whether or not I'm gettin taken for a ride with this guy.
And maybe if anyone knows what kind of symptoms i should be experiencing from these problems, if I have them.

My estimate was 1000, I say F**k that. Im not paying a grand on a car I paid 1.4 for, especially when I think it runs fine.
Im taking my car to my friends good mechanic friend, and going to get his estimate. I just need the thing inspected, if these problems are serious, i'll buy the parts and put them on myself. :mad:

i think you need to take your mechanic for a ride. if your car is contuniously bouncing up and down, then yeah, you need new struts, but i don't know what it would do if the springs are bad... i thought they were either good, or they're broken.

Thats the thing, theres no bouncing. Like if I lay on the brakes, the car lurches foward under the weight shift, just as my dads new neon does, and then stabilizes, just as it should.
Thats a combination of shock absorbers and springs though, I would think

I'd guess the only problem you've got is bad shocks. I've owned 2 Preludes ('92 and '96). I bought both of them used and both of them had been lowered slightly. Because they had been lowered the stock shock absorbers were bad...the car lurched when I accelerated and nose dived when I hit the brakes. After I replaced the shocks everything worked perfectly. I'd definitely get a second opinion from another mechanic before I spent $1000 on repairs.

Well see the shock absorbers job is to keep the car from bouncing back and fourth. Without the shocks, my car would just keep bouncing from the suspension springs.
My car doesnt do this.
I was comparing a brand new car compared to mine, they both shift foward/backward under weight transfer, braking/accelerating.
I used this comparison to prove that my cars suspension is working as it should. The movements arent exaggerated.

If they are factory shocks then they could probably be replaced.

I used this comparison to prove that my cars suspension is working as it should. The movements arent exaggerated.

Actually the movements probably are exaggerated if you noticed the weight shift enough to mention it. I drove my car like that for a while thinking it was normal, but after hearing everyone talk about how great the Prelude suspension is I knew something was wrong. After I replaced the shocks in my Prelude there was significantly less weight shift compared to the old shocks.

ok, I understand you all are looking at the struts and all but, being in a suspension class you tend to overlook the obvious. He is talking about the controller arm and ball joints. Ok heres the deal with them, they are important and are prone to wear. You can check them your self if you have a jack. Lift the car take the tire off. there is a cotter pin on a castle nut. Take th pin off ( be sure to have another if you want to look at it.) take the castle nut off. Whack where the joint is not hitting the end where the bolt part is. it should come out. Look at it and feel the joint. move it around in the socket. If its really loose then it needs to be replaced. Also replacing struts isnt too hard if you have the right tools.

But ne way, don't always blame it on struts there is alot more to it than springs and dampaners.

CASTER
CAMBER
TOE
SAI

those are the main things that are used to calculate how the car rides.

depending on how many miles you have on the car depends on whether or not you need to get all that stuff fixed... even if you did have all the problems your mechanic said, i would do it my damn self... screw payin $1000 to get it fixed... save that up and get a bad ass exhaust or some rims or exhaust header or somethin like that (or all three if you're lucky :boink: )

Upper control arm bushings are known to deteriorate....
And even if they are, you dont NEED to get them replaced usually (about 80% of the time)....All my upper control arm bushings are toast and the car still handles great with no weird feeling in the suspension.
The mechanic probably thinks that in order to replace the bushings that he has to buy entirely new upper control arms. And he's not a total idiot for thinking this, because Honda does it that way too...but you can go the aftermarket route. Polyurethane-like replacement bushings from Orijin Motorsports (http://www.orijinmotorsports.com/prodp88en.html) and they work wonders and you get to install them on your old upper control arms.
While your mechanic (if you chose him to do the work) is under there you might want to consider having him install some new Poly sway bar endlinks and Poly bar-to-chassis mounts....It will also stiffen up the cars handling at a cheap price. The rear sway bar is 17mm thick.

I dont see any reason you have to replace your rear spring(s) unless a coil on the springs are either snapped or about to snap....If they aren't, dont let him tell you they are fatigued and thus needing replacement...
If he does, that doesn't mean he's lying about them being fatigued but dont let him tell you that they *NEED* to be replaced because they dont. If you take the car back from him without having him replace the "fatigued springs" and the car is driving really odd, like the springs are really messed up then he might have tried to pull a nasty and illegal trick on you by using a torch to heat up the springs and thus deteriorating the strength of them which would cause them to be dangerous if left alone....