I can't find anything really in my service manual for it, and I've never done it before on any of my cars.

My skill level: Moderate
Car: '03 Mazda Protege DX, 2.0L
Tools: I have my entire workshop at my disposal, but don't have a lift, just going to be jacking the car up.

I'm going to be doing my brake pads and rotors next weekend, and I noticed my ball joint is in absolute garbage shape on my passenger side, so I am just going to do the lower control arm at the same time.

I can't find any literature for it, at least no detailed stuff online - anyone?

Mevotech a good brand? What about dorman?

This post was edited by Flawed on May 23 2014 03:56pm

upper ball join is part of the control arm, u have to replace the whole thing


http://www.autozone.com/autozone/repairinfo/repairguide/repairGuideContent.jsp?pageId=0996b43f8037d4c3

Its pretty self explanitory when you get into it. Take the nuts and bolts off replace reinstall nuts and bolts lol..

The upper ball joint is the outter tie rod end, doesn't attach to the lower, just bolts to the arm sticking out off the knuckle and back over to the steering rack.

I will give you some good advice tho, when you take the ball joint bolt out of the knuckle, Dont twist the bolt!! Hold the bolt still and remove the nut!! Then punch the bolt straight out.

I haven't actually worked on a "03 protege" specifically but I'm intimately familiar with several other mazda cars. Most knuckle to lca/ball joint bolts have splines right under the bolt head, they dont want the bolt to spin in the bore. Aftermarket bolts you get with a new lower control arm may not have the splines, ive got them with and without before. That bolt slides in the groove on the ball joint stud to keep it UP into the knuckle.

I learned the hard way that the correct bolt in the knuckle makes a big difference. Doing 40 around a sharp corner, downshifted and dumped it in second the car jumped up hard and the lca popped out! Somehow i slid to a stop and didn't get into a wreck, I get lucky sometimes. My poor car gets beat on pretty hard tho.

This post was edited by mykromisfit on May 23 2014 08:26pm

What the fuck did I just read

This post was edited by TSL on May 23 2014 08:35pm

i think he put a ball joint in his strut somewhere, then it popped out doing 40 round a corner? lol

Are you guys fucking simple or just trolling me?

There are two ball joints, both go to the steering knuckle.

The upper ball joint is a one piece unit that connects the steering rack and inner tie rod end to the knuckle, hereby referred to as the "outter tie rod end."

The lower ball joint is a one piece unit built into the lower control arm.


Most vehicles use a lower ball joint that can be pressed in and pressed out of the lca, or bolts to the LCA...which is ideal IMO because it's an easy caster adjustment, but not these.

This post was edited by mykromisfit on May 25 2014 04:59pm

Hopefully the bottom strut bolt isnt rusted on, those can be a bitch w/o the proper tools.