I had my car checked out today by a mechanic and he says my front upper control arms are bad and for them to fix it it would be about 450. I think thats ridiculous and hopefully can find decent ones at a junkyard around me for cheaper. Now the question is how hard of a job is this? Are they easy to install or should I leave this to the pros? Now Im experienced with some stuff but not really sure about these. any help is appreciated!

They are a pain because you normally encounter loads of rust and broken bolts.

well thats nothing a little wd40 cant help. But is that the only hard part? cause if it is then I can deff. do this. Is there a write up on it anywhere?

Buy a Hayne's Manual or Chilton's manual from your local parts store.

WD40 is not a penetrating oil. Get PB blaster or Liquid wrench. WD 40 is a lubricant.

wait, hold the phone. those upper arms aren't known to go bad, especially both at the same time. what is his reasoning? why did he tell you they are bad?

if they are bad they are simple to fix.

jack up the car, support it on jack stands and remove the wheel.
step 1- loosen the 2 nuts on either side of the strut mount, but don't remove them quite yet. shown below, the circled one is hidden under the plate(16-17mm):
(IMG:http://i539.photobucket.com/albums/ff356/pwee1882/controlarmbolts.jpg)

step 2- remove the cotter pin from the castle nut on the control arm ball joint. remove the castle nut(12-13mm). take a ball peen hammer and smack the steering knuckle while pushint up on the control arm until it pops loose. it will then look like the pic below. Be careful that you don't let the assembly flop too far forward, it might pull the axle slightly out of the trans and then you will have fluid everywhere and risk damaging the axle seal
(IMG:http://i539.photobucket.com/albums/ff356/pwee1882/steeringknuckle.jpg)

Step 3- remove the 2 upper nuts the rest of the way and use your hammer to tap on the studs lightly until the arm pops down and falls out.

Step 4- reverse the process to install. Torque the 2 upper nuts to 70ftlbs and the castle nut to 14ftlbs. Please double check my torque specs, I just guessed :blush:

it's possible to do both in a half hour to an hour

well when i make left turns my passenger side srping/shock knocks or creaks almost. They said I need a new shock, spring and tire all on the front pass. side. The shock & spring im not worried about b.c. im getting coilovers soon. One of my buddies said that it could just be the bushing on it .. is that a possibility?

it's probably the lateral arms on the bottom of the suspension. I say that for 3 reasons

1: these cars don't have a bearing plate in their strut mounts which means the struts don't turn with the wheels
2: the lateral arms are recalled and should always be checked by a dealer before anything else in the suspension. when they get dry the squeak/creak/knock
3: the ball joint in the upper arms RARELY go bad

why would you want to use wd40 period on your car its not even a real lubricant all it does is displace water so you can temporarily use whatever you put it on and then it attracts all the dust dirt and grime that gets to it and makes it worse

so if I take it to a dealer and they check it out and thats the problem then they fix it for free right since it was a recall?

yep