I have a '06 Mercury Montego, 117,000 miles. At low speeds I get a very annoying groaning sound. Last mechanic suggested I replace the lower control arm to the tune of $600. Just feel like he's guessing and not 100% sure that is the problem. Anyone else experience this issue with this year/model and/or situation?

 

Groan present sitting still and cranking the steering wheel side to side a bit? Or just moving at speed?

 

Pretty much only groans while moving. I did completely rotate the wheel while sitting in the driveway, did not hear much. I can also create an annoying creak by just getting out of the car, or pushing down hard on the hood near the front bumper. Not sure if that helps or hurts my mechanic's guess at the lower control are needing to be replaced.

 

$600 guesses are scary. Some multi link suspension set up can have a lot of bushings.
find a shop who will jounce the suspension and isolate the noise with a mechanic's stethoscope.

 

I think he's right about the lower control arms. I replaced my front struts and when I go over speed bumps I hear the groaning. There's not much else in there. You can buy the control arms for less than $100 each. They will take a bit of time to change them out but nothing like replacing the struts.