1996 318ti - front ball joints or control arms?

[mtitus]

Recently I brought my girlfriends car to get an alignment to cure the shimmy at high speeds. The mechanic told me that it needed new ball joints, but when he showed me what they were going to replace on the car he pointed to the entire control arm assembly. I then brought it to another mechanic that I trust and he said that the ball joints needed to be replaced, but he didn't have the correct tool to do the job. I read the tutorial on how to change out the control arms yourself and it did not mention anything about a special tool. Are the control arms and ball joints usually changed at the same time or is it possible to change one at a time? Do I need a special tool to remove the ball joint? Any light you may be able to shed on this issue would be greatly appreciated.

The car has just over 100K.I would like to do the work myself but I'd rather not dive into the project without the correct tools.

[Stephen 325TDS]

The control arm has 2 ball joints ... inner and outer. It's the outer that wears. The ball joint has to be pressed out, and the new one pressed in again.
If you replace the control arm, you get 2 new b/joints and very little "down time" as the car will be on the road much quicker.
The downside is that the control arm costs twice as much as the ball joint! But ... you don't have to pay to have them pressed in and out.
You choose.

Stephen