Cost to Replace Upper Ball Joints | Ford Explorer Forums - Serious Explorations

  • Register Today It's free!

Cost to Replace Upper Ball Joints

98ExplorerGuy

Member
Joined
May 12, 2007
Messages
44
Reaction score
0
Year, Model & Trim Level
1998 Explorer XLT
My local dealer here in Connecticut just quoted $845 to replace the upper ball joints and align my 98 Explorer XLT (~152,000 miles).

This seems rather excessive to me. What would be a reasonable charge for this service?
 



Join the Elite Explorers for $20 each year.
Elite Explorer members see no advertisements, no banner ads, no double underlined links,.
Add an avatar, upload photo attachments, and more!
.











if you are gonna have someone do the ball joints might as well get all 4 done. it won't cost you anymore on the labor then at least you are buying peace of mind. I would go and check other shops in the area. Cause yeah that price is a bit much to answer your question.
 






4x2 - 3.3hrs + alignment + parts for all 4.

4x4 - 4.4hrs + alignment + parts for all 4.
 






if you are gonna have someone do the ball joints might as well get all 4 done. it won't cost you anymore on the labor then at least you are buying peace of mind. I would go and check other shops in the area. Cause yeah that price is a bit much to answer your question.

Actually, lowers were done last year (it's a long story...). Thanks for the thought, though!
 






I paid 500 total for the drivers side and an alignment with new caster or camber bushings.
 


















That is a good deal!
 






The dude selling those Ball joints is in Mississauga! I'm going to talk to him this Friday... I'll see if we can get some Ex club discounts :-D
 






The dude selling those Ball joints is in Mississauga! I'm going to talk to him this Friday... I'll see if we can get some Ex club discounts :-D

At $89 for both I don't think he will be discounting much. Keep in mind the Right (pass) side is the upper joint only, not the entire control arm...
 






4.3 hours for JUST the upper ball joints?!?! That's more than 2 hrs per side!?!?! For a pinch bolt and two control arm bolts?!?! You gotta be kidding!??! No wonder it costs so much!!
 






Well i started mine and holy crap, is the ball joint tool ever confusing!!! im currently at work (luckily i work at a parts store and we have a shop in the basement we can leisurely use after hours)
so yeah, im working until close then i go back to work downstairs, in the process of changing uppers (going to the one piece passenger side upper) and two lowers along with lower control arm bushings (the torsion bar is absolutely insane to work with) i havent got it out of the control arm yet and if i cant, i will just be doing the bj's and upper arms.
 






My local dealer here in Connecticut just quoted $845 to replace the upper ball joints and align my 98 Explorer XLT (~152,000 miles).

This seems rather excessive to me. What would be a reasonable charge for this service?


I think thats a decent price for a dealership but you should be able to find a shop that can replace the upper, lower and outer tie rod ends for less than that. Atleast in Indiana I could, you being in Connecticut I'm not sure but I would check around. Not to mention theres great tuitorials in the forum if you think you can do it and have the right tools, theres even a video for the lower balljoints I think.
 






To get the torsion bar out of the LCA hex, a pipe wrench will do it... a 4-footer works well.

The last time we worked on some from the factory here in our lab (we had a stop-ship on the Sport-Tracs due to a weak hex tube in the LCA) I had to use a 4-ft pipe wrench with a 3-foot cheater pipe on it to twist it loose. It shouldn't ordinarily take that much force.

-Joe
 






Quote from local dealer

Brought my '99 XLT (146K miles) for recall work and oil change. Get call from dealer recommending the following:

1) Upper/Lower Ball Joints $540 (L) + $495 (P) = $1035
2) Outer Tie Rod Ends $150 (L) + $150 (P) = $ 300
3) 4 wheel alignment = $ 90

WTH! I have not experienced any sloppy, noisy, grindy steering whatsoever. No reason to think the Ball Joints are "bad".

BTW: Can't tell if they want to replace the control arms along w/ the ball joints...although I suspect they do for that price.

I'd like to keep the truck for another year or so. Whadda ya think?
 






My local dealer here in Connecticut just quoted $845 to replace the upper ball joints and align my 98 Explorer XLT (~152,000 miles).

This seems rather excessive to me. What would be a reasonable charge for this service?
 






I have the same problem with my ford explorer .(replace leeft and right upper control arm and ball joint .)
What i did was purchase upper control arms with ball joint , from www.amzon.com .
I paid $140. include shipping and tax for both moog (brand name).
and i paid a mechanic $85. plus tax
the total amount is $225.00.
When ever you take a car to a dealer u will always pay 3times the cost
good luck
 






I had no experience whatsoever with stuff like that, all I had done before is brakes, oil, trans fluid change, etc. I was quoted over 1000$ for balljoints w/o an alignment.

I spent under 280$ in parts on Rockauto.com (HIGH QUALITY MOOG parts at that, not chinese eBay parts) Upper control arms for both sides, lower balljoints, AND tie rod ends. I did ALL of them in under 3 hours with the BJ press rented from AutoZone...

Not a hard task at all when you use the writeup.
 



Join the Elite Explorers for $20 each year.
Elite Explorer members see no advertisements, no banner ads, no double underlined links,.
Add an avatar, upload photo attachments, and more!
.





my god 3.3 hrs. who is that slow. I'm just a home guy and I can strip the front end in 30 minutes with hand tools. the entire job is like 10 bolts.
 






Back
Top