New Rear Upper Suspension Ball Joints

sir john · October 12, 2011

Ive needed these for ages. Its now beyond putting off any longer because the car is castoring too much. Ive just been quoted £112 each (incl VAT) for the upper wishbones that have the ball joints attached.

It sounds like a good price really, but the old girl is 18 years old now so i have to be careful what i spend to keep her going.

The list of other ailments is;

* needs new tyres (now)

* exhaust Y pipe to cats corroded (needs welding up all round)

* a couple of rust bubbles on front wings and above wind screen.

* NSF window getting slow (i can live with this).

* too thirsty (needs LPG fitting really @ c £900)

Your thoughts much appreciated.

And if you have replaced these arms recently, how much of an arse were they to do?

ambermarine · October 12, 2011

Ive needed these for ages. Its now beyond putting off any longer because the car is castoring too much. Ive just been quoted £112 each (incl VAT) for the upper wishbones that have the ball joints attached.

It sounds like a good price really, but the old girl is 18 years old now so i have to be careful what i spend to keep her going.

The list of other ailments is;

* needs new tyres (now)

* exhaust Y pipe to cats corroded (needs welding up all round)

* a couple of rust bubbles on front wings and above wind screen.

* NSF window getting slow (i can live with this).

* too thirsty (needs LPG fitting really @ c £900)

Your thoughts much appreciated.

And if you have replaced these arms recently, how much of an arse were they to do?

Sir john

I had Lexus do this 10 years ago and the guy that did it said it was a real stinker and the job took 6 hours .The rear suspension as to be virtually dismantled and the rear part of both exhausts have to come off. He could have been trying to justify the bill for labour but having just done the lower arm bushes on both sides I can see this as a job that will need a fair bit of time as the lower arm and the strut rod have also to be removed and that took us six hours on its own.I can honestly say that if these were requiring replacement on my car she would have to go to the Lexus heaven,like you the potential future problems on these cars when they get twenty years old have to taken into consideration when evaluating each job .

MUDGUTS · October 12, 2011

Well Sir John, as you may know, I have spent quite a lot on mine recently, straight after purchase. I keep a spreadsheet of exactly what I spend and the SS tells me (after I update the date and and current mileage:

Current months of ownership

Total cost so far

Total spent so far

Cost per mile since purchase

Average running cost per year (excluding depreciation)

I did a similar thing when I had my old BMW 525. I ran this on a shoe-string until the engine failed and that cost me around £70 on average per month to run over 21 months.

Doing something like this can put costs into perspective, so if for example the car has been reasonably good to run over a few years, then maybe you can justify spending a few hundred, as that may only put up the AVERAGE cost by a small amount.

Quite a lot of folk forget about things like depreciation and focus on what the car has cost recently. I guess you have had yours a while so that's not a factor.

While I'm on the subject: I can remember folk droning on about the fantastic MPG they were getting from their VW Golf Diesels when they became popular. They were totally discounting the depreciation and the servicing costs, plus sooner or later they would fill it with petrol and wreck the engine. One has to be aware of the bigger picture...

Personally, if you can get another year out of it for less than, say £900, that is only £75 per month.

sir john · October 13, 2011

Well Sir John, as you may know, I have spent quite a lot on mine recently, straight after purchase. I keep a spreadsheet of exactly what I spend and the SS tells me (after I update the date and and current mileage:

Current months of ownership

Total cost so far

Total spent so far

Cost per mile since purchase

Average running cost per year (excluding depreciation)

I did a similar thing when I had my old BMW 525. I ran this on a shoe-string until the engine failed and that cost me around £70 on average per month to run over 21 months.

Doing something like this can put costs into perspective, so if for example the car has been reasonably good to run over a few years, then maybe you can justify spending a few hundred, as that may only put up the AVERAGE cost by a small amount.

Quite a lot of folk forget about things like depreciation and focus on what the car has cost recently. I guess you have had yours a while so that's not a factor.

While I'm on the subject: I can remember folk droning on about the fantastic MPG they were getting from their VW Golf Diesels when they became popular. They were totally discounting the depreciation and the servicing costs, plus sooner or later they would fill it with petrol and wreck the engine. One has to be aware of the bigger picture...

Personally, if you can get another year out of it for less than, say £900, that is only £75 per month.

I know what you are saying Mudguts, Ive always thought of cars this way. Although i have never kept a spread sheet.

I dont think the LS is expensive to run. They may be thirsty but they dont cost much in repairs.

Apart from tyres mine cost £950 to buy in Sept 2008 and has cost £620 in parts and service items.

That includes a new alternator, disis and rotas, rear springs, front upper susp, spark pluga and brake pads.

I dont think thats bad for a 16+ year old car with c185k on the clock. Hense the concideration of spending more money on keeping the old girl on the road.

Malc · October 13, 2011

Your decision BUT if all these further costs are @£1k what else would you get for the money that you KNOW would be as good and as trouble and expense free for the future !

I wouldn't hesitate to spend the dosh ..... if you've got it to spend and have to otherwise have a car.

You know the tyres will last say 30,0000 miles and the wishbones won't ever need replacing again, nor the alternator, nor the ................. whatever else it is you've had done !

And you do of course love the car to bits.

Malc