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How to replace upper ball joints?

hornyhonda

hornyhonda

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Location
Oxford UK
Car
Accord CDTi
The car passed its mot today all ok apart from advisories on both front upper ball joints. I rang motorparts direct for the part and they sell for £60 the upper part of the suspension (looks a bit like the letter A) which comes with the ball joint attached. Is this the part I need or can I just get the ball joint and press out the old one? I have access to a hydraulic press also. Is there a DIY on this forum for this procedure?

Cheers
 
I replaced the whole arm. A little tricky retracting the bolts though. There's a thread somewhere on TA with a YouTube clip showing how to do this job and I also added a post on how I managed to get the bolts out (not shown in the YT clip!).
 
The spring will foul on the bolt so the shock has to be moved. I've done both sides and used euro car parts with no problems
 
Thanks for the replies. Does the spring need to be compressed to remove the shock? Or do I need to undo the lower ball joint to get it free? I got the eurocarparts parts today. i'll be sure to check out the youtube vid.
 
I managed to fit one of the upper arms last night but went ahead and removed the shock. I could of done it with the shock in situe but couldnt find my ratchet spanners so maybe i'll try that when doing the otherside.

Also another advisory on the mot was "Nearside front lower anti-roll bar has slight play in a ball joint". So I have to swap out that next. See,s that its easier to swap out the entire drop link than to just swap out the ball joint.
 
By the way thanks Jon for pointing out about the 5 strut bolts. I undid 3 of them and was wondering why it wasnt budging. When I removed the smaller two nuts for the upper strut brace then it came out nice and easily.
 
I had the same dilemma, as only one of mine was hanging off. But my replacements came as a pair so, after I changed the obviously failed one, I turned my attention to the apparently 'good' one only to discover one of the ball joints was able to be pulled apart with only my fingers. So I'd recommend replacing the other one as well, especially as it doesn't take too long and you'll already have the necessary tools strewn around the car!
 
The guy in that video stated that the castle nut on the upper ball joint be tightened to 29-35ft/lbs (39-47nm). Looks like he referred to the haynes manual. Just thought id mention that for anyone else doing this job in future.
 
Cheers Jon. Yep getting the tools out is a job in itself. A proper garage is one with toolage strewn about the floor. Everything visible in a nice organised manner :D
 
I did some research and tried to follow Acura TSX video of removing the Upper arm but no luck. These side bolts won't get past the Spring. Will try your way guys of pushing the strut down. This makes a lot of sense to me now, haha. Jon, I think I will get the left arm done too, just in case. Nick, 29-35ft/lbs might be from Honda manual as it is what mine says.

I was so fed up with this thing that I went to local garage and asked how much would it be to replace, £100 they said and I am not fed up anymore! Back to full energy to do it again :D
Thank you for great info guys, will come very handy!

Ps. Are these Arms the same apart from ABS sensor mounting bracket?
 
I found removing the entire shock made the job less fiddly. I think also from memory the trick is to do the top 2 wishbone bolts up then replace the strut then do the ball joint up. I struggled on one side because I tried to fit the shock back after tightening the ball joint. I ended up undoing the ball joint, fitting the shock then tightening the ball joint again.
 
Nice to know Nick, any advice is more than welcome:) thanks. Got the left Arm from Eurocarparts yesterday, seems like they forgot to include castle nut and washer with with but that is no that important. Got pins from halfords and now just watching the weather forecast every 5 mins:)

I undid the fork side of damper previously as I though I will be able to get to bolts out this way, no luck. I also just realized I don't need to touch the damper nut itself, just the 5 mounting bolts...Might try to remove whole thing like you did in the end should it cause me some troubles.

Thanks mate, Dan
 
Replaced both today, was so much easier with top of the shocks pulled down and out. I used two different manufacturers for them (had right one for year or so, bought OCAP one from eurocarparts few days ago). All went fine but there is something that bothers me a little. Look at these two pics:

Right:
IMAG1271_zpsu6mtqfci.jpg


Left:
IMAG1270_zpsxhcvru9h.jpg


With OCAP part I was barely able to get slider pin in as I wasn't able to tighten the nut the way I did with right one. You can see there is like 0.5-0.7cm difference in joint thread visible after tightening the castle nut to correct torque. Wonder why would that be and is it something I should worry about?

Sorry for hijacking your thread Nick, Dan
 
Thats ok Dan, hijack away :)

Have you driven the car and rechecked it? It would seem from the picture the ball joint isnt seating correctly unless there is a difference in design. Maybe the threads are generally shorter on the ocaps. Best way to tell is lay the parts side by side and take a pic but of course you dont want to go through the hassle of removing them just for a pic or maybe give eurocarparts a ring and try and get an explanation from them. they might be able to put the two parts side by side and give you an answer. Is the car handling any differently?

I bought some ocap drop links to cure a knocking noise but it still seems apparent. I dont know why eurocarparts stock different ones. Ocap are the cheaper ones if I recall correctly. Seems they are made in germany so I cant see why quality should be any different.
 
I have driven the car today but can't say if anything is wrong. I checked the arm and it didn't move so perhaps it is supposed to be this way. Time will tell. I need to get tracking done, rear wheels too as I replaced springs and shocks (old tyre was badly worn on the inside). Strange thing but I had to correct the spring as it came out of its top mounting rubber after driving for a bit. Hope it stays in this time;/

If your links are ok then it must be the bush that holds stabilizer in place. I had links done in the past but there was still knocking, same as you have now. Changing the bushes solved that quickly.
Good luck mate:)
 
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