Haynes and Bentley tell us wishbones must be changed complete if a ball joint fails. Not true! - it is possible, but difficult, to change individual ball joints. I bought both inner and outer ball joints on Ebay, thinking they may come in handy. My 320i failed MOT on outer ball joint, 3 weeks after having M3 solid offset bushes fitted to cope with lowered suspension. Wasn't going to spend another Ԛ£80+ on new M3 bushes, so changed ball jointsas follows:
1) Remove wishbone.
2) angle-grind cup off back of faulty ball joint, knock out ball joint pin and seat.
3) Mount wishbone in vice, set up hacksaw inside ball joint so you can cut through the outer ring of the ball joint. BE CAREFUL not to cut in to the wishbone. The reason for cutting through the ball joint outer is to relieve pressure of press-fitted ball joint so you can knock it out with a drift
4) I've got a small fly-press, so I put the new ball joint in the freezer for 3 hours, heated up the yoke on the wishbone, and pressed the new ball joint in.
If you don't have a press, get a local engineer/garage to press new ball joints in (or old ones out!)
Individual ball joint change on wishbones
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Treeman612
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Martinaston
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How much did you pay for them on ebay ?
There is NO nucleus.
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Davenotouring
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I did just my outer balljoint for MoT last week...
From GSF or ECP they are about Ԛ£10 for the better quality ones. About a quid cheaper for the crap ones. Not worth that!
I replaced the rear bushes too from BMW.
Was gonna do the inner ones but they weren't in stock when I had the arms off, and they weren't that bad.
Changed mine using the 1000tonne press at work!
From GSF or ECP they are about Ԛ£10 for the better quality ones. About a quid cheaper for the crap ones. Not worth that!
I replaced the rear bushes too from BMW.
Was gonna do the inner ones but they weren't in stock when I had the arms off, and they weren't that bad.
Changed mine using the 1000tonne press at work!
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Treeman612
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Got a single outer b/joint for Ԛ£3 plus Ԛ£2 postage, and a pair of inner b/j (with the very long pin) for Ԛ£6 plus Ԛ£4 postage. Don't see them very often though on Ebay, but I can give the part numbers here so people can get them off a factor:
Outer ball joint (to suspension strut) - ap Lockheed TC284
Inner b/j - to subframe - Quinton Hazell QSJ997S
Seeing how cheap replacement arms are (around Ԛ£30 plus vat, delivery) I wouldn't normally bother changing individual joints. It was the very expensive M3 bushes made me do it!
Outer ball joint (to suspension strut) - ap Lockheed TC284
Inner b/j - to subframe - Quinton Hazell QSJ997S
Seeing how cheap replacement arms are (around Ԛ£30 plus vat, delivery) I wouldn't normally bother changing individual joints. It was the very expensive M3 bushes made me do it!
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tourer-dan
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Sounds worth it if you have ally arms, they're loads of money.