I was doing my brakes today and i noticed that the driver side lower ball joint wiggles, the one connected to the tie-rod end. Should I replace this? The nut is nto loose, the entire piece inside of the ball joint wiggles from side to side. I can move the wheel side to side but not up and down. I do notice a slight vibration when braking harder than normal. The rotors i removed were warped so it did this before of course, it's nto as bad as it was, but i can definately feel the wheel vibrating. Any ideas?

 

yes any move ment in the joint and its replacement time

 

Any ideas as to where i can get them? How do i do it? Do i replace the entire tie rod end, or just the joint?

 

Check out my post here.

You can get the balljoints from any auto parts store. I got mine from Autozone. (Perfect Circle brand) They also have the press.

 

Is there an alternative method ? How much do you think a shop would charge me? Can i just buy a whole new Tie-rod end with the ball join already in? One last question, about how much do they cost? If i do this myself, i will probably so all of them at once since i will have to remove everything and get an alignment anyway, but my family is out of state now so expensive parts are out of the question, and high tension tools arent a good idea. I live a 1/4 mile off the road and if my car falls or some part of the ball joint dislodges and rockets through my brain, no one will be there to help me.

 

Oh you mean on the tie rod? I don't think it should be over $100 for a shop to replace that for you. I wouldn't do that one myself.

 

The boot is cracked on the other side so should i replace that too? I really hate taking it to a shop because I AM the shop. Well not exactly but it's a guy thing right? Like asking for directions.

 

Just get a new tie rod end. Actually I would get both.....less than 35 for the pair. Just measure or mark how far in the ones on the car are, that way you may not have to get an alignment. you need two wrenches, one to hold the inner tie rod from turning and one to take the outer off. Very easy. I would use an impact if you have one to get the "nut off" that holds the tie rod to the spindle so the joint doesn't start turning on you....