I've had a bit of rattle in the front driver's side recently, and my mechanic said he thinks it's the front lower ball joint.

Some googling seems to indicate that it's built into the upright and not individually replaceable (which seems crazy for a wear item) but I did see something on ebay listed as "g37 front lower ball joint"


I also saw a thread that seemed to indicate it generally just needed tightening.

Any guidance?

Worst case scenario: where's the cheapest place to get an upright w/ balljoint

 

Chris, is your G lowered? If so the front end link may be another place I'd check.

 

yes lowered on swift springs, spc kit f&r

as in the swaybar end link? he did say that also needed changing, I was thinking of doing that and seeing if it cleared up the rattle. cheap enough

 

Yep, the sway links, maybe you'll get lucky

 

is there any actual quality difference in end links? I see $11-$25 on rock auto and I'd imagine that OEM is 25% higher than that

 

Good question, wish I had an answer
I just got OEM ones, I think they were about $20-25 IIRC.

 

Chris, my dealer mentioned play in my one of my lower front ball joints. I don't like my dealer very much and did my own investigating. There isn't a lot of information on the ball joints in this car, it doesn't seem to be a commonly discussed topic.

I found that the ball joint is part of the lower control arm, faces the ground, and is not replaceable. Similar to you, I read that they often need tightening as rather than a castle nut and cotter pin, a regular nut is used and the cotter pin prevents it from backing out entirely (as opposed to stopping it from rotating entirely).

Upon inspecting my front suspension this weekend, I did not observe any play (wiggled wheel up and down). The boot appeared to be intact. I was not prepared to tighten the nut and did not attempt to do so.

A new lower control arm is ~300 from what I've read, I hope it is just a sway bar link in your case.

Keep us posted, pics are nice too!

 

To check for play in your ball joints, raise the wheel with a floor jack under the control arm. Tire only needs to be an inch or so off the ground, stick a good sized pry bar under the tire and pry up on the tire. If you have play you have a bad ball joint, shaking the wheel around by hand won't do it.