In the front end i believe i have a ball joint going out, but don't know how to check them before i go to a shop and buy them. And in the rear end, whenever i hit a bump it clunks. Please help me with this issue.

Thanks.

 

Check the lower Control arms, Panhard rod, and TQ arm mount up on the trans. on the CA, and PHR if you can twist or cause any deflection other than just a tiny bit its time to replace them. same with the TQ arm bushing but its more difficult to check you have to get under the car and Push/pull on the TQ arm if you cah move the arm the bushing is most likely bad. on the front ball joint jack up on the A-Arm itself to take the spring load off the joint(only lift the tire .5 to 1 inch off the ground). then take a big pry bar and put it under the tire now pull up if the joint is bad you will be able to tell as it will make a poping noise and the tire will move a bit.

The ball joint is Really involved but not to hard to do if you have Basic mechanics skills and the proper tools. The rear CA and PHR are not hard at all but again you will need a good set of tools IE 3/8 or 1/2 DR Ratchets, sockets, and extentions. probably a good idea to have a longish breaker bar as the bolts will be a BIT*CH to get out. Just do one at a time and mabe have someone to push/pull on the car to alighn the holes and there ya go dont take long. CA bushing will need to be pressed out and the new ones back in. so plan on getting that done. PHR is only available as a single peice from autoparts stores.

TQ arm bushing is MUCH harder and unless you are very good at mechanic work i would take it to a mechanic for this part.

I dont know of anywhere to get the TQ arm bushing other than after market Poly. I tried the Dealer and all the stores in my area and nothing.

EDIT: Also look at your front Struts & strut mounts the struts act as your upper ball joints and the Strut mounts are rubber and they wear out like any other bushing. If the car has over 100-150,000 miles all these things need replacing. They have at least 15 years on them, and rubber degrades over time so even if the car has just set you should think about replacing the bushings.

Don't worry about getting poly the prices are in the same range and new rubber handles 90% as well as Poly does without the crappy ride. Plus poly has many drawbacks such as Bind and Cold flow on the front A-arms, the Rear control arms need to twist and they cant with the poly holding them. Think what happens when a part that is desighned to have rubber able to give is given something much stiffer? the Arm itself or the mount must twist. not good on spot welded sheet metal especially when rubber performs almost as good.

Plus poly Squeeks. I have driven cars that that have had COMPLETE suspension rebuilds with both poly and rubber the cars with poly dont perform with enough improvement over rubber to make it worth the crappy ride & extra wear on the car.

 

i just replaced the ball joints and the endlinks...

now it rides REALLY high...what could be the reason?


thank you.

 

did you loosen the Swaybar to frame mount? If so did you tighten it back down with the car up in the air? if you did sometimes the sway bar will hold the car up a bit, also your alighnment may be off.

Hmmm...... what all did you remove to install the Ball joint?

If you removed the spring you may not have it indexed properly(the unflattened end of the coil with the end positioned between the 2 holes in the A-arm. If you removed the whole A-arm the same as the Sway bar the bushings need to be tighened with the suspension loaded(jack the car up and put Jack stands under the A-arms, then let the car down so the weight of the car is on the suspension.)

 

didn't losen the swaybar mounts to the frame.

i took the whole a-arm off to get a machine shop press the joints in.

going to check the springs.

and thanks a ton again.