n00b ball-joint questions.
 

I'm usually pretty knowledgable when it comes to most mechanical aspects of my car from past experiences and from reading alot. Ball-joints however, I have no idea what they really do, what they look like, or even where they are located on the suspension of my car.

I've read that they usually wear-out at around 150000k's (which my car happens to be at) and I have noticed a few mysterious noises coming from the front of my car lately. How much are they? Are they hard to replace? Will I notice the different once they are replaced? Front and rear?

I'm slowly accumulating a pile of parts that will be replaced over the next few months, so any advice or input would be appreciated.

Thx.Mike:thumbup:

Do you have any knocking sounds? Lower balljoints arent that hard to replace if you have the proper tools. If the lower balljoint snaps, your tire pretty much goes loose and turns sideways and can rip the driveshafts out, etc. Very dangerous. Upper balljoint CAN be dangerous if neglected for a long time, at first you should only notice your car sorta wobbling side to side over bumps and crap. If replaced with OEM, you should have a tighter ride. Cheap after market ones can be had for like $20. OEM ones are like $60+ I think.

well it depends....upper or lower ball joint. There are no rear ball joints on our cars.
The upper ball joint is at end of the upper control arm. And the lower ball joint is on the steering knuckle at the bottom when the lower control arm attaches.
Replacing the upper ball joint is as easy as replacing the upper control arm. While replacing the lower ball joint is a little more difficult as i needs to be pressed out of the steering knuckle.
You will notice a huge difference if a ball joint is worn out. The steering will get kind of sloppy. What happens is the grease usually leaks out of the boot, if the boot is torn, and the ball joint gets dry and infected, so to speak.
Upper ball joints are easy to replace, but lowers can be stubborn.
Hope this helps mike

Mike if you need help banging that bitch out lemmi know.
I've got a really really big hammer somewhere... LOL

or you can just rent the ball joint tool

My car isn't really making any serious noises and it doesn't wobble. I was mostly wondering about the k's and duration because I read they wear-out at around the k's I'm currently at. When I do my brakes I'll just get everything checked out. I'm stating a long commute to school in January, so I want to ensure everything is in top shape.

Its really simple if you got the tools. The hardest part is seperating the LCA from the balljoint. I bought a really strong puller from princess auto and its does it in a matter of seconds. Then all you have to do is hammer out the balljoint from the knuckle, which isnt too hard.

i just used that cheap thing they loan out from CT. does the job... if i'm keeping my car past the spring i'll be changing both upper joint and both lower ones...

why not test the front ball joints grab a wheel and shake it ... if it moves in the vertical direction (in a way that would affect camber) have a look at the upper ball joint ... if it moves in a way that would affect steering (with the steering wheel locked of course then have a look at tie rod ends ... if moves in both directions have a look at the lower ball joint

the problem with the lower balljoint is that it wont always be as obvious as trying to move the tire around. Sometimes it won't even make a noise and will look ok visually until you actually pull it out and see how mangled it is. That's what happened with me when I took my car to Buddah. We were looking at the balljoints and they looked not too bad. Then his mechanic pulled one out and we were like whoa!

Boostd and I tried this on my car.. bad idea. It was just siezed in there.. So we admited defeat and took it to a place with a ball joint remover.

how big of a hammer? cus i got mine out within a few hits:)

michael its pretty easy to change the lower ball if u understand some mechanical work in ur car. first u need to seperate the knuckle from lower arm, the driveshaft from the knuckle/hub and bearing and there u can knock off the lower ball joint from the knuckle. and the lower ball joint from honda cost only 35 dollars + tax

yeah, it's really easy... I changed mine cuz one of the SiR knuckles had a damaged ball joint from transportation :(

exactly! the best way to check if your LBJ's need to be replaced is using a crowbar :)

- hoist the car so that the front tires are off the ground and your suspension is fully extended
- gently stick the crowbar between the lower arm and the knuckle. the little connector between the two is the Lower Ball Joint. don't damage it's protective cover in the process.
- gently move the crowbar bar up and down. there should be NO movement in the control arm. if there is (particularly anything more than 1/2"), time to replace them!

hope that helps