Inspection II

[ekim]

I just had inspection II done on my 98 323 cabrio. They also replaced both front ball joints. I went to one of those inependant shops: $875 total.

Ugh!! I am sure you "do it yourselfers" are cringing. I know nothing about cars, so I have no choice.
Should the ball jointe wear out at 65,000 miles? Is this one of those things they try to get you on, that is not really broken? He said there was a lot of play in them.


Thanks,
Mike

[Jared at Pelican Parts]

Did you request to see the old parts?

[ekim]

He did take me back and showed them to me. They did have play. He said holding the ball joints in your hand it did not look like much, but it was. The only reason I went to this shop is beacuse the BMW dealer said they were loose. I went shopping around, and the guy at this shop said that it is worth a second opinion, as the ball joints in the e36 has a lot of play anyway. He might have been saying that to get me there. In my service records from the dealer it said they were loose. I just wonder if the mechanic read this and decided to jump on it. The guy I talked to was not the one who did the work. Maybe I am just being too skeptical.

I think I will go to the dealer from now on. They could't be much more. They didn't even fill up my washer fluid. I also asked them to replace the wiper blades and they did not.

[Jared at Pelican Parts]

hum, if you are mechanically adept at all, i would suggest you check out some of my articles and try your hand at replacing them yourself. I have taught people with virtually no machanical skill whatsoever to do things such as removing engines, changing shocks, etc.. It's not hard once you know how.

[dsonyay]

Yeah you can easily do nearly all the maintence yourself. I myself would have done everything except maybe the ball joints.

I have an auto, and had an local shop do the tranny service, but the rest of the service II- I did myself. It's very simple, all you need are common tools for it too.