djvrr007

just did mine tonight and just need a alignment manana
the only hard part was putting the two bolts that hold the ball joint and the knuckle together.
love it
now going to put tires and then timing belt

1nz

a garage quoted me $400 to replace one ball joint last week so i will do it myself. unfortunately we do not have a auto parts warehouse over here but i may try them to see if they will send some over. i notice they have quite a range of lower ball joints on their site so which ones are you guys getting? which are best value for money? cheers...

johnball

my car makes this loud grinding noise from the driver side wheel area when i make a turn. and from searching and reading alllll this ball joint stuff.. thats what im assuming is the problem.. by looking at the actual ball joint and tied rod.. can you tell it needs replacement. cause after pulling those two pieces out they look undamaged. is there something to look for on the parts to tell if they have gone bad???

thanks

airahcaz

If youve never changed your lbj, change them ASAP before you regret it

johnball

yea im in the process of doin so.. but i was just curious of what physical symptoms of the actual parts show that they are worn out?

airahcaz

Can't comment on the physical symptoms cause for me it was too late. When turning my wheel all the way left and right, I'd "feel" it in the steering as well as hear it. Search for my posts and you'll see that I changed lbj's twice in under 4 years, and this last time I also did UCA and struts.

bonson

well so far I got the wheel off and removed the two 14mm bolts and removed and hung the caliper part with wire to the spring.
Now I am staring at the rest of the caliper part, brake pads and rotor and reading here that I do not need to remove those.
I am debating to remove the two 17mm bolts . which I've tried to loosen and they are on TIGHT. cant even break em with PB Blaster spray and long breaker bar so far.

SO might go with the 3rd guy on here who says dont even mess with those just get the ball joint loose and let it "all" break away fromthe car.

Still deciding here... Pg 6 of this thread has some intereting on this subject.

bonson

ok pin/castle nut is off. so far cant get puller square on top of the shaft to get tie rod arm loose/down. and cant get either 17mm loose to move aside the rotor assembly/brake stuff. still working on it...

bonson

GOT IT! tried wahers , fell off, so I put the castle nut back on top loosely to get the platform I needed on top.., I mangled nut so bad I had to utlize some regualr vise grips and special pointed vise grips to get it back off. ok next parts at ball joint...

stevenjai

Thanks best write up ever! Fixed my lower ball joint and WOW the noises finally went away when I turned. Takes a lot of work but its really worth DIY. I went to a shop and he was charging around 60-100$ but this saved me money Oh ONE more thing it fixed my power steering I was wondering why wasn't it working even though it was more than half filled thanks!!

wheelwh0re

iTrader: (6)

I just did this over the weekend, and I don't know if its just placebo but the car does seem to be much "tighter" in the front. My car has just under 160k and definitely needed both new LBJ and tie rod ends. I'll be installing the Daizen steering rack bushings this weekend to try to tighten things up even more. Best few hundred dollars i've had to spend on this car so far just for the piece of mind.

Ryan

monkey92

iTrader: (3)

i had a quick question, im planning to do this over the weekend, i notice its suppose to make a loud noise when the Bjs pop off, but my question is, when reinstalling the new ones, are they suppose to make a loud noise when they are properly tighten down?

iRyan

iTrader: (7)

Will be doing mine today

aristo123

iTrader: (3)

No, not really. It the nut will pull the shaft of the ball joint up/down into the tapered groove nice and smooth. It shouldn't "pop" when you are reinstalling.

monkey92

iTrader: (3)

thanks for the response aristo, will be tackling this soon.