I went to drive our "extra" car the other day - just so it gets driven every so often....(this is the car DS usually drives when he is home, but it has hardly been driven since last December now) and the front end was making a terrible loud squeaking noise every time I turned the steering wheel, so after a couple of blocks I turned around and drove it back home and parked it.
DH had a guess it was the ball joints....maybe the tie rod ends. He had us pick up the ball joints as he was taking the car apart and then realized it was most likely the rod ends instead, but since the ball joints were only $16 ea and he already had it all apart, he just replaced both. Works great now! I don't know what this would have cost us if we had taken it to a repair shop, but given we live in a high cost of living area where mechanics charge high labor rates, I'm guessing minimum $500 - probably more like $800. Our cost? $70 in parts. Granted, DH is going to be one out of commission guy for a couple of days, as it took a lot of energy out of him, but so worth the savings.
We will probably be putting this car up for sale now. Hoping we can get about $4500 for it. DS probably won't be home to need it anytime soon, and even when he does, by that point he needs to figure out how to buy his own vehicle. We could sure use the money to pay off towards my car (we bought my car used after our bankruptcy and my mom loaned us the money and I'm still paying her off) or get our seriously falling apart bathroom re-done.
DH can't put a nail in the wall to hang a picture to save his life, but at least when it comes to some mechanical things, he knows his stuff.
Its so nice to be married to someone so handy. My husband foes most of the work on our cars and it saves us a lot of money.
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