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I recently bought a 03 towncar with over 200k miles on the body, 60k on the motor. I need to replace the ball joints, upper and lower. I’ve done a little research and this seems like it was a lot easier on the 95-02 models. I called the dealership and they said I have to replace the entire upper control arm as the ball joint comes with it. This sounds odd to me, can’t I just press the old ball joint out of the control arm and press a new one in? Too bad this isn’t an 02 model where the ball joint apparently just unbolts…
Do any of you have experience with this? any tips would be great.
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Last time I looked at pressing in some Moog ball joints for my neon it was almost the same price (and a heck of a lot less aggravation) to just buy new control arms with bushings and ball joint in it already.
A look at rockauto.com shows you can get them for $30-40 complete with new bushings and ball joints.
It might be worth it just to get the whole new assemblies due to the amount of milage on the suspension and the ball joints themselves ran like $25 each. So honestly it wasn’t much more for the whole control arm.
Is this a fairly simple job? I’ve never really done any suspension work. Would any special tools be required?
It wasn’t too bad for me. On a car that old and that many miles penetrating oil, an impact wrench and possibly a torch will be your friends. It depends on how rusted up and stuck the bolts are.
My impact is an 18v porter cable. It’s not powerful enough to break lugs free. I don’t have an air compressor or access to air tools. Maybe it’s time to invest in a better impact. The only torch I have is propane. Will that be hot enough?
if you live in an area that puts salt on the roads then it could get pretty dicey. Otherwise I wouldn’t worry about it too much.
that said, it shouldn’t be that big of a deal. Replace the control arms one at a time and use your jack + prybar to put pressure where you need it. Having a decent hammer helps a lot as well.
Also realize that you’ll have to get an alignment when you’re done. It might not be a bad idea to install eccentric bolts in your control arms as long as you have them out to help with alignment purposes.
More and more car makers are requiring that you buy the complete arm with ball joint. I think it is a safety concern – to many improper installations and the car makers don’t like to be in the headlines.
If the control arms are aluminum I would not recommend you do any pressing with them. Actually that type of ball joint set up is quite common these days. If the joint does not have a retaining clip then I would be cautious. If that’s the case the only thing holding the ball joint in is the interference fit between the parts. Serviceable ball joints usually have some way to retain them in place, a snap ring, locking bolt, c clip, something. If you R&R a ball joint that does not have any retaining feature, I feel you run the risk of it coming loose by just replacing the part over the entire assembly.
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