I wanna know if les schwab is hustling me.

I need balljoints bad. Like, alignment gets screwed up one day, good next day, worse next. It's all over the place.

Brake calipers shifting because of balljoints and shiz.

So I stopped by les schwab and got it up on a lift to see my problems and the guy showed me my bad ball joints, and my grabbing brakes.

and hes saying a BALL JOINT costs $233 on my quote. So I ran a part number at my local advance auto parts and a BALL JOINT itself costs $26. But a upper control arm and upper ball joint combo costs $225.

If an upper ball joint goes bad on an EF, is it usually common to just replace the control arm?

 

yeah, i dont think just the balljoint is replaceable, i could be wrong, im pretty sure you have to replace the whole uca.
*edit. im wrong, it is replaceable. napas price is from $22 to $88 and is calling for 1.8 hours labor for both sides. so just figure 80 bucks an hour for labor and markup on the parts. so you might want to check to see if they gave you a quote for the whole control arm

 

they are quoting you with labor. I just replaced my ball joints on my EF. I took the hubs out and bought both ball joints for like 50 bucks and took them to a machine shop. They charged me 15 bucks. I put it all back together myself and spent a total of 75 bucks to get it all done.

 

Well I'm not too sure about replacing the ball joints in the upper control arms, but you could always pick up a set of RINHO upper control ams from ebay for $70 for the pair. They are similar in style to the skunk2 arms with the sliding ball joint/plate. If you decide to go this route I also recomend purchasing a set of energy suspension ball joint dust boots(7-14$) to replace the crummy ones on the rihno arms(they will last about a month or two before showing signs of dry rotting.) The Energy Suspension dust boots are very durable but dont have a retaining clip to keep it from falling off the ball joint. Dont worry though cause once your car is lowered back down on the ground, these boots aren't going anywhere, and the do a pretty decent job of keeping the grease contained. It sounds like you're budget minded, so maybe a trip to the junkyard is in order...you can always use the fore mentioned boots to replace some used ones. These same boots are also available for your tie-rods.

 

u can replace just the ball joint its pressed in and help in by a clip he wants you to buy the upper control arm to make it easier for him self

 

What brand of parts are you being quoted? I don't think Honda supplies just the upper ball joint, you have to replace the complete arm. As for the lower. The Knuckle must be removed and the ball joint pressed out. For the lower ball joint most of the price will be in labor.

 

You can do the lower all joint with a hammer and leave the knuckle on he car.

 

Too true, I've replaced my lowers more times than I'd like to admit. Unless its the uppers do it yourself.

 

you can do the upper with the knuckle on the car too.

 

Only on the 90-91 uca's. The 88-89 uca ball joints are welded in. Good Luck.

 

Any links to walkthroughs/parts onlines?

 

google.com

 

Damnit.

So now what are my options?

I'm not paying les schwab $230 a side, their final estimate was $703. I don't have that kind of cash.

I need it to be less than $400.

 

exactly what i was goning to say.

you can find 90-91 uca's at a junk yard and then replace the ball joints.

 

There are some places online that will sell the whole arm for like around $65-95 per side? Check it out?....
http://www.rockauto.com/catalog/rafr...169300k1027533
good luck
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