Time for the first big project of the year on my car.

My brakes aren’t that worn, but I didn’t like the rotor rust and there was a bit of pulsation, and brakes on this car are cheap, so I decided to replace them. Also, I had a suspension squeak in the front that I didn’t pay much mind to until I started at Honda and everybody started telling me my ball joints are bad, including one coworker who told of when one broke at 70 miles an hour.

There are three ways to remove pressed in lower ball joints. One is to use a hammer, another is to use an air hammer, and the third way is to use a ball joint press tool. This car has 19 years of rust holding what are probably the original ball joints in. On the right side the air hammer was able to drive it out, but on the left it wouldn’t budge and it took the ball joint press to remove it.

While fiddling around with the ball joint press on the right side, one of the CV boot clamps suddenly popped, so I just replaced it with a zip tie for sake of time.

If you’re wondering, I got Moog Problem Solver ball joints.

Nice new shiny brakes. Eventually I’ll replace the calipers so it all looks nice in there. Looking forward to doing more work on my car soon.

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-Dan