YACT: What would you do?

[Aikouka]

*Cliff notes are below*

Well, as I've mentioned in threads, I currently own a 2002 Dodge Stratus SE. I bought the car about 7 months ago for $6500. After a bit, I noticed I was having some noise originating from the front tires. I originally suspected the wheel bearings, but felt no play in the tires. I took it in and after awhile, they figured out that it was in fact the wheel bearings and it seems the after-market bearings (meant for the car) are an improper size. The warranty covered that.

To talk about the warranty, it's pretty much an 18,000 mile or 1 year all exclusive warranty from "C.A.R.S.". It literally covers anything but parts that normally go due to typical wear and tear.

So I took the car in the other day knowing it needed new struts (it was pretty obvious) to a place that I know pretty well and trust. I stopped by after work yesterday to see how things were going (and possibly to pay them and pick it up a bit later). Well, the guy started talking about how much my warranty company was a pain. I knew this wasn't good, because struts are standard wear and shouldn't be covered under a warranty. The guy talks about estimates and hands me a piece of paper. I go in expecting $600-ish worth of suspension work and what do I get... $2500 of estimated front-end work! The guy asked me, "has this car even been in an accident" and the bad part about that... he's not the first person to ask me that question. The thing is, I've never been in an accident (comprehensive or collision) at all much less with that car.

All the ball joints in the front need to be replaced, both tie-rods... a strut was so bad it was BENT. Now this sounds all fine and dandy as I talked about a warranty before... thing is, my warranty company is giving the ol' work-around trying to avoid having to pay for this. I can afford it, but it's not exactly a small amount and the thing is... I have no idea what I could've even done to cause such bad front-end damage, which makes me more reluctant to want to pay for it.

Cliff notes:
* Bought 2002 Dodge Stratus for $6500 about 7 months ago.
* Had to have work done on it before, covered under warranty (lasts until ~88,000 miles)
* Took car in for strut replacement.
* Ended up with a $2500 estimate and the warranty company is trying to get out of paying for it.
* Been asked twice whether or not this car's been in an accident before and I've never been in an accident.

What would you do? I mean, I need my car to get to work and I really don't know if I can trust this car. When I changed the spark plugs at around 75k, I found oil on 2/4 of the plugs. It may not be much of a cause for concern, but with all of the things going wrong... for all I know some of the piston rings aren't creating a good seal.

 

[Toastedlightly]

Personally I would pay whatever look over the car fees and see about doing it myself if it were feasible.

 

[radioouman]

Oil on the plugs probably means that your valve cover is letting oil leak down into the spark plug wells. Engine is probably fine.

The front struts on your car have a stabilizer welded to the strut body, if I recall. If someone hit a curb or a major pothole, they could easily have done damage to the front suspension and bent a strut.

Personally, I would fix it and know that the front end of your car has just been rebuilt and you probably won't have to do anything else to it as long as you own it.

 

[Demon-Xanth]

The prior owner probably drove it like Stevie Wonder.

 

[Aikouka]

Originally posted by: radioouman
Oil on the plugs probably means that your valve cover is letting oil leak down into the spark plug wells. Engine is probably fine.

But would that cause oil to get on the actual ignition portion of the spark plug? I thought that the plugs should be sealed enough in the head to make sure oil doesn't get down regardless of the valve cover. So based on that, the only way I figured oil could get on them would be from the block itself.

Originally posted by: radioouman
The front struts on your car have a stabilizer welded to the strut body, if I recall. If someone hit a curb or a major pothole, they could easily have done damage to the front suspension and bent a strut.

Well, the bent strut isn't too big of a deal to me, it's getting replaced anyway and I was more than alright with paying for new struts. But when it comes to both upper and lower ball joints and tie rods for both front wheels... I'll have to get the estimate sheet later to make sure I'm not forgetting anything.

Originally posted by: radioouman
Personally, I would fix it and know that the front end of your car has just been rebuilt and you probably won't have to do anything else to it as long as you own it.

I would, but I'd rather not do it myself as I'm not nearly as proficient at car repair as my dad was and since I didn't learn it all from him, I'd rather not subject the car to any possible mistakes on my part. I tend to have a bad habit of forgetting small things 😱.

The part that makes me worry is that I'm already about to hit paying 50% of what I actually paid for the car in repairs in less than a year. I could see if it was a fixer-upper, but it's not 😛.