ball joints

[honda]

I had a mechanic tell me I needed new upper front ball joints for my honda accord lxi hatchback, and have gotten estimates for the work, and all are completely different. One mechanic says the ball joints cost $15 each. Another says you can't get the ball joints without the control arm, so they are about $120 each for the ball joint + control arm. A third mechanic says the 87 accord hatchback doesn't have upper front ball joints, it has struts and "lower" ball joints, no parts cost yet.

What does the 1987 Accord Lxi hatchback really have, and does anyone have any experience with the parts costs? (I know what a ball joint is, I don't really know what a strut is or what it does, or why one mechanic would say the car has upper ball joints and another say it doesn't).

Thanks!!

[AccordEpicenter]

you cant get them without the control arm... i bet you could get the parts and do it yourself for about $30-$50 a side... look on ebay. Theyre really easy to change

[jaiden]

I bought one for $70 or so with the control arm. you can do it yourself in 20 minutes if you have a pickle fork and air.. if not it could be hard. You're better off getting the control arm with it, IMO.

a strut is just a shock, basically. it's what most small cars have.

it DOES have upper ball joints. that mechanic is an idiot. don't go back there.

[nswst8]

Except for the fact that I couldn't get just the balljoint without the control arm because mine were not pressed in the balljoints and new bushing ran about $140 both sides.

Now I have an 89, so i'm not entirely sure if yours are pressed in or not. I know you can get balljoints alone.

Good luck

['89AccordLX(Rus)]

Your upper balljoints are replaced with the entire upper control arm. When I replaced mine, I found that the best pricing was when I got some of the parts from www.rockauto.com and others from autozone. Here is a list of all the parts I needed along with prices:

Parts purchased from Rockauto.com:
Front Upper Control Arm Bushing Kit $22.79*2 = $45.58 (you need two of these, rockauto sells the MOOG kit which includes bushings and dust seals)
Front Upper Control Arm Right $60.99
Final shipping: $6.73

Parts purchased from Autozone:
Front Upper Control Arm Left $35.99
Tax: $3.15
Grand Total: $152.44

You can use a hammer to separate the upper control arm from the knuckle. You can also get a pitman arm seprator tool from autozone (~$10) which is safer than a hammer. After that you only need to remove the two large nuts holding the control arm to the body (you may need a u-joint for your wrench for this). After that you simply remove the arm and disassemble it. Discard the old arm with the bushings but keep the inner collar and all the other parts. You may want to replace the 10mm self-locking nut. Assemble the new arm and pay particular attention to the order of the bushings and the dust seals. After this add lots of grease and assemble the end caps and center spacer. When tightening the self-locking nut you can either place the mounting studs in a vise or simply lay the arm on level ground and tighten the nut. After this, reinstall the arm the way you removed it. When tightening the castle nut on the ball joint, tighten it to align the holes, never loosen. The entire procedure took me about 2 hours the first time I did it. Hope this helps.

[AZmike]

a strut is just a shock, basically. it's what most small cars have.

it DOES have upper ball joints. that mechanic is an idiot. don't go back there.

A strut is different than a shock. A strut acts as a damper like the shock does, but also locates the wheel, taking the place of the upper control arm. Our accords have no struts.

[danronian]

Don't get the cheapest upper control arms because I did and both of my ball joint boots ripped before 2 years and now I bought decent ones with lifetime warranties. They are super-easy to replace if you have jackstands, basic hand tools, a pickle fork and a floor jack. Buy the bushings but the stock ones will probably be not worn at all. My stock ones weren't so I just returned the bushing kit. Just be sure to torque the arm end-nuts when the car is at ride height or the bushings will squeek and rip like mine did.

[honda]

Thanks.

The costs I'm looking at are $120 for ball joint+ control arm on each side (so $240).

Does each side's ball joint have its own control arm, or is there just one control arm that 'controls' both sides?

[Strugglebucket]

each side has its own upper and lower control arm. as it should be.

[Mac]

Each side has its own.

[SavageG]

If you're up to a little more work the prelude arms are a little less. I got JY prelude arms and new ball joints for $32 side.

[njpeter]

cripes, first, hello to all my peeps..I'm Back! secondly you can get accord upper control arms w/ball joints for $50a pair, I did a del on ebay with a really fine guy outta mimai, they screwed up and sent the wrong arms, but he quickly sent a prpaid ship label with the right arms....bushing kits were included. Perhaps one of the simplest jobs ever, but you DO need a small sized ball joint splitter ($10 sears)

[danronian]

Thanks.

The costs I'm looking at are $120 for ball joint+ control arm on each side (so $240).

Does each side's ball joint have its own control arm, or is there just one control arm that 'controls' both sides?
$240 is way too much. It should be about $70 for name brand upper control arms with ball joints for each side (don't buy Honda OEM, they will last 100K mi. but you can get lifetime warranty aftermarket parts that will last a little bit less for half the price). The bushings, which probably won't need to be replaced, are about $28 for both sides, call arouned multiple places and you should be able to get a decent price, if that doesn't work you can always try online parts stores or ebay because both of them will be able to get you quality name brand parts at possibly a lower price.