Replacing ball joints

[Dave S]

My son is driving our '07 Pontiac G6 and were told yesterday there's a bad lower ball joint. What can I expect for a bill on this fix?

I rode in the car a few weeks ago and it didn't seem like there was anything wrong with the handling. No shakes, no wobbles no strange noises and tracked straight.

The car will be making a trip from MPLS to Moorhead next weekend so I'd rather it's going to be in good working condition before sending a group of kids on their way.

Thanks.

[Jeremy airjer W]

The ball. Joint is replaced as a lower contirol arm assembly.

$400 +/- plus an alignment would be a good ballpark.

[Dave S]

Thanks.

We had gotten a balllpark figure inline with what you said. With 166k on it, things are finally starting to break.

[Scott K]

Dave, get a hold of me, I can save you a nice chunk of money doing!

[chasineyes]

Good topic and question. Here is one for you automotive guys. When doing a job like this, obviously you can press out the ball (for probably $35 part cost) and re assemble. OR you can buy the arm with the ball and all NEW bushings. Do you guys recommend one of the other? I'm guessing most folks dont' have access to a press which would make the swap of the whole arm an "easier" task?

[Jeremy airjer W]

Good topic and question. Here is one for you automotive guys. When doing a job like this, obviously you can press out the ball (for probably $35 part cost) and re assemble. OR you can buy the arm with the ball and all NEW bushings. Do you guys recommend one of the other? I'm guessing most folks dont' have access to a press which would make the swap of the whole arm an "easier" task?

With this design the ball joint is not serviceable in the O.E. control arm. It is replaced as a control arm assembly. The aftermarket arm may or may not allow for just the ball joint replacement in the future. The rear bushings are also common to fail on this particular model. It makes sense to replace the entire control arm assembly in this case.

If the lower control arm had a serviceable ball joint and the bushings where in good shape than the norm would be to just replace the ball joint with a ball joint press or in some cases they are a bolt in design.

The only time I would not recommend replacing a pressed in ball joint is on some of the older japanese cars with stamped lower control arms with pressed in ball joints. Over time corrosion takes its course and once the old ball joint is removed the hole becomes to large to adequately hold the new ball joint in place.

I have run into a simular problem with the older fords, Rangers and Explorers, with pressed in lower ball joints. They now offer oversized lower ball joints to compensate for the larger holes.