Ball Joint Install Sanity Check

I bought my ball joints from rockauto, I think it was about $40 a piece for civic. Install was about $100 I think.

Janajda wrote: ↑ I need to replace the ball joints in my '14 Terrain. I got a quote from a local auto shop that's laid out below

Ball Joints - $146.42
Install - $231
Alignment - $89.95
Total - $467.37

Taxes to be added to the total. Just checking if this seems reasonable or I should be writing these guys off and finding another shop.

How many? 2?

engineered wrote: ↑ How many? 2?

Yea sorry, should have specified. Its both front lower ball joints. Was even wondering if it would be better to just change the control arms but based on this quote I think not.

divx wrote: ↑ I bought my ball joints from rockauto, I think it was about $40 a piece for civic. Install was about $100 I think.

Was that $100 per joint or total install fee?

$37 CDN each plus shipping for Moog at Rock. $57 at Amazon or Parts Avatar.

Looks fairly straightforward since it appears to bolt on and likely a minimal press fit with a BFH.

Alignment absolutely necessary.

A lot of people rag on Moog but I’ve had few issues and the parts are lifetime warranty.

First of all you can save yourself $230 of course by replacing them yourself. Cuts the bill in half right away.

Secondly ball joints will vary in price quite a bit. Aftermarkets for many vehicles can be as cheap as $30ea. while OEM on the same vehicle could be as much as $150ea, maybe even more. So depending on what you're getting there for parts, would determine the price. Also note that some replacement/aftermarket ball joints might have a grease fitting while majority of factory ones these days do not. If you get replaced with ones with zerks on them, this means you need to lubricate them periodically. Chassis lubrication of things like ball joints, tie-rod ends, etc. is where the now "old saying" of "lube, oil, filter" came from. Nowadays there is rarely any "lubing" to an oil change because most of these parts these days are "sealed" and don't require grease being added/replaced periodically.

If you do not grease a greasable unit, it may fail in a relatively short time. So be aware of what is being put on the vehicle and whether it needs to be maintained or "lubed" later on.

Also I disagree that you need an alignment afterwards. If this is a McPherson strut vehicle then there's likely only gonna be two ball joints (the tie-rod ends will be actual ball joints as well but they go by a different name--tie rod ends lol). In this case removing/reinstalling the ball joints won't necessarily do anything to the alignment, but we don't know what vehicle this is either. That said, if the vehicle hasn't had an alignment in a long time, it's probably time to do one anyway.