Dexion

I just got both my lower ball joints replaced, they were both shot. I ordered 2 ball joints for $50 from Ebay but it turned out the parts were made in Taiwan even though the listing was from california. I was pissed because they look exactly like the meyle HD ones but I know everything out of china is sheet. The wierd part is: they are tougher than the OEM ones... I took a video

Come with a 20k 1yr warranty which is decent.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hu-lVcps4o

Took it to an indy and got charged $100 for the work, he was done in about 35-40 mins.

gnma

Great write-up with great pics and tips. Tks. much!!

kuch326

I have a 2003 E320, can you tell me what's the part number for that ball joint? Thanks!

AMG_RL

how much force are you guys using to press the old ball joint out? It seems like mine are super hard to get out. any ideas?

kuch326

With the right tools, you don't have to give a lot of force to press the ball joint in. Make sure Before pressing it, make sure it's level to the steering knuckle.

AMG_RL

thanks but my problem is I can't get the old one out. just curious as to how much effort it should be taking to take the SOB out because it's really stuck in there.

kuch326

Which ball joint press are you using? Is it the eBay one or the one that you can rent at autozone? I used the one at autozone and what I've experienced is that when removing the ball you joint you have to make sure the press is parallel to the ball joint. And also, make sure the ring you're using is fully supported by the steering knuckle. Make sure the all part of the lip is in contact on the steering knuckle.

AMG_RL

Yes I'm using the rental from autozone with the middle ring around the ball joint. Even with two breaker bars and some hard pulling it still isn't pressing out and the ring is actually chewing at the knuckle which is why I'm concerned.

kuch326

Yeah, than surely will happen if the lip of the ring isnt lined up well against the steering knuckle. Make sure the lip of the ring facing towards inside of the car is perpendicular against the knuckle. If not, the force you exerted will chew your knuckle.

royflip

I had rented a press from Auto Zone and finally decided that the amount of force I was putting on it with a cheater was surely going to break something if I tried any harder. At that point I got the press made for a W211 from EBay's Mechanicstopia. It cost $150 with shipping, but it worked without worrying about breaking either the press, the breaker bar, the knuckle or my back. Even with the exact fit, it was still a bear of a job. By the time I got to installing the second one I was reduced to putting my foot on the knuckle and using a rowing motion. It is a tough job. I suppose if you have an impact wrench with a large capacity compressor, that would be the ticket. My compressor just couldn't keep up.

WHTEVO

Nice write-up. Thanks.

Aaron

Morde5

Proper tools for this job are crucial and well worth the money as mentioned before. With the tool from eBay and impact wrench with 230 pounds of torque my ball joint was out for less than a minute without any issues. I looked at the Autozone generic tool but had doubts about the fit so I went with the specialized tool for 211. HTH.

MercFiveHundred

The autozone tool works fine. You just have to make sure all the rings and flat caps are in there and use the right set up. I've used it on 5 joints so far with no problems at all.

dsm2925

My car"s upper ball joint and control arm is one piece. Do you know if the airmatic shock needs to be removed to replace the upper control arm?

kuch326

I think you don't need to remove your airmatic to replace your upper control arm.

Dexion

No you don't its hooked in by a bolt on the sides.

strider-g3

can someone please confirm if the same procedure applies for 4matic cars? thanks

aa240sx

Much props to you sir. Truly a fantastic DIY. Just tackled 1 of the 2 ball joints on my w211 last night and though it did take close to three hours by myself, the work flowed and was not too taxing. On a scale of 1 to 10 in terms of difficulty, this is a 6 for me, on par with any suspension related job.

I also used the harbor freight ball joint removal tool. Word of warning here. Yes it will make a loud pop like a gun shot when the ball joint breaks free, but it may not completely come free of the arm. In my case, I actually had two pops as the ball joint freed itself from the arm.

Some advice I can share - Be sure to use the Autozone Ball Joint Press from OEM tools, part number 27023. Use the small ring to install the joint, medium ring to remove the joint.

Be 100% certain the medium ring does not touch the joint and that the bolt doing the work is perfectly perendicular to the knuckle and level/centered to the bottom of the joint.

