Jr took his van (2009 Kia Sedona) to a trusted tire shop for a wheel alignment, was told that the ball joints and one outer tie-rod end were too worn to allow a proper alignment, and was quoted almost $1100 for the repair and alignment.
I bought genuine Kia parts (two ball joints and both outer tie-rod ends) from Rock Auto for about $140, and got the passenger side done on Saturday a week ago. Unfortunately, I couldn't quite fit the Kia into the garage, and so worked outside on what turned out to be the coldest day of the winter so far (-12°C - about 10°F). I had the heater running in the garage and took frequent breaks, but somehow managed to get frostbite on several of my fingers. My son finished up the work largely on his own the next afternoon, with me mostly acting as foreman to spare my hands.
My fingers hurt badly the first evening and grew huge disgusting blisters overnight which my wife encouraged me to keep intact. The blisters drained on their own after a few days, and most of the old skin has been shed, and I'm expecting to recover fully.
Takeaways:
1. I need to build a storage shed for our off-season stuff (summer bikes, lawn mower, and summer tires) so I get a long van into the garage in the winter.
2. When we bought the van in 2016, the lower control arms had been replaced to allow the van to pass its safety inspection. It turned out that the ball joints had stealth grease fittings which were well-hidden. Had I known, I would have greased them. As it was, the ball joints lasted 84,000 km. (The Kia parts I replaced them with don't have zerks.)
3. Though the tire shop said only one tie-rod end was sloppy (without specifying which one), we changed both of them. Glad we did - one was quite loose, and the other not far behind.
4. The van tracks fine, so we must have gotten the toe-in pretty close, but I'll check it with my newly-purchased Tenhulzen toe plates once I'm completely healed up.
I bought genuine Kia parts (two ball joints and both outer tie-rod ends) from Rock Auto for about $140, and got the passenger side done on Saturday a week ago. Unfortunately, I couldn't quite fit the Kia into the garage, and so worked outside on what turned out to be the coldest day of the winter so far (-12°C - about 10°F). I had the heater running in the garage and took frequent breaks, but somehow managed to get frostbite on several of my fingers. My son finished up the work largely on his own the next afternoon, with me mostly acting as foreman to spare my hands.
My fingers hurt badly the first evening and grew huge disgusting blisters overnight which my wife encouraged me to keep intact. The blisters drained on their own after a few days, and most of the old skin has been shed, and I'm expecting to recover fully.
Takeaways:
1. I need to build a storage shed for our off-season stuff (summer bikes, lawn mower, and summer tires) so I get a long van into the garage in the winter.
2. When we bought the van in 2016, the lower control arms had been replaced to allow the van to pass its safety inspection. It turned out that the ball joints had stealth grease fittings which were well-hidden. Had I known, I would have greased them. As it was, the ball joints lasted 84,000 km. (The Kia parts I replaced them with don't have zerks.)
3. Though the tire shop said only one tie-rod end was sloppy (without specifying which one), we changed both of them. Glad we did - one was quite loose, and the other not far behind.
4. The van tracks fine, so we must have gotten the toe-in pretty close, but I'll check it with my newly-purchased Tenhulzen toe plates once I'm completely healed up.
