2004 VW Passat balljoint

John.

hi, I have a 2004 VW passat that just failed the NCT because an upper balljoint is worn. The guy in the NCT centre pointed out which balljoint is worn (the one closest to the front of the car)

Ive tried looking on Micksgarage and IrishAutoParts for a replacement balljoint but I cant seem to find it. Anyone have any idea of where I would get one? Also do I need to replace just the worn one or the whole unit thats there? I preferably need to do it cheaply

Thanks

John.

Hi, I have a 1.9 2004 VW Passat. It recently failed the NCT due to a worn ball joint. The guy in the NCT centre pointed out which ball joint it was that needed to be replaced. It is one of the upper ball joints in the front suspension (OffsideFront, Foremost)

Im having trouble finding the part to buy. I have tried a few places like Micksgarage and IrishAutoParts

Has anyone replaced one of these before? Is it a big job? Or just a cause of undoing 2 bolts and replacing the arm and ball joint with a new one?

Thanks

biko

Balljoints can be tricky, especially if you don't have the right tools like a separator etc.

Do you want to replace it yourself?

The Sidewards Man

biko wrote: »

Balljoints can be tricky, especially if you don't have the right tools like a separator etc.

Everyone possesses a hammer I would have thought.

biko

It won't always work with just a hammer.

You will need a balljoint separator a lot of the time. Particularly if you're DIYing it on your back in the driveway.

Here is one used on a Passat:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mpjfOFaOe8

The Sidewards Man

Nonsense, been using hammers to break ball joints on cars, jeeps and tractors with years.
How would you do a job if you had to use a ball joint separator on a ball joint you had to reuse as a lot of them damage the rubber boot?

Tropheus

You need to buy the full control arm. The Passat has four control arms for each front wheel. Two at the bottom and two at the top. Each control arm has a bushing at one end and the ball joint at the other.

Here is a link to them on Micksgarage. They have them under wishbones.

http://www.micksgarage.com/search/wishbones/volkswagen/volkswagen%20passat/passat%202000%20to%202005/1.9%20tdi/101

Having done one before, I would agree that's it not that easy to separate them. I can't see how a hammer would work as they are really held tight by the taper. You can use a ball joint separator and it doesn't matter if you damage the rubber on the one you're taking of as you're replacing it anyway.

The Sidewards Man

Have you really done one before as they have no taper iirc? Don't they have a bolt running through that likes to seize up?

John.

biko wrote: »

It won't always work with just a hammer.

You will need a balljoint separator a lot of the time. Particularly if you're DIYing it on your back in the driveway.

Here is one used on a Passat:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mpjfOFaOe8

Thanks for that!

John.

Tropheus wrote: »

You need to buy the full control arm. The Passat has four control arms for each front wheel. Two at the bottom and two at the top. Each control arm has a bushing at one end and the ball joint at the other.

Here is a link to them on Micksgarage. They have them under wishbones.

http://www.micksgarage.com/search/wishbones/volkswagen/volkswagen%20passat/passat%202000%20to%202005/1.9%20tdi/101

Having done one before, I would agree that's it not that easy to separate them. I can't see how a hammer would work as they are really held tight by the taper. You can use a ball joint separator and it doesn't matter if you damage the rubber on the one you're taking of as you're replacing it anyway.

brilliant thanks! was looking in the wrong section on micksgarage. all i could find was the full suspension kit

John.

Tropheus wrote: »

You need to buy the full control arm. The Passat has four control arms for each front wheel. Two at the bottom and two at the top. Each control arm has a bushing at one end and the ball joint at the other.

Here is a link to them on Micksgarage. They have them under wishbones.

http://www.micksgarage.com/search/wishbones/volkswagen/volkswagen%20passat/passat%202000%20to%202005/1.9%20tdi/101

Having done one before, I would agree that's it not that easy to separate them. I can't see how a hammer would work as they are really held tight by the taper. You can use a ball joint separator and it doesn't matter if you damage the rubber on the one you're taking of as you're replacing it anyway.

Does the strut need to be taken out for it to be changed?

Tropheus

The Sidewards Man wrote: »

Have you really done one before as they have no taper iirc? Don't they have a bolt running through that likes to seize up?

The top ones have a single pinch bolt which is very prone to seizing. Once you get that out, they're handy enough. The bottom ones are tapered and a bugger to shift in my experience.