2G Lower Ball Joint question of course!

[Tsibred1]

Where can I get a replacement ball joint for the lateral and compression arms? Both ball joints on my car are completely shot. I do NOT want to replace the whole arm on either the lateral or compression, and my car has had the recall on the lateral arm and they will not do it again. Please some one have an answer to this, the following places do NOT sell lower ball joints they only sell the full arms:

NAPA
Autozone
Mitsubishi
RockAuto
Advance Auto Parts


Keep in mind saying "Just get a ball joing from NAPA" isn't an answer as they do not just sell the ball joints. Feel free to prove me wrong on that and post an actual part number, but I'm kind of sick of reading threads that simply answer this by saying "d00d get the recall" I can't or "d00d just go to Napa" they don't have them.

 

[jtmcinder]

I've never heard of anyone replacing either ball-joint. In the case of the lateral arm, it's either free via the recall (which can never be denied) or it's a $30 piece. In the case of the compression arm, I can't recall anyone ever saying they had one go bad.

Sorry to be unhelpful.

- Jtoby

 

[Tsibred1]

They can be bought for $30 bucks a piece through any dealership that honors DSM club/group/org discounts. If you are not near one locally please ask JNZ tuning for them as they seem to be the absolute best priced for OEM. Otherwise google "OEM MITSUBISHI PARTS" There is a site that allows part number look up and offers good pricing.

As far as adjustable ball joints, I'm all ears for that solution escpecially on the compression arm, Its not the arm that went bad, but some how all of my ball joints were damaged (ripped boots, stripped studs, bent studs, etc) when the hubs were removed during a motor swap. This topic has repeatedly been brought up, but a straight answer was never given such as "Oh my friend i think got them just to replace the ball joint at NAPA".

Any refrence to people getting OEM (non factory) replacements from the following places is either a lie or more likely simply incorrect.

NAPA
AUTOZONE
MITSUBISHI
ADVANCED AUTO PARTS
ROCK AUTO
EBAY

You CAN get replacements for the 1G control arms individually, for some reason this is not the case for the 2G Turbo/Non-turbo/AWD drive trains.

Also please refrain from commenting that you had heard of something, or heard of someone mentioning something as a remedy, unless it has been physically done, please leave it out. Hopefully this will be an answer thread for alot of people approaching this problem.

 

[EclipseTrbo420A]

I worked at napa...your not goin to get a press in Ball Joint for the 2G. Hell, they dont even have what they are supposed to have in stock let alone the made up parts peoples friends dads mechanics got for them

 

[snox135]

I do recall a few years back I went to a shop to get an alignment and was told since the car was lowered that in order for them to do the alignment I would have to get adjustable ball joints, they would get them for like $70+ i want to say.

Like these, I do think there were much cheaper when I bought them several years ago. But I don't remember how much I paid for them.

 

[jtmcinder]

For them umpteenth time, those cost you too much travel to be useful. And only a 2G that has been lowered too far has too much front camber.

- Jtoby

 

[underBoostAWD]

If you need to replace the lower compression arms/ball joints , a very cost effective alternative is the "Knuckle kit" available from mitsu.
Includes knuckle , lower control arm and lower compression arm.
Only about $104 per side from JNZ. Available either for "early" or "later" 2g's.
As has been posted many times before, the "later" 2g's have the offset inner bushing on the lower compression arms that can be "flipped" to maximize caster.
Why bother with the ball joints only?

 

[Tsibred1]

If you need to replace the lower compression arms/ball joints , a very cost effective alternative is the "Knuckle kit" available from mitsu.
Includes knuckle , lower control arm and lower compression arm.
Only about $104 per side from JNZ. Available either for "early" or "later" 2g's.
As has been posted many times before, the "later" 2g's have the offset inner bushing on the lower compression arms that can be "flipped" to maximize caster.
Why bother with the ball joints only?

