Lower Control Arms Bushing & Strut/Shocks Replacement.

Hi All

I’m recently purchased a 2012 Prius C (100,000 miles) for my daughter. I took it to my mechanic and asked him to give it a full inspection. He recommended the front brakes and rotors be replaced, $483. Average for brakes in my area (SF Bay Area). That was taken care of.

He also mentioned that the bushings for the front lower control arms are starting to crack. Not too bad but recommended replacing in the near future, however he suggests to replace the whole arm because replacing the bushings only are sometimes difficult to set them in place by themselves. Cost $300 for both lower control arms $544 labor. I’m curious if anyone here has replaced their lower arms recently and what was your cost.

The other recommendation are to replace front and rear shocks/struts totaling $1,475. Is this average for this vehicle now days?
If your curious on the breakdown
$510 Labor Rear (3hrs)
$255 Labor Front (1.5hrs)
$550 Parts

As far as I’m aware is that the arms and struts are the original parts.

I currently have a 4Runner so I’m very familiar with cost of repairs and maintenance but I’m new to the Prius so I’m trying to figure out what the maintenance norms and repair cost are for this car.

Thanks

P.S. I mistakenly posted this in the Prius V forum then posted here but o couldn’t figure out how to delete the first post.

 

I replaced the coolant yesterday and did an oil change last week. Next week I will replace the front brakes and rotors. The previous owner said he’s only replaced the brake pads so it seems the rotors are original. Time to replace them anyway. Also I will replace the brake fluid too. I don’t think that has been changed either.

As for the struts and shocks they said the bushing was starting to crack and that the shocks were staring to go bad so that’s why they suggested everything but I took it for a test drive and took it over some speed bumps and it seems fine. So I’m going to leave those alone for a while.

 

Thanks Leadfoot

This is very helpful information!

I didn’t realize that the brake pads and rotors can go over a 100k. I guess having regenerative braking apparently cuts down wear and tear on the brakes and other parts as well. Being that my 4Runner is my daily driver I’m still adjusting to the Prius. Going from a 4Runner to the Prius is like going from one end of the scale to the other maintenance wise.

As for the coolant yes I know there are two, one for the engine and one for the inverter. I just replaced them this last Thursday.

Also thanks for the info on the brake fluid. This is my next service stop that I plan to do shortly. I was going to have my mechanic do it but maybe I’m better off having the dealer do it.

On bushing, I understand that once a vehicle hits the 10 year mark, they start to brake down. I plan on starting to replace all the bushing on my 4Runner in 2026. Since the Prius is now 12 years old I will start keeping an eye on anything rubber. With the struts for the Prius, can you just replace the bushings? My mechanic was saying that when you only replace the bushing there is a chance that it may not seat properly when installing and thus can cause quicker wear and that it’s better to replace it with new struts. It seems a little bit over the top if you ask me. What are your thoughts? Anyway, as it is now I can see one crack in the right rear and two in the left rear. Front seems ok but there are small cracks in the lower control arms but not too bad. I think I can hold off for a while.