A long 48 hours have past. I am still sane and the car awaits an alignment in the garage. Here are the lists of parts. Tie rods inner and outer for both sides. Upper ball joints and lower ball joints for both sides. A total of 4 parts per side. This would have all been complete Saturday night except that stupid drivers side upper ball joint.
First the lower control arms need to be removed. However I highly recommend leaving the bolt closest to the engine in place until the bolt on the ball joint itself has been removed and the ball joint is separated. It’s not real fun trying to loosen that and it’s moving all over the place. You can buy a new control arm at the tune of about $150 per or just get ball joints that are about $40 per. You will need a press to unseat and press the new ball joint into place however. To me it was worth the effort. It only took about an hour to do both sides on the press. Any way once you’ve removed the bolt and popped the joints out then you can remove the bolt that holds the strut and then the farthest bolt. The lower is pretty straight forward. Oh year there is 24mm bolt on there to that goes toward the front of the car. Not sure what it’s called, but a good set of air tools are nice. The upper is not to bad either, except the drivers side major freakin PITA!
They are both held in place by a bolt that is designed to hold itself in place while you turn the other. The outside bolts are the ones you turn and the inside holds it on. The A/C dryer gets in your way a little on the passenger side, but this is easily overcome. The problem is the master cylinder in the driver side. I talked to 2 people and each had unique solutions. I however came up with my own. I removed all plugs and connectors from the master cylinder and brake booster. Make certain to remove the air strut. I then removed the hood of the car. It was required to gain leverage to break the bolt. The you get yourself an 18 inch ratchet wrench and break the hold. Once it is broken you get a buddy to hold the ratchet in place. You then unscrew the bolt from the inner side. It took 2 minutes like this as opposed to turning very slowly from the top. Once it’s off, replace the in reverse order. Another bit of advice place the ball joint in it’s place on the wheel hub before bolting it back in place, other wise you will never get it to seat. Also break that locking do hicky off the bolt before replacing. You will find that it will take a minute or less to replace and seat the bolt without that stupid locking tab. Remember though a buddy is required. This is no way intended as instruction, just another way to do it.
Peace.
First the lower control arms need to be removed. However I highly recommend leaving the bolt closest to the engine in place until the bolt on the ball joint itself has been removed and the ball joint is separated. It’s not real fun trying to loosen that and it’s moving all over the place. You can buy a new control arm at the tune of about $150 per or just get ball joints that are about $40 per. You will need a press to unseat and press the new ball joint into place however. To me it was worth the effort. It only took about an hour to do both sides on the press. Any way once you’ve removed the bolt and popped the joints out then you can remove the bolt that holds the strut and then the farthest bolt. The lower is pretty straight forward. Oh year there is 24mm bolt on there to that goes toward the front of the car. Not sure what it’s called, but a good set of air tools are nice. The upper is not to bad either, except the drivers side major freakin PITA!
They are both held in place by a bolt that is designed to hold itself in place while you turn the other. The outside bolts are the ones you turn and the inside holds it on. The A/C dryer gets in your way a little on the passenger side, but this is easily overcome. The problem is the master cylinder in the driver side. I talked to 2 people and each had unique solutions. I however came up with my own. I removed all plugs and connectors from the master cylinder and brake booster. Make certain to remove the air strut. I then removed the hood of the car. It was required to gain leverage to break the bolt. The you get yourself an 18 inch ratchet wrench and break the hold. Once it is broken you get a buddy to hold the ratchet in place. You then unscrew the bolt from the inner side. It took 2 minutes like this as opposed to turning very slowly from the top. Once it’s off, replace the in reverse order. Another bit of advice place the ball joint in it’s place on the wheel hub before bolting it back in place, other wise you will never get it to seat. Also break that locking do hicky off the bolt before replacing. You will find that it will take a minute or less to replace and seat the bolt without that stupid locking tab. Remember though a buddy is required. This is no way intended as instruction, just another way to do it.
Peace.