Use cheater bars! For me, it was easier to remove the joint than press in the new one. You'll also want to use a second cheater bar for leverage as the knuckle will be flopping around. I used bungee cords to safely secure the disc/knuckle assembly.

If it's tough to remove the arms, or access seems impossible, use your steering wheel to improve it!

Not that it matters too much, but PB blast a few minutes before you attack any of the bolts you'll remove helps a ton!

Second ball joint soon to follow!

Update Wed 6 13 2012 - Just did the second ball joint tonight. Only took 1 1/2 hours this time. One thing that I learned is that once the ball joint comes free of the control arm, you can re attach the upper arm for a more sturdy connection that will allow you to get better leverage when it comes time to using the ball joint press.

vettdvr

Yes, It's almost impossible to reach the bolts behind the strut that hold the arm on.

racerx69

I have the same question that another forum user posted in Feb: "can someone please confirm if the same procedure applies for 4matic cars? thanks".

Can anyone here answer that? Thanks!

jbm37379

I just found out that after spending 1900 dollars on replacing my transmission speed sensor at the dealer, that my lower ball joints are bad and need replacing. I think after reading this I may give it a try-I need new front brakes anyway-probably would be an excellent time to do the ball joints at the same time. Just get a little nervous tearing things apart-especially when parts for these cars are soooo expensive. My car is a 2004 E500 with 132K on it and this is first time replacing ball joints.

nsraja

Thanks for the write up, I was quoted $2400 and I swore to myself this is going to be a DIY. And this write up is a blessing. Guess what, in Seattle (Kent) there is a DIY shop, where you could rent a bay ($100 for the whole day) and all tools are free to use. I am going to get it done at the DIY shop so I dont have to worry about sliding myself underneath the car. I was thrilled to know we have a DIY shop in Seattle. It is called Self-service Garage and it is located in Kent. Will update my experience with them. I cant wait for my parts to come.

jbm37379

I replaced my lower ball joints for the first time-it wasn't easy but in the end I saved myself a lot of money and learned a little more about my car. I have to say the hardest part of the job by far is getting the old ball joint out of the control arm. Separating the arms from one another wasn't that hard but getting the ball joint out was a real ball breaker(pun intended). I rented a kit from Autozone to remove the ball joint and the sleeve that is required to let the ball joint come out would never properly sit on the control arm-it would always tilt a little and that made the job even harder. Putitng the ball joint in is a piece of cake and reassembling is very easy also-I did both fronts as well as replacing my rotors and pads and it took me the better part of a day with the car on jack stands. Having the car in the air would probably lessen the time by half-I wish we had a DIY garage like that-I would have paid the money for that in a heartbeat. All told with doing the brakes and ball joints I saved myself about 800 dollars-well worth a day in my garage.

nsraja

Folks,

I did replace my lower ball joint and lower control arm on both wheels, I must admit I spent about 7 hours. It is not the $2400 saved that makes me happy, I beat them stealerships, I beat them left and right. I kicked their bu tts. And for me it turned out really well and my wheels are as tight and firm as a new car. Fortunately for me the car is not pulling to either side. Before this work I was literally driving at 40 mph on highways because it felt like I was going to loose control of steering.

I did this work at Kent, WA DIY Garage. It is called Self-Serve Garage. It is a joint for mechanics to moonlight outside of their regular job as well as DIY people like us. Rent for a bay is $100 per day, $200 for the bay that has lift. The big advantage I had at this place was air tools and the lift bay so I could just stand under my car and work, I am glad I chose the $200 option. I paid $43 for each ball joint and $56 for each control arm (super deal at Amazon, more like a price mistake . I need not have replaced my control arm but I think it is a good idea to replace the control arm because it is super easy to replace. Control arm is not small like you see in pictures. It is about the size of a teenager's hand.

Some imporant notes:

The original author of this thread has mentioned everything you need to know. I am going to make a couple of imporant points.

