Am I getting taken on Lower Ball Joints??

[Weazel]

Hello, I just dropped my GN off to be inspected (first time in two years) and get tubular ctrl. arms and a driveshaft safety loop installed. They told me that before they could sticker it, the lower ball joints on both sides would have to be replaced to the tune of $300 (parts and labor total). I used to own a Ford Probe GT, so I'm desensitized on car repair prices. $300 was what I expected for an oil change and tire-rotation with that car. But is this a bit steep? I'm not really familiar with suspension parts, but the front end did seem to be gettin kinda loose. I knew the bearings were starting to loosen up, but they said that wasn't a big issue right now.
How do you know when the LBJs are starting to go? Anybody have experience with prices to replace? Thanks a lot.

 

[bandwidthpolice]

The ball joints themselves are about $30 total. However, the labor is the killer. They have to be pressed out and in. The a-arm will probably need to come off to have the press work done. This will require the spring to be removed which I think we all know by now is dangerous work. Then just reassembly and possibly alignment will be needed to be done. This is probably their justification for the labor prices.

 

[turbo nasty]

the ball joints are a pain ..they are riveted in from the factory and the rivets must be chiseled off or drilled out the the new ones are bolt in. U gotta remove the tie rods then the brake caliper. Then the spindle it is preetty time consuming.

I had a buddy at a dealer and we used the shop after hours so we had the full dealer garage to our disposal.

I would just go ahead and get upper ball joints replaced at the same time since the only thing left holding the upper arm in is 2 bolts.

To answer the ball joint wear
You can tell by looking at the tab/raised area were the zerk fitting goes into the ball joint and it should be flush or recessed slightly looking flat across the ball joint if it is above then it is worn out.. That is what the manuals say at least.

I assume that the tubular arms have the poly bushings if so make sure that they put the lube that is for the poly bushing and douse them good..
The polys are stiffer and the down side is that they will squeak if they are not greased up good.

my buck and a quota

 

[tpabayflyer]

I just replaced mine about a month ago and it was quite the beeotch!!!! I rented the ball joint press from autozone and it barely worked.. those babies are pressed on very tight but they are not tack welded on.. the upper ball joints looked to be tack welded bit not the lowers....I removed the front wheels and used my big floor jack to compress the LCA to get room for the tool....
My car has 115k miles and been in Florida most of it life so their was not much in the way of rust/corrosion... But the end result is a MUCH better handling car.. it used to wander all over the place before and now it is much,much better... it makes a huge difference... TBF

 

[Weazel]

Thank you guys very much for your replies. I know very little about front suspension components, so I was concerned when they said both LBJs were GONE. They have seen 75+ k miles on wonderful New England Roads though, so it seems like it was just time. The experiences you all have had makes them sound tricky, DEFINITELY not something I would attempt to do. I'll let you know how she rides after the installs. Thanks again, I feel a LOT better now. I'll be sure to grab the old ones and give them a look.

BTW I did ask them to grease the poly bushings. Is that just normal axle grease, like you'd use for trailer bearings or something? I didn't see anything special required. Thanks!

 

[turbofish38]

I would check with that shops competion. Any shop that does suspension work would have the proper tools to do the ball joints quick and easy. This means they should be able to replace the lowers with the arms on the cars. If I had to guess this would be about 3 hours of labor plus parts. I have a ball joint press that is one HD tool that cost $500 when it was new(bought it from a shop going belly up) and the nice thing is if you know what you are doing(i've done 5 cars of my own) it takes about 1 hour to do one side. BTW the lower ball joints are pressed in and the uppers are riveted. Its been a while since I had to have a car inspected but it was always funny how everyone in my family would take their car down and no matter what shape or how many miles, every single car needed ball joints. All I know is jacking the car up and putting a pry bar under the tire(not LCA) is not the correct way to check the ball joints. Watch out for them scams. Eric Fisher

 

[tpabayflyer]

I think if you use larger front tires it tends to wear out the ball joints sooner. FWIW after I replaced mine, I was in the waiting room of the alignment shop reading a "trade" magazine and I saw an ad for a new style ball joint... I'm not sure what brand but it looked 10 times better than the stock. Do a little homework
and get the good ones!!! They said they are bigger and last 10 times longer... If you are a gearhead and have most common tools you can probably do the job, but i bet I was putting 500 FT/lbs of torque on my mombo huge wratcheting wrench to turn the jackscrew on the ball joint tool.....I did not have enough room to get my massive 3/4 drive air impact on it... the guys at the shop have it made as they can put the car on a lift and have plenty of room to work with.. I also soaked the crap out of everything with PB Blaster penetrating fluid before I started.

Good Luck TBF ------------------------------------------------------
1987 Gn original Owner!! 115K miles 3" DP,redstripes,no cat, XP pump, hotwire, adj FP reg, new valve springs, KN filter, stock turbo/IC for now

 

[Weazel]

Well, I bit the bullet and had the guys do the ball joint right there. It was tough because I was at work and couldn't see how bad they actually were. But after the 'operation' I asked to see an old one. They were in ROUGH shape to say the least, all rusted and pretty well scored in a few places. The car rides a ton better now, and it "only" ended up costing $250 or so. I'm sure I could've done better shopping around if I knew they were gone, but they had the car there and couldn't inspect it until it was fixed. It sounds like they were nothing I could've tackled myself.

Anyway the car rides like a whole new vehicle. Thanks to the new LBJs up front and the BMR tubular control arms out back, there are no squeaks over bumps and the car is so tight compared to last year. I hate being 'trapped' like that, but it's all good now. In the future I'll try to get better at prediagnosing stuff. Thanks to all who responded!