Quote:
Originally Posted by emerydc8
Anyone have any idea why the 400E does not allow individual ball joint replacement?
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At some point, I think it was the 94-95 model year, they switched to a ball joint that is not serviceable. As you have discovered you have to replace the entire control arm if the joint goes bad.
I'm not really sure why they made this change, if I had to guess I'd say that somebody figured out they could save 10 cents per ball joint if they made it non-replaceable, or maybe they thought they could make more $$$ down the line since whoever the poor sap was that owned the car in 2008 would have to pony up $275 for an entire control arm assembly instead of $28 for a ball-joint.
On the upside IIRC the new control arms come with new bushings already installed - so you have that going for you... which is nice.