Did front ball joints today...fgy33 2000 AE

[paranoidjack]

Wow, that was easy. 1.5 hours done both sides!

Only 3 fasteners - Lower control arm bushing bolt, Tension rod bolt, and ball joint nut.

A few tricks of experience (i.e. putting the weight of the car on the ball joint to prevent it from spinning during installation and removal) allowed for a faster than normal job, but to any of you fearing this, do not, it's very easy. Remember it's best to use a new nut on your ball joint, I got grade 10 stainless at Ace for $1.46 each. As for the lateral supporting control arm bushings and tension rod bushings, new nuts are not important, but always replace your tension rod bushing. I got new ones from IOS for around $40 each, be sure to have them pressed in a local shop with the arrows facing FORWARD despite the FSM MISPRINT of aligning differently - arrows point towards FRONT of car. Leave the nuts slightly loose until the car is under it's weight THEN tighten, or you will torque your tension rod bushings and burn them out in 5k miles vs 30-50k miles. To put the car under it's own weight without using the annoying tire, I again used the jack under the ball joint trick, lower the car slowly until it is under full weight (I used a small piece of 2x4 to protect the ball joint bottom, although this is unnecessary), then tighten down your tension rod bushings. Although this is not necessary, I decided to also do this for the control arm bushings, as it torques also as load is put upon it. It'll help me sleep tonight.

This was on my 2000AE. I ordered lower control arms with ball joints and tension rods from a junkyard in GA for $45 each. Much better than new OEM, just can't swing it on a 205k car. The donor car had 88k and the ball joints are HUGELY in better condition. For such small labor time I'd do this 5x over before buying new...

Any questions about the process, post in here...sorry no pics, was alone and cold out today....

-jack

[OwnerCS]

Thanks Jack for the tips for success!

[BadQ45t]

Why do you say the ball joints off the junker are much better then OEM??? I assume it is just that are a lot cheaper.

Your a stud to be doing this job that quickly, I am glad my Q only has 95k so I don't have to worry about this fix too soon.

[paranoidjack]

Bad, I'm not saying that junker are better overall, they are still OEM. Just OEM with 88k on them. Mine had 205k. I bought my car with 72k, so 88k would be as close to "new" as I could get for the dollar - $90 versus $900! Sure wish I could have put brand new ones on there though.....

I saved my old lower control arm. Clearly they are retained with a snap ring, so this makes me think they might be serviceable. I'm curious to see if I can remove the ball joint from the arm and see.

[oldmako]

Thanks for the info. I have the drivers side arm assembly in a box in my kitchen awaiting a nice day to get greasy. I purchased it new from IOS. They shoved it in, and then broke it off.

Glad to hear that the job itself isn't all the akimbo. I noticed mine when doing the brakes and it looked to be an easy yob.

Three, maybe four beers tops.

[BadQ45t]

I see your point dude......that is a big price difference and to drop that kind of cash into a car with over 200k doesn't make any sense.

I am at the point where I drive my Q sparingly hoping to keep the odo away from 100k, cause I know once that happens I will need to start doing lots of stuff to her....