Ponticrap FAIL Tri-Monthly Edition

I didn't even get out of the garage after fixing my car about a week ago (yeah, I'm behind in my posting) when I heard more failure noises from the Grand Prix. It was a click/pop or whatever. Regardless, I was getting ready to pay for an alignment since I had to replace a lower control arm on the passenger's side. It just made sense to take a second to check the driver's side too. I took a quick look and it appeared the ball joint was bad on the other side. I took a deep breath and ordered a $75 control arm for the driver's side. This time, RockAuto took 3 days to get a part to me (that's 2 days longer than the last time). When I tore the car apart, the ball joint was in surprisingly good shape. The two bushings were pretty busted so since I already had the part in hand, I swapped the new control arm in. I decided to pop the outer tie rod while I was already there and found that my tie rod was shot. Geesh. Ok, long story short. The other side got a heaping helping of lower control arm, sway bar end link kit and a outer tie rod end. Grand damages were about $120. Add this to last week's $77 and my car payment this month is $197 excluding the $60 alignment.

Stupid tie rod. Although it did last longer than the passenger side, it still wore out.

Busted bushing. It's almost pushed all the way out (to the right).

Of course, this horror story wouldn't be complete without some drama. I was able to get all this crap fixed and took the car to get it aligned at the local Car-X. You see, these folks aligned the car when I replaced struts in December (even though my tires were jacked up). This time, however, they were unable to align the car. As he explained to me, they had to adjust the tie rods to match the steering wheel and since the tires were worn unevenly, it would affect my "driving experience." Ok, for those of you who don't know, alignments are performed by placing a special apparatus on the rims and, after aligning the steering wheel, the tie rods (and other items) are adjusted accordingly. Although the tires can have an impact on the alignment, since the rims are aligned, this will be minimal. Long, long, frustrating story short... since they "couldn't align my car", I asked how they did it in December and said I would come in to get my car and a refund for the last alignment. They magically decided they could align my car and finished their work. It was a "peculiar" change of tone. I got my car back and it drives straight. The saga was over... well, at least for today.