Replace or not.

[JaseNZ 53]

Gavin has got some Solid type meyle outer ball joints comming in for me and i am wondering if i have to replace the inner bushes on the control arm as well. Currently they seem fine there appears to be absolutly no slop or play in them.

I just don't want to spend money where i don't need to.

On the other hand is it a case of since i am doing the outer i might as well do the inner since the car has to go in to have the old ones pressed out, might make sense to get them to do the inner ones as well since its all apart.

[*Glenn* 854]

If your referring to the castor bushes, I'd do those too. The inner ball joints are a part of the arm, but I understand there may be aftermarket replacement ones of these too

[JaseNZ 53]

The inner ball joints do not appear to wear much so I would suggest that you hold off on these

If you are making the effort to replace the outer ball joints with the Meyle solid ones , then I would strongly suggest you replace the control arm bush (CAB - Connects arm to base of fire wall / chassis rail) with the M3 type which is offset and much firmer.

You also get an increase in caster (with the CAB) which eliminates tramlining and gives better stability and turn in.

This combination gives a significant improvement in handling and precision doing one or the other just makes one end firm with the other is still sloppy.

P.S. I did this about 2 years ago and also added M3 top plates to get even more caster

P.P.S whata re you paying for the ball joints?

Nice, Will look at doing the CAB , Was just looking at tidying the handling up a bit, Its just a family car and will never be on the track or anything but we do take long drives and tidying this up would make me happy. Meyle joints are costing me around the $100 mark for the pair give or take 20-30 can't quite remember Gavin is going to give me the final cost when they arrive. How much did the CAB change over cost if you can remember.

[kiwi328i 118]

Gavin has got some Solid type meyle outer ball joints comming in for me and i am wondering if i have to replace the inner bushes on the control arm as well. Currently they seem fine there appears to be absolutly no slop or play in them.

I just don't want to spend money where i don't need to.

On the other hand is it a case of since i am doing the outer i might as well do the inner since the car has to go in to have the old ones pressed out, might make sense to get them to do the inner ones as well since its all apart.

I just did my outer ball joints. If you are doing them yourself, you probably wont want to do anything else. They are painful. My inner ones were passable and as 3pedals puts it dont 'go' in the same way. If you look at the physics of that arm, they dont do bugger all in the big scheme of things, which is why the outers go well before the inners. The big arm bushes were fine on mine, so I didnt bother replacing those, but I might have a fiddle with some poly, when they do and mend them myself. If I had the money and time I would do 'it all'. Depends on your priorities I guess.

If you intend on keeping the car for a considerable time, you could do the inners, but then you might as well do the arm bushes too, then you wont have to take them off for ages and ages.

But considering you said you dont want to spend the money, then I would say dont.

[JaseNZ 53]

I just did my outer ball joints. If you are doing them yourself, you probably wont want to do anything else. They are painful. My inner ones were passable and as 3pedals puts it dont 'go' in the same way. If you look at the physics of that arm, they dont do bugger all in the big scheme of things, which is why the outers go well before the inners. The big arm bushes were fine on mine, so I didnt bother replacing those, but I might have a fiddle with some poly, when they do and mend them myself. If I had the money and time I would do 'it all'. Depends on your priorities I guess.

If you intend on keeping the car for a considerable time, you could do the inners, but then you might as well do the arm bushes too, then you wont have to take them off for ages and ages.

But considering you said you dont want to spend the money, then I would say dont.

I am going to go ahead and do the lot. I am just waiting to hear back from Gavin to see if he can get me the solid CAB's. I am not going to do it myself as i don't have the tools to. For me its eaiser to buy the parts then just put the car in and get them all put in. I did the rear rotors and pads a few months ago and just got a set of rotors and pads for the front that i am going to put in after i get the joints put in. Yup i intend keeping this car for quite awhile.

I love the look and feel of it. I just got an armrest setup off of Brent and when that turns up i am going to get it recovered to suit the car.

[JaseNZ 53]

The M3 C.A.B is an 80 hardness modified bush material, most of the "aftermarket" Urethane ones are 65 or 70 so they are NOT as firm as the OE M3 ones.

So if you can not guarantee the quality of the aftermarket ones go for the M3 they are 7 to 10 days from a dealer if not in stock

And they were cheaper than the lesser quality aftermarket ones when I checked last.

Yup Gavin has some M3 ones in stock so i have gotton him to send me those, Just got to wait for the outers to turn up and it will be all go. Looking forward to see how much difference it makes to the front end.