So I have recently had shimmy in my steering wheel (tires have been balanced, and balanced again), and decided to take it in to have an alignment to see if there were any underlying problems. Well here is what was found and the cost. What do you guys think?

Front wheel bearings need re-packed (wheels are loose)
Lower Ball Joints need replaced (warranty is covering $459.48)
Alignment (around $100)

Total cost from the shop is about $950 and after the warranty takes out $459.48 (I have a $100 deductible) my cost is approximately $490.52. Does this seem fair? I canÆt really back out of this now, but I wanted to get some opinionsàsee if I need another shop in the future. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif" alt="" />

Also, is 96K miles normal for ball joint wear? What kind of things can make them wear prematurely? I am not much of a mechanic, so I thought I would ask for experienced opinions.

TIA, Mike <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/patriot.gif" alt="" />

I did my own. Much less then that. I did have to buy a portable press to do my upper and lower balljoints. And wheel bearings are a pain. But no where near 500$

The bearings work out to more like $290 or so.

Ball joints - $559.48 P/L including my $100 deductable charge.
Alignment - $100
Bearings - $290

2wd or 4wd Sport? If 2wd, that is highway robbery. Side street robbery if 4wd.



2wd front wheel bearings are this easy. DON'T get grease on disc friction surface or on pad friction material. Buy inner&outer bearings and inner hub seal from good auto parts store. Probably under $50. Good idea to install good new brake pads now, while it's apart, but in any case also get a squeeze tube of silicone brake lube. Add a tub of grease and one of those K-D tool red bearing packers, or buy a box of nitrile gloves and do it by hand. Put a gob of grease in the cup of your palm and push the outer rim of the bearing into the grease until it spews out the inner rim, fully filling all the area in the cage around the rollers. Clean is a very good way to keep the grease and bearing. jack it up safe and pull the wheel, then unbolt the brake caliper lower bolt (on the backside, 14mm probably), rotate the caliper up on the upper pin (keeping the pads in place until you are sure you know how they go back in. Slide the caliper inwards and off the pin. Note condition of slide pin surface and shaft of lower caliper bolt (s/b greasy, free of crud, shiny, and unpitted). Hang caliper to the side with wire with brake hose unstrained (check hose condition). Note steel dust cap in center of hub. Using large flat screwdriver, lever cap at the bulge around the outer rim just outboard of the cast iron hub bore, levering on the hub. Just a little at any one spot, moving around the cap to keep it coming square. Might have to tap outwards with a hammer to break it loose. Cheap part, so you can kill it to remove it if you have to.

Cap should have grease inside. Clean it out. Scrape all the grease you can off split cotter pin and large castle nut. Remove cotter pin (book says replace. I generally reuse. Have used a bent nail more than once...) and straighten it out. Before the next step, grasp the outer rim (NO grease, remember - new pair of gloves) on the sides, and wiggle the disc on the hub. Any movement slop between hub and spindle is bad, and what you are going to fix. Remove the castle nut and washer and lay aside cleanroom. wiggle the disc again and the outer bearing should walk out of the hub on the spindle. Remove the bearing and lay aside. Pull the hub off the spindle with the inner bearing and inner seal inside and lay aside. Note condition of spindle. Greasy, no crud, and shiny. Note running area of inner seal on spindle. Clean and shiny. I've filled minor pits with JBWeld and strip sanded smooth if necessary. Kinda rednek. Pry out old seal and discard. Lift out inner bearing. clean and examine hub bore, especially the steel bearing races pressed in for inner and outer bearings for the rollers to run on. Smooth, and shiny and no pits or scars of any kind. If bad, there are new ones in the bearing kit. It is kinda possible to drive them out with a steel drift and back in with a seal/race driver, but I prefer to have a machine shop do it. Always whack my hand at least half a dozen times. All good, then start to reassemble. Lay a solid layer of grease on the races insert packed inner bearing taper in. Drive in new seal (pack back of seal lip with grease first) with fat socket/pipe/seal driver, square and bottomed. Grease spindle and seal running area and no further back. Slide on hub straight and square, taking care of seal, and hold in square position and slide in outer bearing and sock into hub, then install washer and castle nut just light hand tight. Set up bearing preload by pulling castle nut up about 50ftlbs or so while rotating the hub to seat the bearings, then back off castle nut to just loose. no hub wiggling now. lightly tighten the castle nut while you gently rotate the hub until you get a light preload on the bearing, maybe an eighth to quarter turn past first tight. Don't overdo this. Insert cotter pin, rotating castle nut tighter slightly to line up castellations and spindle hole. Splay cotter pin legs around spindle. Fill hub dust cup with grease and drive back in with soft hammer. Grease brake upper slide pin and slather some brake grease in upper caliper pin bore. Need good pin rubber boots on caliper. Grease caliper bolt bore and bolt same way. Install new pads, after pressing caliper piston all the way in with caliper piston jack or BIG channel lock pliers or C-clamp visegrips or big c clamp. Good piston rubber boot? Has to be. Slide caliper onto upper caliper pin (grease will probably come out the steel bore cap hole on inner side - keep off pads and disc) and rotate over disc. Install lower caliper slide bolt, cleaning up slopped grease. Install wheel. WARNING!!! Pump up the brakes until you have a solid pedal before putting truck in gear!!!!

Now, take it to the stealer and have him do the balljoints AND alignment, latter only if that is a complete 3 angle alignment. If not, go to best recommended alignment shop in town for that part.

That's definitely robbery. You could REPLACE the front bearings and seals for around $70 throw in two new ball joints and then get the damn thing aligned if you really think you need it (i doubt it). I did my bearings and seals on my 4x4 in my driveway. gotta love stealerships!

Street-Side robbery on which part? All of it? <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/angry.gif" alt="" />

Sorry, I should have mentioned it is the AWD MS. And this is not a stealership...but a Meineke that I can walk to work from.

I know I might have been able to do them cheaper, but I am to the point that I don't really have the time (P/T school - F/T work) nor the place/tools to do this stuff. But it sounds like I need to make the time, I did find new bearings at Autozone for $50...<img src="/forums/images/graemlins/drunk.gif" alt="" />

Well I appreciate the comments...luckily I am still under the aftermarket warranty...saved me $450 lol.