Took my prelude into the shop today for alignment, but found out
my upper and lower ball joints are almost ready to come out.....
i was given an estimate for about 650 dollars for the upper n lower
and another 100 for the alignment after... can anyone tell me if this is
reasonable or am i getting fucked here?

fucked

OEM replacements are probably going to run $200 for all 4. Maybe a bit more or less I don't know the year. From there it's all about labor cost. Most shops are around $100 an hour now. So if parts are $200 and it takes 2-3 hours at a minimum you are looking at $400-500 pretty easy. I'm sure there are more expensive parts and they may be quoting 4 hours for replacement.


Your best bet is to get a different shop the check it out and give you an estimate. Never trust their word unless it's a place that has been treating you right for years and it isn't a chain shop like Tire Kingdom or some stupid shit like that.

ball joints should cost no more then 40$ a piece at the most and dont take more then an hour to do


ball joints 40X4=160 (both sided MAX)

Labor 95X2= 190 (2 hours MAX)

alignment 100


total 450 at the very very most to have a shop do them


also, you can do it at home

Don't tell a prelude driver to do upper and lower ball joints at home. He probably doesn't own a socket set. Gonna fuck this kid up lol

might as well buy a new prelude...

whats a pickle fork?

go to rockauto.com
buy the oem part
buy a socket set, hammer, breaker bar, wrench set.
go it at home. hondas are one of the cars that's easy to work it.

Prelude eh? Guessing mid to late 90's given the ball joints have gone on ya...
Guessing its the 2.3L w/o vtec.
Looking up a 1996 Honda Prelude, 2.3L i4
Now heres the thing... They sell the ball joint separately, and its around 15$ for the lower one. They also have a tool that you've got to have to press it out (not really have to have.. but the shop will say you've gotta use it), its 100$, but they've got it at auotzone as a loaner tool. You just gotta put a deposit on it to take it home with ya. You get it back so long as you don't break it.
OR:
They sell the entire upper control arm with the joints already in. Simple unbolt/remount job there, before the alignment ofc. Thats gonna run 120$ per side on the upper, 110$ per side on the lower.
So thats 460$ and you'd have all brand new equipment under there. Verses just having new joints on existing parts.
You can probably find a shop that'll do it a whole hell of a lot cheaper than 100$.
Guys around here advertise 40$ front end alignments.

Note: This is going by the autozone website for prices. If you know someone with a dealer account, they can get them cheaper. The shop will also be able to get them much cheaper. Keep that in mind.

i put a new lower ball joint in my truck for 13 bucks....