After this, the warranty company will have paid out almost $20K in repairs.

The question: what exactly went wrong that they had to replace "a set of control arms and three suspension links?" And how come I didn't notice it??

Yes, the BG injector cleaning and the oil change plus the deductible is what you are responsible for. Your total came to $632.91. The wheel bearing, a set of control arms and three suspension links with a wheel alignment were taken care of under warranty. They are covering a total of $3418.37.

 

I'm going with rubber booties had torn.

 

Since ownership I have replaced (suspension) front shocks, tie rod ends , rear stabilizer link rods & toe rod arms

On the to do list is the following
Rear lower control arm
Rear upper control arms
Front upper control arms

Regardless of km/miles it seems the oem suspension components are only good for 5-7yrs before they start to perish, suspension issues are very common in our vehicles .

 

I will upload photos of my invoice soon.
I can say that the mystery "click" is gone, and the steering response is noticeably tighter. Like flick-of-the-wrist tight.

 

For those curious, the invoice:

 

 

Hahah good catch! They DID knock off $200! Long story, but kind of a "goodwill" adjustment.

 

And what I'd add - noticing that you've got a 2007 - is that I didn't bring the car in for any of that. I just wanted an oil change, and to have the "mystery click" that I was hearing checked out (which apparently was a wheel bearing, which sounds odd, but the noise is gone).
After I got the car back (I did notice a difference), I went on the forum and did a little reading on suspension-related threads, and it ends up that the "rubber bits" of our suspension on these cars (boots, bushings, etc) does go at the 7-10 year mark. It's a common issue as the cars age, regardless of mileage.
Someone else picks the tab up on replacing that stuff, it's fine with me...