B_Swapped93

Getting my winter car in shape before school starts again. have done a lot but one thing still bugs me last winter when I would be driving on the highway the steering wheel would shake rather badly after 100kph(60 mph). I just let it be as I thought maybe it was the tire low on air or something. most of the driving I did with the car was in town driving so 50,60 an 80kph never did it. today I took a look at the underside of the of the car to see if anything looked strange, I noticed that both the ball joint boots ?(do I have that right) were ripped (at least half the boot). would this cause what I noticed at highway speeds ? everything else seems fine(including tie rods).

thx

Emeraldbomber

Assuming all the grease has flung out of the boots I'd replace them.

B_Swapped93

I'm pretty sure they've been ripped for a while(mid winter I guess). The car sat for a good amount of time also, didn't know they had grease in them hmmm. will only hard part of this I see is getting them in I've got a 3ft 3/4'' breaker bar plus 32mm socket to deal with the axel nut. only thing is the top fork bolt on the driver side snapped thus stuck I have several spare forks so may just cut it off. any guess at what a shop would charge ? i'll ask around if I can't "DIY"

Marvin1985

iTrader: (5)

Change them and get an alignment check.

teamXteg

i changed mine. they werent really that hard. im sure your local auto parts store would have the specialty tool. i rented it.. the old ones pressed out. we cleaned up the surface inside the spindle.. the new ones went in pretty easily then there is a big snap ring that was on top of the ball joint. if you have a lil time and know how. you could save ya some cash!

jdmjunkieXL

Could be an unbalanced wheel causing the shaking

HondaPartsHero

http://www.civicforums.com/forums/11...necessary.html

https://honda-tech.com/forums/honda-civic-del-sol-1992-2000-1/balljoint-replacment-autozone-free-rentals-27023-27164-a-2987276/

Emeraldbomber

I just flipped my steering knuckle over and nailed the balljoint stud with a 10 pound hammer. Works everytime

B_Swapped93

I'm going to wait till I get the car running again before I do them. I'm fully capable, rust is an issue with this car sadly...so I would rather a shop do it vs me stripping/breaking bolts. the rip on the one isn't more then 2cm I'll have a better look in the day time again. part source wants 34$ so that's good in my book lol.


edit: thx HondaPartsHero for the links, also can I leave the knuckle on the car ? rust is my main concern when doing anything on this car. it's also not lowered in any way if that makes a diff

94EG8

If you're looking at $34 ball joints don't expect to get more than a year out of them, usually more like 6 months. The only ones I ever found that were worth buying were the OEM Honda ones. Around $105 each in Canada but you can almost count on at least 150,000kms out of them and I've seen them go around double that before going bad.

EJ8mike

Im on original balljoints in my '99 wit 252k miles. Honda OEM baby!!

Emeraldbomber

Nope the steering knuckles have to come out. If you have access to an air hammer they will come out easily also. For the rust just get some acetone and ATF 50/50 mix. **** seriously blows through the toughest rust ive had.

B_Swapped93

hmmm I see, going to get the car on the road first(car is literally on 4 stands lol). will take it to 100+ kph and see what's up I do know they need to be replaced considering they're riped.

B_Swapped93

to confirm...ripped boots=time to replace ? my gsr upper one has decided to rip looks like i'm going to be doing upper and lower just on different cars lol. even tho they're all the same suspension systems basically.

sweesiong78

+1 on this. The OEM ones cost me 2-3 times as much over here in the US ($90 shipped for a pair from hondapartsunlimited.com) but their quality looks SO MUCH better, even the boots you can tell are thicker and better quality. Only third party ball joint I would consider are MOOG.

and B Swapped93...IMHO bring the knuckles to a shop to press out the ball joints....if you are having trouble swapping out axles you definitely will find it a huge pain/impossible to press out ball joints using the ball joint screw press like I did or hammering them out.

FYI I used the tool that is in HondaPartsHero's link (rented) to press them out with my cordless impact

tony_2018

Indeed the oem ball joints are superior, I did maintenance on my spindles by replacing the bearing and the ball joints. I now need to replace my upper joints and all bushings. I need to order my hardrace bushings or the other brand, forgot its name but it was popular as well, and have them all done at once.

B_Swapped93

Rust is a hard enemy to fight that's where my issues come in on the civic. My gsr is no problem at all to work on. May bring the knuckle to a shop they're pretty cheap when I live and they all know me well(small town).

tony_2018

I notice small towns and small mom and pop shops are the best and cheapest, damn you're so lucky.