1. Tools determine success or failure of this projects. 110% true. Unfortunately ebay's mechanicstopia sent me a ball joint breaker that is not like what is shown here. It is slightly different, poorly designed, and it gave me a hell of a time. I broke loose three ball joints, but the last one (that badly needed replacement) just would not budge, it took a lot of beating, pickle forking, sledge hammering, impact hammering you name it. So be very careful about this tool. Ball joint tip has a cone shaped shaft that plugs into the wheel assembly. The tool that breaks loose of the tip side of the ball joint is not the same as the one that removes (and presses when installing) the head side of the ball joint. Dont think you can get away by hammering. In my case, the tool's leverage bolt started bending and bolt also lost three threads. The key is making the tool sit on the ball joint tip straight and flat, if you seated it wrong you will lose the tool. I managed to get it to sort of bite on the ball joint tip and once the leveraging bolt started bending again I used an impact hammer on top of it and finally the ball joint broke loose. Wow what a relief. If it did not, I had no option but leave the car and take a taxi ride back home. By this time I had the main ball joint's thread all go bad by hammering, there was no way I could leave the old one on. And yes, when the tool worked, breaking loose of a ball joint was very loud (bit scary).

2. The next imporant tool is the ball joint remover/installer aka presser. I rented it from Autozone for $0 with a $100 deposit. What an amazing tool. It looks like a small measuring calipher in the pictures. But it is heavy, big (about 1 feet long and two inch thick steel piece) and because of this reason it is difficult to work with but very easy to use. I am glad I had access to impact wrench, it would be very difficult to carry this thing in one hand and use any other wrench with the other hand.

3. If you are not replacing the control arm make sure you dont damage the boots of control arm's ball joint. There are three ball joints lined up, first the main guy that often goes bad, next the control arm's ball joint and the third is connected to the steering rod. In my case one of the control arm's ball joint was weeee bit shaky, like half millimeter or so. So I am glad I replaced the control arms. Once again while you are at it, it is best to replace it and removing the control arm also makes the replacement of the main ball joint much easier.

4. You dont have to remove the brake assembly but you MUST remove the SBC sensor. Removing the brake assembly makes the job even easier.

5. If you removed the brake assembly, replace the brake rotor as well, this is one of those best times to do it. I was so desparate to get my hands on new rotors (because mine had grooves on it) but none of the local shops had them in stock.

6. Both the main ball joint and the control arm's ball joint are about the same size.

7. My main ball joints had about 3 mm up-down movement on one wheel and 2 mm on the other wheel. Though this might not sound much, it gave me lot of trouble including the embarassing squeaky sound.

8. There is a post elsewhere in this website that suggests greasing the ball joint to prevent premature failure. Do NOT do it. My old ones had plenty of good grease it it. So it is definitely not the lack of grease that causes the ball joint to start going shaky.

9. I did not have to use any cheater pipes or extender pipes or breaker wrenches. Removal of ball joint nuts were not really hard, I could just do it with 22mm regular closed wrench.

10. I did not have to remove the three bolts holding the upper control arm. It is simply unnecessary. You can push the whole wheel assembly down and you will wish you had little bit more room to push it down. Don't panic, just push the wheel assembly down and then pull it to one side, you will see the ball joint leaner side tilt a little and slide out. Use the same technic when mounting the shaft into the hole, tilt the ball joint shaft, insert into the hole and pull up the wheel assembly.

11. If you are replacing the control arm, break loose this ball joint first but dont remove the unit yet. It is very tempting to do so because it is so easy. I removed the nuts, broke loose the control arm's ball joint but had it in there because it offered plenty of sturdyness when tightening or loosening other nuts. Without the control arm in place the whole assembly will swing left and right and make working with nuts difficult.

12. If you turned the wheel left or right, make sure you set the wheel straight when attaching the control arm to the chassis side. For some reason without the wheel straight the control arm's chassis side would not align to the bolt holes.

Anyway, while I was at it I also replaced the Heater Control Duo Valve ("hot air to rear seats" problem). I am sure the stealership would have had me pay $400 to $500 for it. It only cost me $28. Saving $3000 is acutually close to making $4300 if you are a US resident paying the working class tax rate

If you live in the greater Seattle area, I highly recommend the Self-Serve Garage in Kent WA.

boardboy330

Used this DIY yesterday to swap my ball joints in 20 minutes per side. Upper and lowers. Only change I would make is adding a large zip tie around the arm and through the separator to hold it after the pop. Made this a one person job.