Honda CR-V Ball joint

sugar5

When I went to sears for new tires, they told me I needed an upper right ball joint. There was percievable motion in the tire. The price would have been $81 for the part plus labor.

I brought the car to a local guy, and he replaced the ball joint AND the arm costing about $135. They said they didn't think you should be replacing the ball joint without replacing the arm. They also said the left side needed to be replaced (sears said nothing about that).

So, who is right, sears or my local guy? Should the arm also be replaced with the ball joint?

blueiedgod

Don't know the specifics of the actual replacement, but I am always questioning motives.

It is so wasy to scare a customer into a repair that may not have been needed.

What kind of "motion in the tire" was shown?

Do you trust the "local guy?"

sugar5

In general I do trust the local guy. This is the first time he has actually worked on our cars, but we have bought a used car from him and lots of parts to repair various cars and he has always given us discounts and deals. The best man in my wedding is one of his good friends. I trust that he thought it was the right decision, but I wonder if it really was.

I did not see the motion in the tire. They were trying to do an alignment when it was noticed. According to the information they had on CR-V's, any movement required a new ball joint. And although Sears said it was needed, they didn't get too upset when I said I wasn't going to have it done there. They didn't say the car was going to fall apart or anything, just that the wear on that tire would be uneven. And in fact it was with my last set of tires.

I also have a clunk sound coming from the right tire well area when I go over bumps. When we heard the ball joint was bad we figured that is what it was. But it is still there, although not as pronounced. Now we are thinking possibly the shocks or struts. I need to replace those as well someday. I don't think it's the brakes, we look at those every so often.