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Also an easy way to get the balljoint disconnected from the LCA is to simply jack up the arm as high as your jack will take it then place vertically wedge the end of you ratchet in the space between the LCA and Knuckle. Remove the jack and viola! it pops free. Sometimes you have to step on the rotor a little but otherwise the cars weight does the job for you. No need for banging on a prybar or using those pickle forks that rip the boots.

 
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One more thing whenever you buy a complete balljoint remove the boot that it came with and check to see how much grease is actually in it. I checked the ones i bought and it barely had any grease in it so i filled it up with some moly grease and refitted the balljoint boot which is simple to do with a socket that is slightly larger than the ball joint boot. Once again great DIY. And experiece(which i had when i replace my wheel bearings)removing the knuckle etc will help.

 
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thanks again man, yea there are a few tricks to this, and knowledge will def help out a lot, nothing like experience

 
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if i buy the parts, can you drive up and install for free? lol

 
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if by free u mean, beer food and company

 
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fixed.

 
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lol, thanks robb

 
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So I got the old one out, got the ball joint insertion tool from auto zone but cant see how you can use it!! There is no room between the knuckle and ball joint to properly get the c clamp in to seat the ball joint!
I NEED HELP SOON PLEASE!!!!!!

 
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Thanks!!! Guess no one can help

 
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u just need to use the right fitting is all, post pics of what ur doing

 
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i relapce al my old *** parts..lol what a pain in the ***.. but it drive like i just got it off the show room floor

 
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I just changed all suspension parts on my front end. When i was changing my ball joints I purchased them from oreillys. They came with right angled grease fittings. When i installed them into the steering knuckle the clamp that holds the axle boot would hit the grease fitting. Very little or no clearance. I went back with a straight grease fitting that was a lot smaller and this seemed to work. I had more clearance on passenger side than driver. Has anyone else had this problem.

 
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ive never used greased balljoints on a civic, didnt see a need, but i bought mine from honda

 
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I had to replace a ball joint on my driver's side around 75k miles. 30k Hard driving miles on sportlines, tokicos, stb's, and 27mm progress sways made the ball joint break free from the knuckle completely.

I took it to get aligned one day and was told that they couldn't until my ball joint was replaced. They then proceeded to tell me that I had to replace the entire lca. I never went back.

 
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Hmmm...don't need the joints yet, but my '05 coupe has 102K on it already and my control arms sound horrible...you know the bushing problem? well I gots me some dorman aftermarkets to see how much more durable they are. Some honda factory stuff just isn't as durable as aftermarket. Plus they were like 1/2 the price ($69 vs honda's factory $129), so even if it's just as long lasting, dorman still is a better deal than honda. But as far as changing the joints, I think they should last another 20K miles, I'll probably wind up changing them along with my clutch since it's just starting to show signs of slippage. But don't think i'll be getting factory honda balljoints. My buddy recommended Moogs, so I'll try those out after these go.
Thanks for the pointers by the way, you just saved me some trouble of finding the wrench sizes to get these suckers off. I actually went on this DIY thread section to find something on control arm removal but hey this is close enough. Just have to match the wrench sockets sizes on the control arms.

 
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A little bit of a thread resurrection here. But I just wanted to thank you for the DIY. I'm tackling these bright and early tomorrow. This gives me a heads up on what I need so I don't have to run all over town looking for stuff. Thanks a bunch. You rock!

 
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Well. I did the ball joints and a brake flush yesterday. Things went pretty well. Took 1 hour per side for the ball joints. Anti seeze is your friend if you suspect you will be the one doing this next time. A big thanks to my buddy Justin for his help. He brought ball joint replacement experience to this project.

If you've never done ball joints before, it could take you awhile. Because it's one of those things that you don't know how hard you can beat on something with a hammer without breaking it. . You have to beat on these pretty hard, it helps to have someone on the prybar working it too. Careful not to beat up your fenders. You should really try to pop them loose before loosening the top bolts. If the top is loose, you have nothing to pry against to get them loose. If you have done them before, it's cake.