The reason for focusing on ball joints only is simple: maintennace. Almost every car (Aside from the ones that share the same suspension i.e. sebring galant etc.) has an easily replaceable ball joint. Simply press out, and press in. Due to temperatures in Iron forging, there is no way that the arm was simply cast around the ball joint, so at some point intime, a ball joint was pressed into both the lateral and the compression arm. Some people don't have 200+ bucks to shell out on full arm replacements, let alone when there is nothing wrong with bushings or the arms themselves, simply bad ball joints. This has be discussed MANY MANY times on both major DSM forums and there has NEVER been a clear answer to wether or not simply pressing in alternate ball joints into eith lower control arm was possible. I've read it answered REPEATEDLY incorrectly as many people assume that if they make replacement ball joints for 1g AWD, they certainly must make them for 2Gs (they dont, if anyone tells you they do, they are lying to you.) and repeat people saying things like "My friend at Napa totally hooked my brother up with new ball joints he pressed in" (No he didn't you are a liar or someone who told you that is). Alternatively the "Hey just do the recall" doesn't always work. I know, its hard to believe that I don't have the time to go to Mitsu and threaten to sue them if they don't repair the recall, or get previos SEMA law cases that prove they have to. Likewise, some people's cars don't run, making taking it into service is virtually impossible, which people seem to think towing it in is an acceptable solution. I'm not sure how much towing costs where you live but towing by car for over $100 bucks to get $35 dollar control arms replaced for free seems like I'm losing out.

 

[Jon Lane]

Is this and/or this an option for you? I realize I'm violating your terms but at these prices, I thought I'd at least offer it. I had all six front wear pieces replaced on my 2G a year ago and I'm alive to talk about it...

 

[Tsibred1]

Is this and/or this an option for you? I realize I'm violating your terms but at these prices, I thought I'd at least offer it. I had all six front wear pieces replaced on my 2G a year ago and I'm alive to talk about it...

Well as far as the lateral arms, that option doesn't hold alot of value as it's roughly the same price from Mitsubishi, the problem then with using the compression arm is that it's still a full arm replacement and not simply a press in bushing.

 

[Raph]

Is this and/or this an option for you? I realize I'm violating your terms but at these prices, I thought I'd at least offer it. I had all six front wear pieces replaced on my 2G a year ago and I'm alive to talk about it...

Give this man some reputation points! im going to order those to keep when my joints eventually go out.. great price! dealer here says 64 euros for 1 arm.. (thats over 85 bux)

 

[Jon Lane]

Give this man some reputation points! im going to order those to keep when my joints eventually go out.. great price! dealer here says 64 euros for 1 arm.. (thats over 85 bux)

Er, I'm going to take back my link to eBay replacement 2G lower control arms. In two years, I've had all eight fail. That's right, two entire sets of four each -- lateral arms and compression arms, both sides -- went out. All eight boots went bad and therefore all eight joints were either destroyed of impaired.

Moral: Cheap aftermarket ball joints use cheap aftermarket dust boots, which fail. Can't say that these are all the same, but I can say that the "premium, high quality, direct fit, OE replacements that will give years of trouble free service" trash sold by a certain major upper East Coast eBay vendor are absolutely useless, the lifetime warranty notwithstanding.



If you're putting the car on the lift every single year, there's no savings, and if you're in the ditch upside down, you don't really care.

Which brings me, at least, back to what the heck to do about the problem of the cost of the curved compression arms, as well as the problem that none of these bloody things have Zerk fittings. They can't be serious, right?

 

[Jon Lane]

If you need to replace the lower compression arms/ball joints , a very cost effective alternative is the "Knuckle kit" available from mitsu.
Includes knuckle , lower control arm and lower compression arm.
Only about $104 per side from JNZ. Available either for "early" or "later" 2g's.

Anybody have a link?

 

[bmoha2]

And I had one of the lateral balljoints fail again after that.

 

[PieEyedPiper]

Jon Lane,

What brand exactly did you have fail on you? Could you possibly link to a similar auction using the same parts?

Thanks

 

[Jon Lane]

Jon Lane,

What brand exactly did you have fail on you? Could you possibly link to a similar auction using the same parts?

Thanks

PM me...

UPDATE: I'm told the parts that failed are supplied by XCP in Canada, who told me these are control arms sourced from various offshore sources.

Coni-Seal vends these parts too, although I'm told they're offshore sources too.

Other vendors carry OE brand (China) and an unknown brand from Mexico.

More news if I get it...

 

[PieEyedPiper]

I'm running with the OE brand compression arms, so far no trouble but its only been a couple of months.
Jon, you mentioned that yours all failed at the boots, which then lets in debris that will eventually wear the parts until they fail.

Is there a good product out there that would act as a conditioner, to keep the boots healthy? When I compared my OE compression arms to the stock OEM parts, they were near impossible to tell apart. Hopefully I don't encounter the difficulties you've outlined.

Thanks for the heads up.

