Replacing lower Ball Joint On 2006 Ford Focus: This is just how I replace the lower ball joint on my ford focus. works the best for me, takes about 1/2 hour once you get to it.
Don't do this. Because the car is now old you can pick up the whole arm assembly for about $10 more than the ball joint. You'll end up damaging the arm with the grinder - then you wont be able to get the rivets out - unless you're some kind of engineering god..and even then the effort and pain isnt worth the saving - esp as youll need to take the arm off anyway to have any chance of doing this and retaining your sanity. This guy makes it look easy with edits and the fact he prob does this stuff daily. Honestly just replace the arm - Ive been there
After drilling a pocket into the rivet, my air tool would not knock out the bottom half. After a lot of frustration, I got out my Hilti 350 gun, put in a piece of iron rod just a bit longer than the length required to activate the firing plunger, picked out the lowest Hilti shot (I had green grade) and fired that pin into that drill hole. For "safety" I put a heavy foam mat between me and where I was shooting. That rivet was no match for that process and 3 shots later the ball joint was free. Certainly not for everyone but it sure did the job quick and effectively.
Also a critique of the video I would put the nuts and bolts the other way round - gives them better weather protection and gravity helps the nuts stay in place
Currently in the middle of this job and the rivets are refusing to come out, I drilled through the entire rivet and tried again and have gotten minimal movement. Guess I have to drill the rivets out.
What a mess , + u gotta remove the hub assy, takes more time, may as well replace the wishbone àt least you'll have new bushes. Hope you painted over the grind marks so they don't rust.
Never worth arsing around with: false economy...for a little more money (£58.00 the pair) replace the whole arm/wishbone. Just did the same job on my 2006 C-max....dead easy.
If you don't have the air chisel or the angle grinder or the proper drill bits or the proper drill. Then just undo the sway bar link, the rotor, breaks, caliper and lower ball joint. Then simply remove the lower control arm and buy another control arm with ball joint already attached and greased. It will save you lots of time, plus it will have new control arm bushings which the vehicle probably needs anyways plus it will be guaranteed for life. You'll pay around 80 bucks more but I guarantee you'll be thanking my ass if you read this comment before you start this project. Just make sure you have the proper sockets for the nuts. Universal socket adapters and wrenches. 3/8" My lower ball joint required a T50 torx.
I ground the top of the rivets off then knocked the joint off, job done. Can't see why you need to drill it out and risk damaging the arm? And you do the joint because a new arm is loads more expensive and these cars are not worth the money!
Smashing against side of balljoint could distort the control arm and other components, you use a drill to cause minimal stress to arm resulting in an empty wallet lol 👍👍👍
Had to do the other side last week, Ford are a choice motor to work on, absolutely everything seized rusted and not playing nice. Took about an hour of heat and beating to loose the pinch bolt Grinder on the rivets, my love of fords evaporated with that joke clutch adjustment on the pedal on the mk3? oh and the rust
@@edwardm9227 have you tryed working on a peogeot brakes aint bad but everything else is a major ball ache well I say brakes not too bad but who puts a t55 bolt to hold caliper carrier, everything is covered in plastic under car which holds water causing corrosion, did an exhaust change last week on one only suppost to be middle section but back box fell off as joint to box completely corroded away
this is so stupid my rivitelsnon my 08 focus WILL NOT COME OUT! I FEEL LIKE IVE PRAVTICALLY destroyed my control arm in the process, did it exactly like this an they won't budge:(
The only problem with replacing the control arms is the quality of the bushings and the ball joint. Should I decide to just replace the ball joints Id go with quality joints
let me tell you something else the bushings go bad in the arms so when you get done with all that work and a bushing goes bad then you have to change it anyway listen to the pros who do this every day this is the hack way
Some people are going to die because they are going to botch it worse than you have. They will grind too much or crack the arm. Suddenly they find themselves veering hard left or right into other cars or the central reservation on the freeway. Maybe do a video on ‘correctly replacing the ball joint ‘Part’ (all of it it comes with) they cost like $20 a side brand spanking new from an oe part
just change the arm out there not that pricey. better hope you do a good job or it wont work right and you will need to replace it anyway i have done so many control arm replacements this is a waste of time and so much more work there are so many good videos on replacing the control arms on the focus . I have been working on the focus since 2004
This is what is called a botch job. The official Ford service manual, as well as the Haynes/Chilton clearly state that separate replacement of the front ball joint is not to be performed and is potentially dangerous. If the ball joints need replacement in the Focus you are supposed to replace the entire lower control arm assembly, not what is shown here.
Lmfao yer tell that people all the time all garages replace them and if it was dangerous you wouldn't be able to purchase them from euro car parts all bolts supplied with joints are high grade bolts so if something goes wrong it's the mechanics error for either over tightening or under tight, plus if tapered pin iisnt seated correctly that causes bit issues too, but to be honest a complete control arm wont cost much more anyway, just more labour cost 👍👍👍👍👍 oh and most Haynes manuals are outdated anyhow as cars get old and book info does as well