I went with the Moog brand of ball joints and found the best price on them from Advanced Auto. I liked the fact they are greased, they come with a new retention clip (if that's what it's called) castle nut, and cotter pin. That being said, nothing wrong with getting OEM, heck, my old ones lasted 10 years and 117 thousand miles. You'll just have to make sure to get the extra hardware if the Honda ones don't come with.

I elected to put the old axle nuts back on there. If you get new ones be very careful especially with air tools, not to strip them out. This will turn your project into a nightmare in a hurry.

Also to make the job easier, I put down the $160 deposit to rent the press kit. I'll get all of the money back when I return the press, so it's free to use, you are just out $160 bucks until you return it. It was worth it to me. This is what it looks like:

You only use a couple of these peices. So don't be intimidated.


Here is the old next to the new. .


Here is the new one installed. Notice the grease valve at the top.


Here is the press kit hooked up getting ready to press the old one out. This isn't really necessary, because you can just take a hammer to it and smack it out. . You reverse the press tool to press the new joint in. . This is where you have a moment of silence for those without air tools. .

 
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nice yeah moog parts are usually a bit better than oem. how did you know your ball joints went bad?

 
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Every once in awhile I take my car into the stealership and have them do their oil change and multi-point inspection. I like to see what issues they think the car has. Then I proceed to fix them myself, so the job is done right at a fraction of the cost. The parts costed me around $100 bucks, the stealership wanted $410 to replace them.

 
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at 285,826 miles on my 01 civic. I started noticing some noise (klunking sound) on the passenger side when I go over the imperfection on the roads. I decided to do my front pads and noticed this. This is the first time I am changing them.

Problem is the pic of the ball joint is on the driver side.



The only thing I noticed on the passenger side was the strut boot sitting in there inside the spring.



I did see that the sway bar links needs to be on the driver side.



Im open to any comments, hints, tips, tricks, etc..

Either way I guess I need to get this done. Thanks to a great DIY, looking forward in doing this sometime soon.

Who would've thought 285k on the original stuff pic'd above.

 
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285k? Holy crap batman. Everything is going to need to be replaced. I have a clunking noise too. I hoped it would go away with new ball joints, but no such luck. It could be strut time.

The reason I say everything will probably need to be replaced is because chances are many of those things have needed replacing for sometime now. Their worn out nature has probably caused strain on the other components and are now probably getting close to failing too. A 285K you've got your money's worth out of those parts and it's time to just replace everything in that area. It'll be around 1 grand in parts (including shocks/struts if needed), but your car will ride like new again.

 
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I agree and I will change out what's needed now. I really think what did it is the Arizona heat! It's amazing the stuff the sun and heat does around here.

You think that's nuts, my clutch is still the original as well.

I used to drive 92 mi each way going to work in CA and now I do 52 miles to work each way. Everything is mainly freeway miles. Either way i will let you all knmow how it goes.

 
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^


Damn, mine are starting to look like that at 90k!!! It's almost time for me. I'm gonna wait until the weather here in Canada is a bit nicer... It got down to 1 degree yesterday!!

 
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Nice

 
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Great write up, love the pictures =). I was just about to embark on CV axles, but one thing you didn't mention is what my question is about:

Did you have to fully UNSTAKE the nut from the axle toe (or whatever) to pull out the cv axle? I had trouble banging this bitch out so that it was fully flush so I banged it back in and figured I'd comb the internet until next week when I'll have much more time to do this job.

 
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Just use a small flathead screwdriver to get the knotch out

 
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so does the lower ball joint use a snap ring or is it press in?
I dont have a press so i need to know if I can do this at home in my shop or if i need to take it to a shop.

 
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i think the weight of the car "presses" it in so you'll need a ball joint separator to pull it out. other than that it just uses a cotter pin to hold a castle nut in place

 
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My oem ball joint did not have a snap ring..I went to Advance Auto parts and rented a ball joint tool kit (free basically, it is essentially a huge C clamp with a bunch of cylindrical adaptors)....i selected the correct size cylindrical adaptors, attached it to the knuckle, and popped the old one out and pressed in a new Moog ball joint....pretty easy if you have an impact wrench and the tool kit...

 
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Thats the press tool needed to install the balljoint.