russianDude

here we go again, ball joint is squaking when I turn my streering wheel .... It is a thrid time it had gone bad on the same wheel.... It smees like those things go bad every 1-2 years. I am not going to the dealer anymore since I am out of warranty, this sucks.

SILVER-TYPE-S

Use an aftermarket ball joint w/a grease fitting like Moog. Hit it w/grease every 3 to 6 months, you won't have any more probs w/bind-up

russianDude

Yeah, my mechanic said the same thing. He thinks that after market ball joint will last longer and can be lubricated if necessary as well. He will check to see if he can get a good after market ball joint with the same specs, if not, I will have to get an OEM. Generaly I like using OEM parts, but I am loosing my patience with Honda ball joints going bad every 1-2 years, maybe I will have better luck with after market....

PS. My wife's 2000 accord also had ball joint replaced. I wouldn't be surprised if its the same part that has a very weak design ....

SILVER-TYPE-S

Moog will exceed the performance of OEM, probably cost less and be warranteed for life. They are the preferred provider of chassis components to many racing series, including NASCAR and others. They're about $30 ea for our car.

Personally, I wouldn't go with any other aftermarket brand, so my suggestion would be to not leave the shopping up to your mechanic for parts even though he is right on the money about using a greasable B/J. Aftermarket parts vary alot in quality, so best to stick with the ones that you know are better than stock.

I'll probably be in this situation myself in another 75K miles or so, let us know how you make out...

russianDude

Yeah, I saw them on rockauto.com. So you know that those ball joints definatly fit well for our cars? In this case I'll insist that he gets Moog. He is very expirenced and my entire family uses his shop for repairs, so I don't expect him to put crap that will cause problems. Honestly, I'd be happy if they last more than 2 years :-)

I have 50K miles, I drive like 10K miles a year.
Any idea how many hours it takes to replace a ball joint?

Type S Zero

½hour, no more than 45 minutes if slow.

anothercls

I am surprised to see this happening on a car with so few miles. Maybe there was a design change somewhere between 01 and 03? I have about 108k on my 03 with no ball joint issues.

o1s

i have one lower ball joint that will be on it's way out soon. silver type never is right. i have never found parts as good as moog for around the same price.

russianDude

I saw on rockauto.com ball joint by Moog for around $30.

russianDude

just got back from a mechanic, the noise is no longer reproducable. It must have gone away because of the rain and stuff like that. But right now he can't do anything, he told me to drive it around more until it comes back and then come back to him. He said "I know you will be back, just wait and see for it to get worse so we can know exactly where its comining from and fix it"

He did not charge me any money, which is good. So I'll wait until the noise comes back and stays for some time.

rondog

iTrader: (1)

Maybe there is another part causing the ball joint to prematurely wear? what are the symptoms besides squeaking? if you jack up the car and grab the wheel at 12:00 and 6:00, them move it forward and backward, is there play or is it solid?

Slees

an outter tie rod(u replace the outter tie rod. the ball joint comes with it0 takes about 3 minutes to install.

step one remove wheel.
step two. remove cotter pin.
step three. take a 19mm wrench and losten the jam nut on the inner tie rod.
step four. remove the 17mm castle nut on the ball joint thred.
step five. you will need a pickle fork to remove the ball joint from the spindle. you can pick up a pickle fork from sears for about 20 bucks.
step six. rotate the outter tie rod counter clock wise. count the revolutions it takes to remove.

to install. do the opposite of removal. make sure you tighten the jam nut back down when you are done. this locks the otter tie rod in place. the reason you want to count the revolutions is so that you can get your toe setting as close as possible to what it was before.

now you need to take your car to a shop and have it aligned.

russianDude

OK, the thing started squaking again. I went to the same mechanic and he replaced my lower ball joint.
I paid $50 for a ball joint and $140 for the labor. Its an after market ball joint. I looked underneath and it looks identical to the Honda one. I know that dealers want you to buy ball joint together with a knuckle, which is stupid. Time will tell, but all the noises are gone and I probably saved myself at least $200 had I gone through the dealer.
Time will tell how long this ball joint will last, but if it lasts more than 1 year I'll be Happy because Honda ball joints went bad almost once a year....
I think I am done with the dealer, the fukers charged me $500 for a bad wheel bearing when the part was only $40 and I got my car in 1 hour back...