Ball joint replacement + compliance bushing replacement cost (is this too much)?

[epicbeardman]

Hi,

I recently had an inspection done on my vehicle (an 02 Civic SiR with 175k kms) and I was told my right front lower ball joint boot is torn and both front compliance bushings are broken. They are asking 720.00$ to repair both of them. Is this the industry standard rate? It seemed kind of steep to me, but I know the importance of having good ball joints and bushings, so these seem like mandatory repairs. However, my car drives fine and I have checked outer tire wear , and it is non-existent, which means my ball joints are still functioning. I live in an apartment and my stupid strata laws state that I can't work on the car in the garage otherwise I would jack it up myself and try my hand at it.

[godwin]

You need to break down what exactly they are going to do.

$100/hour of dealership rate, that's roughly a day's work. Does it include parts? Alignment? etc etc

[taylor192]

Ball joints need to be replaced.
Bushing do not "need" to be replaced, yet your ride quality will suffer and extra vibrations create more wear and tear on other components.

Since you think your ride quality is good, I would only replace the ball joint.

$700 seems high, since removing both arms should only take a mechanic with air tools and a lift about an hour then another hour to reassemble. Bushings are usually cheap ($20) and just pressed in and out.

I bet it includes an alignment ($100), which is probably required when replacing the ball joint.

[epicbeardman]

Originally Posted by godwin

You need to break down what exactly they are going to do.

$100/hour of dealership rate, that's roughly a day's work. Does it include parts? Alignment? etc etc

Yes I believe it included parts an alignment. Apparently it was "difficult work" to replace ball joints. While I know it's not exactly a walk in the park, this is also one of the easier repairs since I've seen my dad do this when I was younger. It was an official Honda dealer so I guess they needed to compensate for overhead.

[UnName]

ball joints are easy to replace if u have the proper tool for it. i did a ball joint on a 02 accord at school and it only took 45-60 mins for the whole job but if u use a non-oem part its going to take longer because it wont want to go in straight

[taylor192]

Originally Posted by UnName

ball joints are easy to replace if u have the proper tool for it. i did a ball joint on a 02 accord at school and it only took 45-60 mins for the whole job but if u use a non-oem part its going to take longer because it wont want to go in straight

On my car it was cheap to buy the entire arm which included the ball joint installed. Swapping the entire arm could be done in 5 mins.