discovered ball joint boot leak

[dbbspider]

I was greasing the ball joints and found both uppers and lower leaking grease.

 

 

I went ahead and replaced them all (new upper control arms and lower ball joints and tie rods). I attempted to drill these rivets out on the lowers with zero success. I had to remove the lower control arms and take them to a shop to remove them. Even the shop had a difficult time removing them.

 

 

While in there, I tested the front shocks (original factory) and they were shot. I compressed them by hand and it just stayed compressed. So I replaced the shocks.

 

 

Found Poly sway bar bushing and end links (Energy Suspension) for $35 so I replaced the original stocks.

 

 

I had some down time while the LCAs were at the shop so I went ahead and greased the front wheel bearing by removing that ABS sensor from the top of the hub, cleaned the area and pumped wheel bearing grease in there.

 

After I installed everything and got an alignment, the truck runs like new. Even with the frustrations, cuts & scrapes, bloody knuckles, and thousands of cuss words, it was absolutely worth it. I saved a bunch of money on doing the labor myself.

 

 

 

 

[xXZ-71Xx]

Nice, I have been doing all the same things to my trucks. Shocks,Hubs,inner/outer tie rods,ball joints,bushings... I priced how much it would be for the local garage to do just the ball joints and there quote for just labor was $300, For about $100 less than that I was able to buy high quality ball joints, control arms and bushings and I know it was done right. Trucks ride great now.

[white1500]

What was the total parts cost if you don't mind sharing? And did you buy each part separately or as a kit?

[dbbspider]

Gabriel shocks $18 ea

moog lower ball joints $55ea

Moog upper control arms $55 ea

Outer tie rod $34 ea

Sway bushings/endlinks $35

 

I purchased all separately, online except for the tie rods (local auto parts store) I think eBay has the kits for super cheap but they are not moog which I wanted. If I was to do it again, I would buy new lower control arms instead of just the lower ball joints. Less hassle.

[Jsdirt]

I did the lower ball joints on my '07 - they failed inspection at 38k miles. I managed to milk it to 50k or so - by then they were SMOKED. Ungreasable too, OEM.

 

You should see how much fun it is removing the lowers from these new body trucks! What a friggin horror show. Almost broke my press installing the new ones. Couldn't get the press in position to remove them, so I pounded the holy hell out of them for quite some time before they finally came out of there. what a pain in the ass! Sure as hell wasn't going to install another set of useless non-greasable joints, so went with Moog.

 

 

Now I get to do the uppers. They've been smoked since around 58k (at 75k now). I've had the parts here for over a year - I'll get to it eventually ....

 

[BlackZ71Silverado]

It's good that you had the ball joints taken care of but don't expect much from those $18 shocks.

 

 

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[Jsdirt]

Yep - forgot to mention that. At 50k miles, one of the front struts was already blown - I would have never known if I wasn't doing a Bilstein upgrade at the time.

 

[dbbspider]

It's good that you had the ball joints taken care of but don't expect much from those $18 shocks.

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I installed these Gabriel's on my older s10 and they were fine w 60k miles on the shocks before I sold the s10. I use my Silverado just like I did my s10, mostly commute, sometimes I haul but nothing significant, I have nothing to tow, and no off road. So basically, I use my truck like a car. Now if I did tow, haul, and off road, I would go bilsteins all day. Plus these Gabriel's have lifetime warranty. I do the labor myself.

[ad101ill3]

Welcome these are quality from both sides

[Jsdirt]

We have to replace shocks up here every 30k usually, because our roads are such s**t. With all the tax money they collect, our streets should be paved with 24k gold ... but I digress ...

 

Even with that, I expect struts to at least make it 70 -80k miles, since they are usually of a bigger, beefier construction, and more difficult to change vs. a traditional shock absorber.