Got the time today to get the car on the lift and give it an oil change, fuel filter etc. and to fix that clanking on my drivers side wheel when i turn, and the constant shaking of my steering wheel. I thought it might of been that the boot has busted/ripped and leaked the grease out and casue the joint to make the noise and what not. Well its not that. What i did notice is a crazy amount of wear on the inside and out side of my front tires. If i take the tire and shake it back and forth, the wheel wobbles a hell of alot and there is alot of movement in the upper control arms ball joints. What could this be? Thanks

 

ball joints on your control arms are shot, you got 4 of em to check

 

Can i replace jut the ball joints or do i have to replace the control arms too?

 

unfortunately, youoll have to replace the whole control arm. look at your ball joints to see if theyre spewing grease or are flat or if theyre really easy to move around. i believe its possible to only replace ball joins on GM cars via the drill out method, etc etc

 

the joints seem fine from a visable standpoint, no tears/holes and no grease anywhere. Dont seem flat either. Butwhen the car is on the lift, and you can shake the entire wheel rather well adn the steering wheel will not budge. The wheel kinda just moves on its on axis. Is there a huge difference in the OE and the "upgraded" aftermarket ones?

 

definitely ball joints, it shouldnt move at all, the spindle is being suspended off of those ball joint contacts. i never tried the upgraded stuff but i just installed new oem stuff and it seems to be working just fine for now.

 

im just wondering if its worth the extra cash to get the upgraded stuff, anyone every use the upgraded stuff?

 

Got under the car, last night to fix them. The first wheel took me a good an hour and a half, the first bold that held the two arms in place was a pain in the butt. Once i figured out how it was cake for the next wheel, took maybe 30 minutes for the second wheel. And the difference is night and day, it was great. only took me $160.00 for all four arms. and they were Audi parts. Got them cheap. But thanks for the info guys, was a great help.

brad