HELP!!! My suspension might be shot HELP!!! Options

[k-weaver]

Ok so here is the story...

I took my car to meineke for the "free brake inspection", i just did this because i wanted to have my tires rotated and i didnt want to do it myself. Anyway, turns out that my car has got some major problems. Only thing is, I am not sure if this guy just wanted me to cough up some funds, or if he was legit.

Problem #1

The guy brought me over with my car on the lift and my front left CV joint was busted. All the grease poured out into the inside of my rim. So the joint is not being lubricated at all right now. The guy told me that he would have to replace the whole axel and total it would be 255.00 out the door. Do I need a new axel? Can the joint be replaced by itself? and is this a legit price?

Problem #2

The guy told me that the joint went bad because all four of my struts are bad and need to be replaced. So he said that he can do all four struts for $1,062. YIKES!!! That seems a little high to me??? So could this be a cause of my joint going out? and do all four need to be replaced?

Problem #3

This isn't really a BIG concern of mine, of course it needs to be fixed, it just does not have top priority. Turns out my rear brake rotors are bad, and my pads are just about to be bare metal. So I need new rotors and pads, he quoted me $260. This is probably something that I would end up doing though...Plus it gives me an excuse to buy drilled rotors

Problem #4

Guy told me that I was leaking oil. He said that he would need to replace the Valve cover gasket. As far as I know the car isn't leaking from there. Seems like if it were I would be able to see it dripping? If he needs to replace this, what could it possible be? He also said that I need a new oil pressure sending unit? I don't see why I would need one? Everytime I start my car the little oil light turns on, then shuts off in like 3 seconds. He quoted me $185 for this...

Grand total for everything on my car from this guy was $1,800 out the door. Seems like this is a little much to me? AND on top of this....the guy that put my rims back on over tightend the caps on the rims and I lost one. Im gonna go down there tommorrow, already called him, he said to come down and well see what we can do...

By the way, my car is a 1996 GT Hatch with 150,000 miles. Any help or insight would be great. I'm thinking of doing everything myself, just worried that something will go wrong, it always does...

[Valo666]

i think your gettin suckered. The thing about places like Minakie, MR lube, etc. is they work on upsales. They find one thing wrong, or somethin thats gonna go wrong, and tell u it needs to be replaced.

like the other people said, if your CV isnt clicking yet, just replace the boot and grease. Aftermarket boots cost like $20 at most and take maybe 40 min to install depending on how good your mechanic is.

Shocks and sturts shouldnt be bad because of a CV shaft. They really dont rely on eachother. Easiest thing to do is just bounce your car by pushing down on the fenders or on the 1/4 pannels and see if its easy to push down, or not. If you find your self pushing down and feeling the car lower alot, then they are probably shot, if you push down and feel some pretty good resistance and the shock rebounds right away, they are probably fine. I would say go get it inspected at a better garage though.

Brakes are important, if they are gone, replace em. No question about it.

And as for the valve cover, oil pressure sensor. If your leaking from the valve cover, then replace the gasket. Its only like $30 for parts including the silicone you need, maybe $40 labour depending on the shop you go to. The oil pressure sensor, you shouldnt need to replace that. If you have some oil leaking around the sensor, you should take the sender out and put some thread selant tape on it. It should stop the leak. The only way you can see if the sensor is faulty or not is if you actually test it using a DVOM or a scan tool and im almost 99% sure that they wouldnt test that when you come in for a brake inspection.