Hub and Ball Joint Replacement

[bprohs]

I have a 1998 Eldorado and I just had some work done on it. The front tires have worn more quickly than the back tires and I thought it was just the alignment, but the dealer said I need new hubs and ball joints to the tune of about $1900! I think this is a little excessive and am wondering how difficult it is to do myself. Thanks in advance for any help!

[MrEldo97]

DON'T GO TO THE DEALER!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That's an outrageous price!

TRW ball joints are about $40.00 each and front wheel hubs about $200.00.

Jeeziz, did you walk into that Stealership carrying a huge sign that says "I'm a sucker"? LOL.

If you can't do the job yourself find a good independent; a reasonable charge for this work would be about $800.00. It's not difficult nor particularly time consuming.

Good luck.

[Cadillac Jim]

It's normal for the front tires to wear a little more quickly than the rear tires in a front-wheel-drive car. If you want to minimize the wear rate, you should have the tires rotated about every 5,000 miles. Rotating them at about half the rated mileage will do most of the job and you only need to do it once per set of tires.

The thing to look for is tire wear problems.

• Are you keeping your tires properly inflated (30 psi to 35 psi cold)?
• Are you getting the rated mileage out of your tires? 40,000 mile tires are going 40,000 miles?
• Does your tire wear pattern look even? No extra wear on the inside or outside edges of the tread, no thin center of the tread, no scalloping pattern?

If the answer to these questions is YES, you probably don't have a problem.

[MAC]

I think this is a little excessive and am wondering how difficult it is to do myself. Thanks in advance for any help!

As far as difficulty of replacing ball joints, there are three rivets for each ball joint that need to be drilled out. I don't think your Eldorado will be any different than my 94 Eldorado, which means you'll need to: 1) remove Control Arm; 2) use a 7/16 cobalt drill bit (or 1/2 which is the actual rivet size) to drill out the rivets. You can do the job without removing the Control Arm but it's awkward and you'll have to jack the car up quite a bit to make room for the drill. Also, using jackstands are a must and you'll definitely need eye protection. I've done it with the Control Arm still on and it was a P.I.T.A. BBF suggested removing the Control Arm completely, which is a fairly easy job. By removing the Control arm, the job should take less time.

The best way to drill out the rivets is to first drill a pilot hole with a smaller bit (about 1/4), then finish the job with a 7/16. I bought a slightly smaller bit than actual size of 1/2 because once the rivet is drilled almost completely through it can be popped out with a hammer and screwdriver. Forget about grinding the heads off the rivets--I tried it and it didn't work, plus you don't want to grind the Control Arm.

For a first timer, one side will probably take about two hours because the rivets are hardened and they will take some time. When I drilled them out I had water nearby to cool the drill bit because you don't want to over heat it. It will stay sharper longer if you kept the bit relatively cool. You should use a variable speed drill at about 1,500+ rpm. Others may have input as far as the ideal speed to drill them, but I found that high speed is better.

[bprohs]

Thanks for the responses...they were a great help and thanks Jim for the welcome. It looks to be a great forum!

[BodybyFisher]

Thanks for the responses...they were a great help and thanks Jim for the welcome. It looks to be a great forum!

Welcome,

If you are mechanically inclined at all, the ball joints and hub bearings are easy. I have a thread someplace when I did mine, let us know before you do this job.

[BodybyFisher]

I have a 1998 Eldorado and I just had some work done on it. The front tires have worn more quickly than the back tires and I thought it was just the alignment, but the dealer said I need new hubs and ball joints to the tune of about $1900! I think this is a little excessive and am wondering how difficult it is to do myself. Thanks in advance for any help!

By the way, how are the front tires wearing? Evenly? Inner wear? Outer wear?

If your hubs were bad you would get a moan at 45 to 65 that you would be able to vary by doing S-turns, if you don't have a moan, and you don't have play in the hub bearings I doubt they are a problem.

Ball joints. I had a bad lower ball joint on my LF. It caused my car to squat, the tire angled out at the bottom and the inner edge of the tire wore out.

This is why I ask about the TYPE of tire wear

One other thing, if you rotate your tires every 7K miles you will even out the wear the front tires wear the edges from the wheel assembly movement and the rear tires wear flat, rotate and you even them out

[adallak]

I took off the control arm and drilled out the rivets with a drill press. No pilot holes, low speed.