Upper & lowers vs Inner and outers

[quadracer111]

Hey guys, I am ordering the parts to get the skyline on the road. On my VI sheet it says left front and right UPPER ball joints.. No one seems to know what they mean by upper and that there are only inner and outer. The shop has no idea either.

Anyone help me out on this? I would like to get this sorted so I can get my car on the road and drive the dang thing

[bignate]

Hey guys, I am ordering the parts to get the skyline on the road. On my VI sheet it says left front and right UPPER ball joints.. No one seems to know what they mean by upper and that there are only inner and outer. The shop has no idea either.

Anyone help me out on this? I would like to get this sorted so I can get my car on the road and drive the dang thing

skylines dont even have front upper ball joints. get the shop telling you this to clarify. Skylines only have inner and outer front lower ball joints.

[quadracer111]

I called the shop and they have no clue... He said thats what it is and thats what he called it? So what I need to know is weather to order inners or outers due to the fact he wrote uppers... I talked to the mechanic and he had no clue himself. What im asking is what could he of meant when he said uppers in terms of outers or inners?

[bignate]

I called the shop and they have no clue... He said thats what it is and thats what he called it? So what I need to know is weather to order inners or outers due to the fact he wrote uppers... I talked to the mechanic and he had no clue himself. What im asking is what could he of meant when he said uppers in terms of outers or inners?

Only thing that could wear out up top really is the upper control arm bushings, If they arent willing to explain things I wouldnt even deal with them.

[CanadianGTR]

Sounds like a great mechanic.
If he has no clue and he's the one that did the inspection... well I think that speaks volumes about him as a mechanic.

"oh yeah replace THIS..."
"what do you mean THIS?"
"Ah I dunno what I meant, just replace it!"

Maybe he was laying down? haha

[Daryl @ RightDrive]

How does the mechanic not know what he's talking about, he told you to replace it, so he must know. I'm sorry, but he sounds like an idiot and you should go somewhere else.
Or take the car back to him and make him point to each part that needs replacing and take a picture of it.
But if you are in a bind, why not just change all 4 front ball joints, they often need replacing at this age anyway.

[quadracer111]

^^ thats a good idea... Although I like this shop because they passed my stock headlights No accord swap for me. I will probably just replace all of them.

[bignate]

Im all for preventative maintenance but there is absolutely no need to replace a ball joint if it has no play and isnt making any noise. Its just a waste of money. Like others have said either make him SHOW YOU the ball joint in question and WHY it needs replacing or take the car to another shop. Any mechanic worth being called a mechanic should be happy to show you why a certain part needs replacing.

[quadracer111]

Yeah, I will do do that. Going to have to get another temp. permit.

[quadracer111]

Now he is telling me there ARE upper ball joints... I have to take a diagram into him and he will "circle" the parts I need.
ALSO he said it won't pass alignment or something like that because it is lowered?? He never even told me this when I got it inspected, he just mentioned it out of the blue today.

[bignate]

To be totally honest your mechanic sounds like a total asshat. I strongly recommend you take your business elsewhere.

[quadracer111]

Well, turns out he was calling the "third link" an upper ball joint... DOH!
He also says the car must maintain a certain ride height.

[m_melen]

i'm calling bs on this shop. id get yelled at big time if i told a customer to fix something that wasn't broken, especially if i dont know what the hell im telling them to replace.
and ride height? wtf, there are a million lowered cars out there. nothing illegal about it. go to canadian tire or something

[CanadianGTR]

Take it to a shop that knows what they are doing.

[RixR32]

X2 ^^