Rear Upper Control Arm Warning

[DBMaster]

There have been numerous posts over the years about what happens when one of your rear ball joints comes apart so I won't bore you with the horror stories. I noticed a pretty loud creaking noise from the left rear and isolated it to one of the ends of the UCA. I figured since I had not gained any weight recently that I probably should replace both of them. With the recent purchase of a pitman arm puller (Well worth the $12.00 with shipping) it took me at most 45 minutes to replace both rear UCA's.

Now, I have this habit of tearing apart the components I remove before tossing them in the trash. Even though the UCA's felt fine on the car and did not appear to have any play both joints were toast. The one on the left that was making all the noise was REALLY toast. It is scary to think what might have happened if it stayed quiet until it failed. My car has 290,000 miles on it.

So, I want to recommend to everyone here to replace the UCA's if you haven't already done so. The cost of parts was about $80. If you are fortunate enough to have a really low mileage 3G you probably can ignore this, but peace of mind is very valuable.

[Pico]

Great suggestion, I replaced mine awhile back just out of regular maintenance and they were both thrashed, would never of known had I not done routine work on the car

[russiankid]

My right one is still stock. When I did the rear disc swap the joint seemed to be fine, no play, now grinding feeling. I have 157k on the car.

[Civic Accord Honda]

i need to replace mine one can almost pull apart

[Toneloc5145]

I would say check ALL ball joints. Some of mine were looking scary and my car has 130,000 miles on it. If you can't afford to do it all at once, do it gradually, but just do it because imagine if your on the highway doing 80 and a ball joint breaks......yeah. Replacing the whole upper arm is not that hard at all, for the front or back.

[Bass Man]

I was wondering if the joint was bad... I noticed a good 1/2" of play.

Where can I find these?

[AccordB20A]

i replace dodgy ball joints when the boots become fuke. piece of mind is ftw

[MessyHonda]

yeah when i rebuilt the front end i replaced all ball joints...but i didnt replace the rear one....i should take a look at it.

[DBMaster]

The boots on mine were totally intact and the joints were still bad.

[Oldblueaccord]

I was wondering if the joint was bad... I noticed a good 1/2" of play.

Where can I find these?



http://www.3geez.com/forum/showthread.php?t=48440

these are the ones I use. I would also drill the balljoint and add a grease fitting.

EDIT:

http://www.3geez.com/forum/showthread.php?t=65015

wp

[87roach]

If you drill into a balljoint shavings will get inside, even with grease I don't imagine it would last much longer. I understand the logic as it would make sense but I can't say I would recommend this.

[DBMaster]

If you drill into a balljoint shavings will get inside, even with grease I don't imagine it would last much longer. I understand the logic as it would make sense but I can't say I would recommend this.


I was thinking about that as well. My front upper control arms are only a few years old and when I unbolted the right side from the body to grease the bushings (creaking) I noticed that there appeared to be some play in the ball joint. I guess no aftermarket CA's are as good as Honda's. There must be a way to minimize the metal shavings. Old GM cars like my 72 Pontiac were bad about worn joints, both upper and lower ball joints and steering linkages. The car had 11 grease fittings. Since they were greased at every oil change all the parts were still in good shape after 210K miles. That's pretty good for an old American car. I think if our ball joints had grease fittings they might conceivably last forever.

[DBMaster]

Maybe Old Blue can outline the process used to install the grease fittings to minimize the infiltration of shavings. I might be willing to do this.

[mushroom_toy]

I need to replace my rear uppers soon...theyre starting to make some noise. :(

[DBMaster]

I need to replace my rear uppers soon...theyre starting to make some noise. :(

I would recommend that you do it soon. It's a pretty quick and easy job that took me about 45 minutes in total. My left CA was the squeaky one and the ball joint was almost bad enough to separate going over something like bad railroad tracks. Pretty scary when you think about it.

[mushroom_toy]

^well right now i dont have the cash. I have medical bills out the ass, and have a lot of things going on that require my immediate cash. Anyway on the rears id have to take em off and go get new ones pressed off and in so that would require even more cash. Im going to try to replace em soon, but at the moment I just cant.

[Civic Accord Honda]

u replace the whole arm lol

[DBMaster]

They run as low as $20 each on eBay. I would guess those are not as good as OEM, but if you're strapped...

[Civic Accord Honda]

They run as low as $20 each on eBay. I would guess those are not as good as OEM, but if you're strapped... yepyep
http://www.ioffer.com/i/1986-1989-Accord-Rear-Upper-Control-Arm-Ball-Joints--14894205

[Oldblueaccord]

Maybe Old Blue can outline the process used to install the grease fittings to minimize the infiltration of shavings. I might be willing to do this.


Just grease on the drill bit and on what your drilling. Just use a magnet if your that worried about shavings. The metal cap on the ones I have is quite thin anyway.


wp

[DBMaster]

Thanks. It's funny. I was going to ask if greasing the drill bit would help. I am not that worried about a couple of shavings, anyway. This is not a high speed item so I think any shortening of the joint's life from the shavings would be more than offset by renewing the grease periodically.

[mushroom_toy]

Oh so the whole arms are about 40 bucks a piece for decent arms?

[DBMaster]

I can't tell what "decent" is. I paid about $38 each for mine on Rock Auto, but I found some on eBay just doing a search for "89 Accord rear control arm" that are $20 each. The ones I bought are made in China. So, you interpret that as you will. I doubt they will last 19 years like the originals. When they go (if I still have the car) I plan to drill and add the grease fittings. I may have to replace my front upper CA's in the next few months and they are only a few years old. Nothing lasts like Honda parts!

[mushroom_toy]

Good deal

[Hauntd ca3]

been meaning to ask
why do you need a ball joint splitter?
you not have a big hammer?
is way faster

[mushroom_toy]

Alright picked some up at Napa today for $38.89 a piece arm and balljoint, so here is the part no. and the link

# ATM1012920

http://www.napaonline.com/MasterPages/NOLMaster.aspx?PageId=470&LineCode=ATM&PartNumber=1012920&Description=Control+Arm+-+Upper+-+Rear+Suspension

It looks to be pretty good quality as well, ill be putting them on it a bit.