Sorry for the noob question here but this is the first time I've ran into this issue. Today, I replaced both my front tires with new ones. The mechanic and advisor pointed to me that I needed a lower control arm on the passenger side since the current one is shot and said "theres no point of doing an alignment until this is fixed". He also said I might as well do both lower control arms.

He quoted me $300 for the 2 lower control arms and 4 hours of labor ($124 per hour). Obviously I didn't take the bait and told him I'll handle that situation elsewhere.

After doing my research online, it looks like theres two lower control arms on our car? One of them is a regular lower control arm and the other one is also called a lower control arm "REARWARD" as I see on rockauto. That "rearward" means that its the compression rod, am I correct?

And I don't even know if the advisor was quoting me for the lower control arm or the compression rod but I assume it is the compression rod since they're charging 4 hours of labor for it?! The regular lower control arms seems to only take an hour or less so I don't think he was talking about that.

Thanks in advance guys!

 

Regular front lower control arm is easy, and likely worn out.

The rear LCA compression rod risks breaking the stud off of the body when removed, requires removal of the front brace, and needs lots of specifically sized tools.

I would go to a Nissan/Infiniti mechanic to get those swapped out in 3 hours or so.

 

As Urban said. The front LCA is pretty easy install. However the rear is actually more difficult to replace.
My family owns a mechanic shop, and this sounds like a good price if they are referring to a rear LCA. The front one seems a little high.

Find out which one he is talking about and if it is the front one chances are you can replace it yourself.

 

So I found out that the mechanic was talking about the rear lower control arm in the front. But after further inspection, all my bushings are shot since they're all OEM at 128k miles now.Is it best to just buy the bushings? From my understanding, if I go that route, I'll most likely pay more labor opposed to buying the whole control arm and paying less labor?

 

It's up to you. Swapping parts is quick, and if the shop rate is expensive may save you money.

I've got a guy to remove bushings from parts I bring him. I replaced all my bushings with the Energy suspension bushings. I've been very impressed.

 

Good looks Urban. Thanks for the input. I did end up buying energy suspension bushings for the front and booked an appointment with my mechanic for next week to get them replaced.

I got a question about the rear though. Do the bushings in the rear go bad too I assume? If so, which ones in the rear?

 

My G has 94k on it. So far the only thing I see on the rear that is bad is the bushings in the spring buckets.