2000 Focus Steering Knuckle Question...

[GRB]

I recently discovered my girlfriends Focus had some strange noises and vibrations comming from the front right.

For the life of me I couldn't figure it out. I checked the rotors, entire braking system, tie-rods/ends, ball joints, name it... Finally I said screw it, I'm taking it to the dealer...

So I took it to a well trusted dealership and paid the damned 80 dollars to have them look at it.

They told me it was the steering knuckle. It was worn pretty bad. They said it would cost $700 to replace. Now to my knowledge the steering knuckle on the focus houses almost everything for the front steering and braking system along with bearings. So I can see labor costs being quite high. Not a problem because I don't have the means to do all that work. I can do mild repairs/replacements but nothing that extensive as I do not have certain things neccessary to do so..

Anyways, does this price sound about right?

I've delt with the dealership for a while now through friends and I even know a couple people that work there so I really don't think I'm being dicked around but I just wanted to double check.

My searches on the internet for a Focus steering knuckle have been extremely unsuccessful...

[rivguy]

the whole knuckle? makes no sense - the knuckle is cast with nothing to wear out. all wear parts are replaceable. sounds like the wheel bearing that is common on these cars. that should be around 200 at a dealer. I would question their diagnosis or why the whole thing needs to be replace.

[Redhead4green]

I own a 2000 focus 5-speed. I had this problem at 68000 miles. I ended up having motormount and transmount replaced. Ford parts fmc ys4z 6038 BA & fmc 1s4z 7m121pa. This cost me $268. They tried to say it was more than this and my boyfriend went down and spoke with them. They did this repair and the sounds went away.