New control arm goodness

[Guest]

Man.. what a difference.. mine were pretty shot and all this talk about ball joint failure coaxed me into finally installing the new set I bought awhile back.

[25Horseplay]

Better safe than sorry!

[Safety Guy]

Damn right!

This is probably the most worrisome part of a Festiva to me. I took the Mutt into two shops to get my ball joints checked (as well as the whole front end) for looseness. They said they couldn't find anything wrong!

Soon thereafter I got fed up with the weird movement in my front suspension and I jacked it up and found...TWO BAD BALL JOINTS!! :evil:

My advice to everyone is to learn to check them yourself!!

Karl

[Tim]

When mine popped loose it scared the sh*t out of me - and I was only going about 10 mph.

Imagine the control arm breaking loose at highway speeds.... :shock:



Regards,

Tim

[FB71]

Damn right!

This is probably the most worrisome part of a Festiva to me. I took the Mutt into two shops to get my ball joints checked (as well as the whole front end) for looseness. They said they couldn't find anything wrong!

Soon thereafter I got fed up with the weird movement in my front suspension and I jacked it up and found...TWO BAD BALL JOINTS!! :evil:

My advice to everyone is to learn to check them yourself!!

Karl

most of those schmucks don't even know the correc tway to check a bj.

[Silv3rBull3t]

Well I always seem to know when I'm getting a bad BJ...

[packrat427]

^^ Too funny , With all this talk I too am going to check mine, I know what you mean Karl , I have thought about it and it scares me too , I do have a shimmy and when they done my tranny he said they were a little loose , the ball joints,and know I feel it when I accel and between shifts it's like the front end is sliding up and down on a sleeved shaft,I am sure that is the excess play I am feeling :bounce:

[sk8er_Guy03]

lol, I thought I had a bad ball joint too, felt like my right side suspension was going to fall out!!! Checked it and it was just a loose bolt (one that hold the control arm in, lol), acutally it almost fell out, but i did have bad ball joints too! heh heh

[Tim]

lol, I thought I had a bad ball joint too, felt like my right side suspension was going to fall out!!! Checked it and it was just a loose bolt (one that hold the control arm in, lol), acutally it almost fell out, but i did have bad ball joints too! heh heh

I had the control arm and ball joint separate on me once while I was driving. Not fun, believe me!


Regards,

Tim

[the_big_1.3]

i hade mine pop out on me .... i put the jack under the controll arm and ligned up the ball and snaped i in place..... it got me home and fell out again

[Tim]

i hade mine pop out on me .... i put the jack under the controll arm and ligned up the ball and snaped i in place..... it got me home and fell out again

Some idiot repaired my Blue Festiva after a wreck, and used a bolt that was too small to hold the ball joint onto the control arm, causing it to slip out on a sharp turn. It was the oddest experience - the car lunged left while I was turning the wheel right.


Regards,

Tim

[sickroachman]

Must be a common problem. It broke on me when I was taking a corner at 20mph on a '91 Festiva I had. Luckily there was no oncoming traffic because I ended up in the other lane.

Like the other guy I just used a prybar to put it back in place so I could drive it up onto our car trailer.

[nattyphysicist]

Mine came apart on my driveway last week (luckily). I knew there was play in it since the summer, but only recently heard clunking noises.

[Safety Guy]

Hear clunking noises that aren't the CVs?

See or feel play in your ball joints?

Going through a curve and the car steers a bit more when you haven't moved the wheel?

Don't be shy and don't be late! Time to change 'em out!!

Karl

[deathegg]

:?: never checked mine, at least one of the bj's is the original (1988 L , 4-speed, 170,000 miles).

Can someone tell me how to check them?? And, if I have to get them replaced, how much is it ? Traveling across country late March, don't want to have an accident!!

Thanks!