 

[PieEyedPiper]

If you need to replace the lower compression arms/ball joints , a very cost effective alternative is the "Knuckle kit" available from mitsu.
Includes knuckle , lower control arm and lower compression arm.
Only about $104 per side from JNZ. Available either for "early" or "later" 2g's.
As has been posted many times before, the "later" 2g's have the offset inner bushing on the lower compression arms that can be "flipped" to maximize caster.
Why bother with the ball joints only?

I have to ask about this too. Anyone know any details/have a link/seen this before?

I've not noticed it on JNZ nor their OEM section.

 

[DSM4me44]

If this is the arm you are talking about, and you haven't had the dealer replace it yet, you may not have to pay for it.

http://www.tgq.com.tw/20-control_arm_mitsubishi.jpg

These were a recalled part i know for the 95's, like jtmcinder said. I had these replaced by Chrysler, twice in 2 years for FREE. You don't have to pay for parts or labor. They saw that they were never replaced by a dealer and so I was entitled to take advatage of it being a recalled item and they should do it for free for you.

 

[Jon Lane]

If this is the arm you are talking about, and you haven't had the dealer replace it yet, you may not have to pay for it.

http://www.tgq.com.tw/20-control_arm_mitsubishi.jpg

These were a recalled part i know for the 95's, like jtmcinder said. I had these replaced by Chrysler, twice in 2 years for FREE. You don't have to pay for parts or labor. They saw that they were never replaced by a dealer and so I was entitled to take advatage of it being a recalled item and they should do it for free for you.

That's the one, but the curved compression arms suffer the same problem so one should at least think about replacing them as sets.

There's been volumes written about this recall, and not all of it indicates easy or free replacements. For those of us on our second set of replacements, there's no hope but to just pay again.

As an added thought, I really wonder where OEM control arms were made. Do we have evidence they are in any way different than the offshore replacements?

 

[Jon Lane]

Is there a good product out there that would act as a conditioner, to keep the boots healthy?

Mine all cracked catastrophically, so I tend to doubt that even greasing the heck out of them would prevent them eventually failing. The rubber they use is simply crap.

I'd like to know where to (1) get synthetic boots, and (2) how to drill these joints for grease fittings.

What a pathetic commentary on parts vendors, that they can't even get rubber boots right on parts you more or less trust with your life.

 

[underBoostAWD]

Originally Posted by underBoostAWD
If you need to replace the lower compression arms/ball joints , a very cost effective alternative is the "Knuckle kit" available from mitsu.
Includes knuckle , lower control arm and lower compression arm.
Only about $104 per side from JNZ. Available either for "early" or "later" 2g's.
As has been posted many times before, the "later" 2g's have the offset inner bushing on the lower compression arms that can be "flipped" to maximize caster.
Why bother with the ball joints only?

update:
Apparently these aren't easy to find in the Mitsu catalog. Just give Erik at JNZtuning a call, he can get it for you. the price may have changed since I got my sets, but from my experience, you can't beat OEM quality.

 

[DSM4me44]

I had them replace mine twice like i said. It all depends on how long it has been since the first replacement.

 

[Jon Lane]

If you need to replace the lower compression arms/ball joints , a very cost effective alternative is the "Knuckle kit" available from mitsu.
Includes knuckle , lower control arm and lower compression arm.
Only about $104 per side from JNZ. Available either for "early" or "later" 2g's.
As has been posted many times before, the "later" 2g's have the offset inner bushing on the lower compression arms that can be "flipped" to maximize caster.
Why bother with the ball joints only?

Just checked: Early 2G's are now in the $150/side range, and late 2G's are nearly $240/side. Not doing it.

 

[Jon Lane]

Another update: When inspecting these parts, whether new or used and already on the car, make sure the nylon locking nuts that hold these on the knuckle are the right height. I just installed a pair of OEM lateral (short) arms and a pair of rebuilt compression (curved) arms, and one of the four nuts was taller then the rest, making the nylon insert just a little too high over the ball joint stud to engage the threads. I had a nut back off one of the old lateral arms for this very reason.

So, check to be sure the stud protrudes all the way up and past the uppermost portion of the nut, and you may also want to Locktite these on.

There are other lock-nut styles that may work even better than nylon locking nuts, provided the stud doesn't rotate as you tighten them home.

Nylon locking nuts:

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All steel locking nuts (will they tighten?)

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Flange nuts (I've seen these in locking style.)

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