i got an 02 neon SE (wifes car) and its makeing some good clunking noises when i go over bumps... assuming they are the balljoints.. anyone change them themselves? the haynes doesnt describe the replacement very well at all... any info would be great!!! also i can only seem to buy the lowers from napa or autozone .. any reason why im gonna get raped by the dealer for the uppers? thanks for any help !!!

 

There's no such thing as upper balljoints on a Neon. The only balljoints are on the lower control arm, there is no upper control arm, it's a MacPhereson strut assembly...

Get a crowbar or breaker bar and try to seperate the spindle from the control arm, there should be no play. The ball joints are pressed into the control arm, and the spindle grabs on with a clevis bolt. This is something you might be able to do yourself (if you have your own arbor press, or some big honkin' c-clamps and big sockets), but I've found shops that will press in/out parts for $10 or less. You do have to go and remove the whole control arm assembly though... Not all that hard, just time consuming.

I don't remember balljoints being a big failure point. What else have you ruled out?

Best of luck!

 

I got an 01 es and have had similar problems ... my drivers side tie rod broke the end off so i replaced that and went to have it aligned ... they told me i needed to do the right side tie rod end as well as the bushings on both sides ... I dunno what all that means but it sounds exactly the same to me ... same symptoms and all ..