The car(accord in sig) had recently started making a clunk sound from the front end. I was suspecting something with the brakes. Turns out its the front upper arm.
Today when I was having the tires replaced thought I'd go take a closer look while the wheels were out, and found there was an obvious "play" with the same clunk sound coming from the ball joint that joins the upper arm with the knuckle, when you grab the knuckle and yank it back and forth. So what are my options ?

Replace the arm ? I suppose there is no such thing as replacing just the joint ?
OEM or any good aftermarket ones ?
Haven't called anyone around but any idea of the costs involved ? (labor)

And is it reasonable, if not common, for this part to go out at this point in the life of the car ? May have hit a pothole or curb once or twice but nothing hard enough to remember one.

Thanks!

 

You are correct - the whole arm has to come out if the BJ is shot. (which it sounds like it is). I have 155K on mine, and it's all stock. Seems a bit early for the BJ to go... My arms are fine - and I live in Ohio so it's seen a lot of winter miles like you in MN. I have had the knuckle on mine off a few times (ROH on my 97 and greased my ball joints last April - no probs since).

Getting to it is not terrible if you have the right tools. You can probably borrow everything you need to do the job if you can turn a wrench and have a Saturday to dedicate to it. Pop the top BJ with this:



(You can borrow it from Autozone.) The rest should be straightforward working from above. You might consider greasing the rest of your BJs with a high quality, high pressure grease if they are still OK.

No idea on the shop labor costs. As I recall the OEM parts were a bit pricey for me. I'd probably go with a higher quality aftermarket part from RockAuto or comparable.

 

called a couple of local shops (non-dealer) for a quote and one of them said that the ball joint is 'serviceable'. meaning they can just replace/repair the ball joint and not replace the whole arm. Is there really any truth to this ? Is this possible ?

 

I'm not sure what year Accord you have but I just bought brand new aftermarket arms from TAS Auto and replaced both driver and passenger in under an hour on my 97 Accord.

That was only with 2 car jacks, a socket set, and some gloves. For the price of the whole arm why not just replace it?

And for what it's worth I have not ever seen just the upper ball joint for sale.

 

Wtf? Maybe I dont have a perfect memory, but when I had both my balljoints replaced, I happened to be watching-- I don't recall them removing the entire a-arm. I'll look it up in my helms.

 

I guess it wasn't very clearly in my first post so thought I'd mention again that the car is a '99 Accord LX 4cyl 4dr.

They did say that the ball joint is "serviceable" (not replaceable) so my hunch is that they probably are thinking of some kind of repair. But yeah the price difference isnt that big either - ~$70 on a total bill of ~$300.

 

Most likely they're just removing the rubber boot and regreasing, then clipping on a new rubber boot.

 

Just replace the entire top arm assembly.

 

I agree with replacing the whole arm, both sides. It's really not hard. And at least on my model year (1997) the upper ball joint is not for sale separately. It's integrated into the arm. I got away with "servicing" my own ball joints (upper lower and TRE each side) because they were all tight - just starting to squeak. After greasing they've been quiet and tight. You said you had a clunk - just swap it out. The only hard part is deciding how much you want to pay.

 

I'm assuming yours is a similar setup:
http://www.cb7tuner.com/vbb/showthread.php?t=48011

Using a press to remove them.
http://www.cb7tuner.com/vbb/showthread.php?t=125807

 

I stand corrected!! That's some good info. Thanks for posting it AndyD! Kudos to SPC for making the kit. If you want OEM though, I have not seen them for sale separate from the UCEs (one of the guys in those threads said that - and that's been my experience). Well, if my upper BJ goes, this is the direction I'll be going!