Moved the boy back to school last Thursday. Friday he texts us saying he hit a curb and PS front tire is rubbing. He was uncomfortable driving it so yesterday I had it towed to a local shop for free.
Got the call today that the PS LCA is bent (yay, just replaced that one on 8/13/2021), strut needs to be replaced (new front struts installed in 2018 with about 14K miles on them) and suggested replacing the wheel bearing (original with 186K miles on it). $1271 OTD including alignment. Since the struts are fairly new, he was ok with replacing only the PS. He also said the wheel and tire are ok. It is the little things. Lol
First dilemma, at the state inspection last week it was recommended that I change the DS LCA due to bushings cracking. It would not fail inspection but was recommended. I opted to wait and was going to replace it when he was home on winter break. Seeing that I will need another alignment, should I just have both LCAs replaced now? With the DS strut nut recently coming loose a couple of times, do I have them replace the DS strut too and go forward knowing both sides are new? After I last posted, it came loose again so I tightened the best I could with a box wrench. Then I bought a Schwaben 19mm strut nut socket and used that to torque it correctly after applying some blue loctite.
Second dilemma is he will be dumping more money into the car than what it is worth. Mom and I are making him pay the $1271, gotta be accountable. But it is cheaper than a car payment and given the crazy market what are we going to find and pay for it?
*edit - To replace the DS LCA is $356 more so $1627 out the door. I approved it as it is about $100 less than what the dealer quoted me and I only have to pay for the alignment once.