Now that its starting to get warm out ive noticed a clunking/creaking noise from my front drivers side. I took it to the dealer earlier today and they told me i would need to replace the drivers side ball joint, and that i would have buy a brand new control arm which would cost about 740$. I did some searching on the forums and tried to find if this is the case.(seems like its not). I found multiple threads saying to get the "whiteline front roll center kit"

Would this be all i would need to purchase to fix this/is there something better or do i need something else?
http://www.maperformance.com/whiteli...l#.UWNOqhnR2Y8

 

They are telling you to buy the whole control arm because it comes as an assembly. Yes you can buy aftermarket roll center's but I think it has to be pressed in.

 

yea thats exactly what they said, i think ill end up ordering the whiteline kit

 

yup, the white line kit does replace the stock ball joints with extended ones. they allow for better camber adjustment for people who lowered their cars. it comes with 2 ball joints and 2 outer tie rod ends. u need to press them in and get an alignment. i had them and they went bad. i went on ebay and bought whole control arms with stock ball joints.

 

what aspect of it failed?

 

Well the passenger side made clicking sounds at around 25k miles from left to right movement and now at 35k Tue droverside balljoint seems to be loose from the controll arm. It has too much up and down play. The tie rods that came with it went bad as well but because of the inner OEM tie rods. They got too rusted and could not be moved. I would get them again if I needed them but I don't . $200 for the parts, and if ur not doing them ur self another $200 + for labor. My car is about .75" dropped so I didn't need them. Camber is still -1.5 all around and 0 toe with stock parts. Again I replaced parts as they went bad.

 

So what else is done to the frt suspension--at 35k you have a bad ball joint, control arm , and tie rods. You only have a 3/4 drop. I have the same drop and 85k on the car and suspension is great.. just trying to get to the bottom of all the worn out parts-- whats the off set of your wheels? Other suspension work you have had done. etc? Fixing the parts is fixing the symptom not the problem.

 

I'm sorry I should have worded my statements better. My car has 85k miles as well. When I said 25k and 35k i ment the life span of the parts. After about 25-35k miles the after market ball joints went bad. Before that the OEM stuff was fine. Btw, sometime the parts are the problem. Balljoints and bushings are wear and tear parts. They will get bad. My car never got in to any accidents at all. All the suspension geometries are good. And my suspension mods are whiteline endlinks, stance ss+ perrin rear sway bar. I also changed drive shaft , mustache bar, and diff bushings. btw I had to add additional washer to the endlinks to keep them from clunking, when they do clunk they sound just like control arm clunk. I hope I'm helping

 

Did you end up getting a new control arm?

I am not sure why the dealer is quoting you 700+.

According to this website, it's about $290, but just not sure if this is a genuine OEM part.
http://www.trademotion.com/shoppingc...Dcontrol%20arm

 

I did not end up getting one, Im thinking of ordering the whiteline kit this week, ive just been busy and havent gotten around to it yet.

 

Can you describe this "clunk" a little more in detail please? Ive got a clunk in my passenger side which I thought was from my camber plates being worn out. They have since been replaced and Im still getting this clunk.

How can you test to see if the ball joint is worn out? I would be pumped to find the culprit to this. Not to mention the RCK has been on my list for a while so this will certainty lock up the deal assuming itll fix my issue.

 

It wasnt so much a "clunking" noice, it sounded closer to something loose/moving around near the driver side wheel, i could also feel it right near the clutch. Hope that helps a little.
Im not sure as on how to test to see if the ball joint is worn. Maybe someone can chime in. I took mine to the dealer after being so frustrated as to where the noise was coming from and they told me the ball joint was bad. Hope

 

Hmmm this loose sound I think may be just what I am experiencing. Thank you so much. What I am hearing isnt really a clunk but yeah as you described a sort of loose sound as if there is play in something. For example when I drive over a wavy road I hear the sound. Its not a sharp pop or anything like that.

when you say you felt it by the clutch do you mean with your foot while your driving? Mine certainly sounds like its coming from the passenger side but I could drive with a friend and try and diagnose it that way.

I will do some research on a test for a bad bad joint and see what I come up with unless someone else here chimes in. Thanks for your help I appreciate it.

 

I hear the noise the same exact way if the road is perfect no noise, if i hit a bump,wavy ect i hear it. yes i feel it with my foot when resting it near the clutch. Hopefully after i install the whiteline kit itll fix up the issue. Ill post back if it does.

 

Cool definitely keep us posted. I would also love to find out how to diagnose a worn ball joint as I hate just throwing new parts at it. At least if its not the ball joint and I replace it with the RCK, in the end it will be an upgrade.

Nonetheless this one is frustrating me because I lived with it for a while knowing my spherical bearings on my camber plates were worn so I associated that noise with them. Then I picked up some new plates and I still had a noise. So then I got some new carrier housings for my camber plates to make sure the ones I got werent a bad batch and sure enough the noise is still there.

It never phased me that it could be something else. I wonder if my worn camber plates killed my ball joint quicker? My car now has 58k which isnt that much but it do autox it so she gets her fair share of beatings.