amount of hours replacing lower ball joint.

[numlock68]

Hello from sweden...

thank you all for this great forum.

i shot this video at the yearly motor vehicle inspection.
(The first one occours after three years)

http://s628.photobucket.com/albums/u...t=P1050669.flv

i suspect that the lower ball joint is faulty, both outer tie rods had just been replaced.

any other ideas?

what is the reasonable amount of hours my dodge/chrysler dealership can charge me for replacing the lower balljoint at the steering knuckle, right front?
outer tie rods both sides were replaced 3000km (1860miles) ago.
the car is now at 98000km (60894miles) and has extended warranty for 120000km
The car is an 2005 european 3.5l 300c wagon.

[bigjim]

That looks more like bushing play than a bad ball joint. Place a jack under the spot where the shock lower end bushing connects to the lower control arm, lift just enough to clear the tire from the ground and remove the tire. use a pry bar to see if you heve verticle play in the ball joint (the pry spot is obvious when jacked this way). keep posting.

The knuckle is on the expensive side (the ball joint is NOT available as a single unit from Chrysler, just did the right knuckle myself after 180,000 miles(290,000km)), I would hate to see it done as a trouble shooting miss...

[leveil22]

wish we got that done over here

[Gabe]

That's a pretty cool machine they have the car on in that video .... it looks to me like the wheel bearing might be falling apart, but what was said above makes sense too, I guess .....

[SoCal Gixxer]

i work at a dodge store in so cal, and i say it usually takes me about 30-50 minutes to replace one, but most tech will charge 2-3 hours, at least the 1s that i know. have you also checked your tension struts? if you havent already replaced them, theres a good chance theyre torn

[MidnightSXT]

Looks like wheel bearings to me.

[cleary524]

I agree with Big Jim...Mine is similar on the front left side of the left front lower control arm...the lower control arm bushing is all blown out on the front side of it. Like freaking $300 for the part because you have to replace the whole lower control arm. The whole assembly includes the lower ball joint, the two control arm mount bushings and the bushing for the strut tower. Bummer!


You can see the front side of the lower control arm in this photo.


In this photo you can see the shreds of rubber..the bushing is literally disintegrating!



Mine's not as advanced worn as your, but the clunking is there and will eventually get that bad. There's really only a few things it could be...I just hope you can pick the thing that's wrong first and not go by process of elimination.

[progolfer82]

It is for sure a bad tension strut(lower control arm). DO NOT get OEM buy after market or it will just happen again. I just had the problem happen again and buying my second set of tension struts and buy after market this time. mine are ripped and torn and have the same problem with noise like the video.