Within the last two weeks, all DIY: 126,000 miles on the odom
- New L/F CV boots both inner and outer.
- New front control arms/bushings/ball joints
- New front rear (wishbone) control arms
- New rear shocks
- New front struts
- New back hatch shocks
- New timing chain tensioner
- Oil service
- Lubed all hinges and adjusted the back hatch rubber stoppers
- Lubed moon roof rail
- On order--new steering wheel clock spring/slip ring (got tired of the squeaky/rubbing/binding sounds).
The front ball joints were a nightmare to remove. They're original and only came off by completely removing both steering knuckles, put on vise, and hitting them hard from the top with a BFH for a solid 5 minutes.
I laughed at the Bentley manual, "...remove the two bolts, the ball joints should pop right out..." Not going to happen when they've been in there for 10 years though
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Thanks to this site and all the DIY information and my hands on DIY, I learned a lot a about the suspension system. The X drives like the day it left the show room. Everything is nice and tight again.
1st photo: view from the bottom of ball joint
2nd photo: top view of the evil ball joint