Anyone replaced a ball joint yet? DIY?
 

Any tips? Is this something I should go after myself or pay the stealership $400+?

You sure it's a ball joint?

JV

what exactly do you mean by ball joint? control arm ball joint?

http://www.xoutpost.com/showarticle-106.html

Yep. Control Arm BJ. Dealer wants $450 to replace. The part alone is $100 at the dealer and "they were sure if the busings were pressed in or not". Very little help to say the least. I would like to do this myself if possible, but am not confident the dealer is getting me the right parts.

Replacing a control arm is really not a big deal. Although I never did it on my X5 (I have an extended warranty so why would I do it myself?) I did this on many other cars. A ball joint puller will make the removal of the ball joint an easy job. You can get one at any automotive store for about $20. The DIY article pointed by DREX is excellent. Getting your wheels aligned after is recommended.

Not a bad DIY. The hardest part is breaking free the nuts if they're rusted over and getting the ball joint in out of the rotor bracket mounting thingamabob. In doing so, I ended up pulling some kind of axle coupling thing out of the front differential thingamajig. Haha, sorry guys, not all that great at the tech terms. :D

All the best, Zach

alpac beat me to it. You might want a ball joint puller whatchamacallit thing. Haha, I imagine it would make the removal 100x easier.

ATB, Zach

Do I need the whole arm or just the BJ?

Should I buy it from the dealer or a parts store?

Change both BJ and arm. The arm comes with the bushings so you get that changed too.

Drex did you change the BJ in your article or just the CA? Anything special required when changing the BJ as well?