Front Ball Joint Gone

[Tommy90]

Hi All, 

I have knocking on the front left hand side, turns out is the ball joint. 

Just wondering, i have minimal tools so i think replacing the ball joint may be too much hassle for me so im thinking i might just replace the suspension arm in its entirety. Im also thinking i may as well to the right hand side at the same time. 

Thing is, when i go on Autodoc there are 100s of manufacturers to choose from and i have no idea which ones are worth the buy. 

Ridex seem to consistently be rated 5 stars but i reckon this is Autodocs own "budget" brand. What other manufacturers are known in the trade as "reliable". febi bilstein?

Cheers

Tom

[Ian Lanc]

I'm on my third set of wishbones now, on a 10 plate with only 56,000 miles 😞 Where I live the roads are terrible.

If you want to change the entire wishbone you defo' need a car lift, the sort that supports the chassis and not the wheels, easy enough to unbolt but you need brute force to lever out the wishbone and brute force in refitting, you'll really struggle to change the wishbones with the car sat on the ground, so that way isn't advisable.

If you are changing the wishbones, change the link arms too, they'll be worn as well.

If your front bushes are tattered, the chances are that the rear bushes are on their way out too. 

Our car parts shop only sells one type of complete wishbone, they don't offer budget or high quality on such parts.

[Tommy90]

Yeah tell me about it, the roads here seem to have just gotten dire over night. Pot holes with white spray around them as far as the eye can see. 

Just found out my mate bought a press for the very reason of replacing ball joints so now considering just buying the ball joint on its own. 

Again too many manufacturers to pick from and no idea who is the most reputable. MOOG, DELPHI and BILSTEIN seem to be reasonable around the £13 mark. These manufacturers seem to ring a bell. 

Cheers

Tom

 

[agraham]

2 hours ago, Tommy90 said:

MOOG, DELPHI and BILSTEIN seem to be reasonable around the £13 mark. These manufacturers seem to ring a bell. 

Delphi are a good (huge) brand and supply a lot of the big manufacturers. Bilstein are well known for aftermarket performance/racing  shocks and struts. In both cases I suspect their ball joints are bought in and re-branded but both are unlikely to be cheap Chinese crap (Chinese maybe but not necessarily crap). Not heard of Moog but maybe that just me.

[Danny cj]

i have a mk 7 fiesta and have replaced mine twice in 3 years.

first i removed the lower wishbone and replaced the ball joint only..second time i replaced the lower wishbone complete with ball joint allready fitted..

i found it saved a lot of time just replacing the whole thing complete...but keep the old wishbone..remove the ball joint and replace it ready for the next time...cos there will be a next time..

also just done mine on axle stands..wast to hard

[orangecurry]

Moog and Bilstein are usually good - but I chose a LEMFÖRDER lower arm for my mk7.  All good so far.

[Frembrit]

Recently changed the complete wishbones on my (Driving instructer) friends 2014 Fiesta on 135K miles, he opted for Ford parts. Needless to say that car get bashed about a bit by the learners but this is the first time they have been replaced.

[Tommy90]

Decided im just going to replace the whole arm. Lemforder arms on autodoc are 41% off at the moment so thats ideal. 

Lemforder seem to get a good rep online it seems. 

Would love to know who ford used as their OEM seeing as the ford parts are astronomically high. 

Thanks for your replies.