Going to shop tomorrow

[CenTexan]

Well - I'm taking my 2011 3.8 Tech to the dealer tomorrow. I have noise coming from rear suspension. The mechanic said it was the rear lower control arm . . . that the bushing was shot and could not be repaired on the arm - have to replace the entire control arm.

The SM said the part was "about $500 and labor about $250." I was 18 days past warranty (5 year). So they asked HUSA if they would good will it. HUSA said they would give the part, but I must pay labor.

I said ok ($250 after 5 years seemed cheap), but am having second thoughts. . .
What if the noise does not disappear? I'm out $250 for nothing.
What will they say needs replacing next? THere's a lot of control arms down there!

And why can I find the OEM arm from an online Hyundai dealership for only $220 plus shipping? Maybe my dealer did not really call HUSA?

Stressed . . .

 

[landtuna]

Bushing are wear items so Hyundai is doing you a favor to chalk up part of the repair to warranty (unless, of course, the bushing was faulty and wore out way early but you didn't say how many miles you have on the car).

One thing to check is the other bushings. If it is indeed wearing then the others may also be wearing and require replacement soon. If they are OK then I would think this bushing is faulty in some way.

 

[CenTexan]

I forgot to mention in original posting that I took the car in for the noise a few weeks prior to the warranty expiration. They said the noise was the spare tire rubbing on the styrofoam tool insert and they added some padding. Needless to say that was not the issue. When I took it back (now out of warranty) the SM rode with me, heard the noise, and asked to look in the trunk. But I knew what was coming, so had previously removed the spare tire and everything except the battery! He was a bit surprised and offer "1/2 hour of free shop time to see if we can find the problem."

 

[homeofstone]

Well - I'm taking my 2011 3.8 Tech to the dealer tomorrow. I have noise coming from rear suspension. The mechanic said it was the rear lower control arm . . . that the bushing was shot and could not be repaired on the arm - have to replace the entire control arm.

The SM said the part was "about $500 and labor about $250." I was 18 days past warranty (5 year). So they asked HUSA if they would good will it. HUSA said they would give the part, but I must pay labor.

I said ok ($250 after 5 years seemed cheap), but am having second thoughts. . .
What if the noise does not disappear? I'm out $250 for nothing.
What will they say needs replacing next? THere's a lot of control arms down there!

And why can I find the OEM arm from an online Hyundai dealership for only $220 plus shipping? Maybe my dealer did not really call HUSA?

Stressed . . .

How many miles are on your car? Has it ever been out of of alignment for an extended period of time? Is it driven on dirt roads? My 2011 Genesis has over 172,000 miles and no bushings have needed replacement , nor do any make noise.

 

[NSXNEXT]

Yeah you're being ripped off. MSRP is under $300 for the control arm.
I would bring a copy of this to the dealer and call BS.

http://www.partswebsite.com/newhyun...ection=24&catid=10048&subcatid=20090&fl_id=50

Didn't look to see if someone sells just the control arm bushing.

 

[CenTexan]

Car has 50k miles. No dirt roads. I had it aligned about 5k ago at an independent shop, who said is was pretty bad (and the tire wear was showing it). Will post follow up later today.

 

[landtuna]

Car has 50k miles. No dirt roads. I had it aligned about 5k ago at an independent shop, who said is was pretty bad (and the tire wear was showing it). Will post follow up later today.

That could have been due to the excessive wear on the bushing (won't hold alignment). I would have thought the shop would have mentioned it when they saw the tire wear because it would affect their alignment warranty.

 

[CenTexan]

Update: I took it to shop but decided to wait to have the work done since there was no suspension noise at the time (car had been undriven for a week). Also wanted to try my own experiment: I removed each tire and "oiled" each bushing I could find on both rear sides. Know what? After using for four days now, there is NO noise. I plan to wait to see if noise returns, then decide how to proceed. Also, when I took off tires I inspected for wear and nothing seems amiss, so hopefully any potential bushing problem (as diagnosed by the dealer) is not impacting my tires (Pirelli P6 which I love, btw).

 

[iSOBigD]

Good job. I find often times they just guess at the issue but still charge you which is a waste of time and money.

The control arm should move, so if you lift the car up and move parts, you should see what causes noise and lube it, tighten it or replace it as needed. When I changed my control arms on a Maxima (FWD) you could see how unstable they were when pulling and pushing the wheels so it's usually obvious.

 

[CenTexan]

Final update:

I'm late in posting this, but wanted to leave the thread complete for future readers.

The suspension noise did, indeed, return within a week. I made an appointment at the local dealer for having the lower control arm replaced. Meanwhile I called HUSA and asked about whether it should be covered 100% under my recently expired warranty. They sent me a check for $200 credit against the repair, which ending up covering the entire job. AND - most importantly - replacing that control arm DID fix the noise!

I am glad I was wrong in my assumption that the mechanic was guessing about what to replace. Along with the generous credit from HUSA, my faith is being restored and I might consider a new Genesis next time around.

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