I took my wife's car in to be inspected, and while it passed emissions somehow (intermittent P0420 CEL code, fortunately off at the time) I was told the car needs a new tire, a passenger side upper ball joint, and a "slinky" replaced in the exhaust system. He quoted almost $900 for the required repairs.

Now, I priced everything out myself, and I think I can do it for less than half, but I need some advice. Should I just replace the upper control arm in its entirety or screw around with the ball joint? Also, what is the proper name for the "slinky" thing? He didn't know either and wanted to charge me around $500 to cut it out and weld a new one in, claiming the OEM exhaust piece was more expensive.

I think I was being had, but here in good ol' Pennsylvania, when it comes to inspection time they typically have you by the short hairs. The car is currently out of inspection until I get it fixed, which makes this a priority repair.

 

I think by slinky he meant flex pipe, and personally I'd replace the whole upper control arm because every ball joint I've pressed in eventually came unseated since it's somewhat thin metal and it loosens during pressing the ballpoint in/out, and ultimately it's easier to just do the whole uca