91 Civic LX here, 203k miles. I am considering replacing the
front upper and lower ball joints. I have read the archives
and also many of the reports at honda-tech.com on this. A
few queries to see where the Honda technical population is
on this:
-- lifetime warranty upper ball joints may be purchased at
Autozone.com for $20 each. Can I use a Harbor Freight Ball
Joint Press on the upper control arm ball joints, in situ,
with success? I see Loewent (for one) cautioned here some
time ago that the upper control arms are rather flimsy and
this was a somewhat risky route to go. As has been well
documented on the net, OEM Honda parts dealers sell only the
entire upper control arm for around $110 each.
-- one alternative is to buy a new upper control arm with of
course new bushings and new ball joints. Doggone Autozone
sells these at prices the same as the OEM part (around $110
per arm). Ebay has aftermarket ones for around $30 each, but
no warranty as far as I can tell. One other advantage of all
new upper control arms is the two new bushings on each arm,
too.
-- will the ball joint press kit at
http://www.harborfreight.com/
(look for item #38335) work
for removing and installing the lower ball joints at least?
-- is there a grease connection for all the BJ boots? I see
reference to this in the manuals but this connection is not
obvious to me.
-- what grease should be used on the BJs?
For one thing, I am hoping replacement of the BJs will
correct an alignment problem the car has. The problem has
been around since before I replaced all the lower control
arm bushings a few years ago. The shop that did the
alignment last year suggested a bent front lower control arm
but probably did not elaborate since so many possibilities
exist. The front lower control arms are not the least bit
obviously bent.
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