Replacing Upper Control Arms

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Greg Jorczyk

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Just picked up my 03 Sport Trac 2wd from NTB for an alignment, I have 102,000 miles on it. They said I needed new upper control arms and lower ball joints at a cost of $1300.00.



Has anyone replaced them themseleves? I looked at some on line You Tube videos and it does not look that difficult except time consuming. I am pretty handy do it yourselfer.



Is this something I could tackle myself? I am more worried about having to remove the rotors and breaks calipers to replace the lower ball joints.



Thanks for the input



Greg
 
Shop time is going to be about 6 hours labor + the alignment and parts. List price on the upper control arms from aftermarket sources is gonna be somewhere between $130-$180 a side (doesn't mean they are going to sell them to you for list price though) and list price on the ball joints is gonna be about $40 each for good ones.



Look at your estimate and make sure that they aren't charging you seperately for each item becasue there is alot of overlapping labor on this job. Basically on this job I would quote steering knuckle removal X2 and add 1 hour per side for the rest of it.
 
Hey there! I'm fairly handy, but definitely not a mechanic!! I searched through the project boards, there is a great publication on there. I was quoted $700 from my shop, with everything. I'm cheap, and needed a new project, so I did it myself, about 9 months ago, and havent died yet!!! All-in-all, it cost me about 130ish parts off of eBay, ball press "borrowed" from Pepboys. Not a very hard project. I get free alignments on the ST. That is obviously a must after a project of this nature. GOODLUCK.
 
WOW!!!! None of those parts are hard to replace. Well the lower balljoints might make you say a couple cuss words. But you can rent the tool from any parts store for free. Do it yourself and save about 1200.00 bucks.



I spent $1200.00 for a complete tranny rebuild and install, and there has to be more time spent doing that then changing ball joints.



So their numbers are WAY to high.
 
I agree their numbers sound high. On a side note I don't think you are gonna find both upper control arms and both lower ball joints for $130.



$1200 for a tranny rebuild including R&I (remove and install) was nothing more than a "refresh", had you needed anything of relevance that number would have been a bit more than that.



In a quality repair facility I think that $1000 for all of that work would be a fair price.
 
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On a side note I don't think you are gonna find both upper control arms and both lower ball joints for $130.

><><><>





You are right.....they are cheaper.... E B A Y



 
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Quality, yes, very true.. Comparing a Mercedes to an Aztec. I was just replying to l1tech saying they "doubted" the possibility of finding parts that cheap. You get what you pay for..
 
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Two years ago I had the lower ball joints and the upper control arm assys. relaced by my ford dealer plus an alignment and road test for a total price of $797.40. If someone wants $1300 they are ripping your off big time. I probably could have it done cheaper if I shoped around. My advice is shop around.
 
$1200 for a tranny rebuild including R&I (remove and install) was nothing more than a "refresh", had you needed anything of relevance that number would have been a bit more than that.
Click to expand...



The only part reused from my stock tranny was the housing, and the valve body. They under estimated the damage, and the owner was pissed, he let me know he was not making a dime off my truck. But still only paid around 1200.00 :grin:
 
I wish I would have found that ebay ad when I bought mine. I would have saved $20. hahaha



I would look at www.rockauto.com as well.



Unless you have the 'Extra' money to burn, I would do it myself or get a person who can. With $1300, I could buy something else to attach to the Sport Trac.
 
I changed my uppers and lowers last summer. Not too hard of a job if you have the right tools. Look in the projects section for ideas. The uppers aren't really too bad. For the driver side, after you remove the pinch bolt, remove the cam bolts and the old arm will come right off. Put the new one on and get the cam bolts back to as close as you can to their original position (mark them before you remove). They can be a real pain to get out since there is very little room to maneuver. The passenger side is pretty simple. Take you truck STRAIT to a shop to get a front end alignment when you're done! For the lowers, like someone else said, you can borrow a ball joint press from a parts store for free. I got all of my parts from amazon.com for super cheap, I think I paid around $200.00 for 2 lowers and both upper control arms.
 
Thought I'd add a link to amazon where you can get both arms, and one lower ball joint in a package. Add one more lower and you're good to go for about $180.00. These are all Moog parts!



http://www.amazon.com/Moog-K8710T-Upper-Control-Arm/dp/B000C544RI/ref=au_pf_pfg_s?ie=UTF8&Model=Explorer%20Sport%20Trac|2814&n=15684181&s=automotive&Make=Ford|54&Year=2003|2003&newCar=1&carId=003
 

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