Ball joint replacement

joanne_d_3

Hi all .

My husband picked his taxi up from the mechanic today after getting the cv boot replaced and the mechanic has told him that he noticed that the ball joints are "on their way out" .

Now , we know that this would be serious if the joints failed and so as the car is a taxi (its a skoda octavia 1.9 tdi , 2003) we DO intend to get it done sooner rather than later but can anyone give us a rough figure of how much it will cost to have this done ? WE WILL BE SUPPLYING THE PARTS SO WE ONLY NEED A ROUGH ESTIMATE OF THE COST TO FIT THEM.

It seems everytime this certain mechanic has our car in for repair he "checks it over" for us out of goodwill (yeah right !) and finds something which is "on its way out".

Obviously we will be getting a second opinion about the ball joints before take the car to him to be repaired but before then , would anyone have an opinion on the cost of having ball joints fitted ?

Thanks

joanne

KillerWatt

Is it bolts or rivets holding the existing balljoints on?

Sometimes it works out much cheaper to change the whole lower arm complete.

blue_haddock

The parts are not expensive at all so most of the cost would be in the labour to do the job.

http://www.carpartswarehouse.co.uk/search_results.php?se_pc_id=12&se_sc_id=70&se_ma_id=67&se_mo_id=1145&se_yr_id=64&se_es_id=22&se_bt_id=11

mikey72

An hours labour probably.

KillerWatt

mikey72 wrote: »

An hours labour probably.

Plus the cost of having the steering geometry done as well.

Hammyman

KillerWatt wrote: »

Plus the cost of having the steering geometry done as well.

You shouldn't need the tracking checking.

£20-£40 for the part, an hours labour. I'd be wanting change out of £80.

KillerWatt

Hammyman wrote: »

You shouldn't need the tracking checking.

It will be the caster angle that is affected when the new (nice & tight) lower ball joints go on in place of the sloppy ones, which in turn will have an effect on the toe at various speeds.
Of course a simple tracking guage won't help with setting caster angles, hence the need for a proper geometry check.

mikey72

KillerWatt wrote: »

It will be the caster angle that is affected when the new (nice & tight) lower ball joints go on in place of the sloppy ones, which in turn will have an effect on the toe at various speeds.
Of course a simple tracking guage won't help with setting caster angles, hence the need for a proper geometry check.

If you do check it, how do you adjust the castor angle on a skoda octavia?

Hintza

KillerWatt wrote: »

............ or rivets holding the existing balljoints on?

Are some riveted on now :eek: (oh god I'm getting old)

joanne_d_3

blue_haddock wrote: »

The parts are not expensive at all so most of the cost would be in the labour to do the job.

http://www.carpartswarehouse.co.uk/search_results.php?se_pc_id=12&se_sc_id=70&se_ma_id=67&se_mo_id=1145&se_yr_id=64&se_es_id=22&se_bt_id=11

Hi Blue-haddock.

As per my original post , we have already priced the parts..... they are £12 each from our local car shop , my query was how much would a mechanic charge (just really roughly) to FIT them ?

Thanks joanne

joanne_d_3

Hammyman wrote: »

You shouldn't need the tracking checking.

£20-£40 for the part, an hours labour. I'd be wanting change out of £80.

Hi Hammyman.

We have already priced the ball joints...they are £24 for the pair in our local car parts shop.

So...are you reckoning it shouldnt cost more than £40 to fit them ?

The problem being , if you read the op again you will see where i mention the mechanic....hes a GOOD mechanic and he gets the job done in record quick time - which is very important to us as the car is A TAXI and so if its off the road then we are not earning:mad: BUT....Everytime we use this mechanic , he tells us hes "legally obligated" to check the car over to look for faults ???? This means that everytime we get one repairr done and go to collect the car , he has a list of OTHER things that need doing !

We only bought the car a lot of weeks ago !

joanne