So my local shop did an alignment for me and said that I should consider spending $750 to replace my stock uppers with adjustable ones. They said it would make the alignment easier and more accurate. Is there any truth in this or is he fishing for money?

03 gc 4.0 with 97,700 miles.

 

Assuming your axle is in good shape the only thing it will do is make alignment more complicated/expensive. Adjustable ball joints are meant to correct for slight damage to the axle affecting camber. If the ball joints are worn, just go with standard OEM replacements.

 

Yeah, if it ain't broken don't fix it.

 

Rock Auto has Moog joints for $35 and cheaper ones as well. Unless your axle is damaged, the camber is built in and doesn't need to be adjusted. Dump that guy and just replace with OEM joints. Just make sure to buy grease-able ones AND GREASE THEM!

 

Are the factory ball joints greasable or are they sealed units? I don't see the point in replacing them if they work. This is the wife's vehicle so I'm not doing any upgrades like lifting or big tires. Just want to do maintenance to keep it going to 200,000.

 

The uppers have grease fittings. The factory lowers do not have them.

 

The reason the lowers don't have fittings is because there isn't room for them because of the half shaft joint. The ball socket is on top so that's where the fitting should go but can't.

The uppers will last a long time if you grease them, but are often overlooked. Every time I take my WJ to Valvoline, they tell my they greased 5 fittings. I tell them there are 7. They say no, 5. I tell them to grease the upper ball joints. They check and, sure enough, they find 7. Like, I'm the stupid customer, right?

 

Thanks everyone. I'm not going to tell my local shot to **** off but I am more wary of their up selling techniques. I will be sure to grease those.

 

I just did uppers and lowers. I installed Moog standard oem joints nonadjustable.the uppers are greasable, the lowers are greased and then plugged off before the axle shaft is put back in. So technically they are greasable just requires pulling the axle shaft to do so....PITA, I know.

The alignment shop I go to also told me last time that I need adjustable joints, can't remember wether it was upper or lowers. Going in Saturday for new tires and an alignment, curious to see what they say now

 

Not to insight violence, but are you sure they were talking about the upper ball joints? The lower control arms have adjustment cams that you can install to make caster easier to change. This is a common thing for alignment shops to sell you, and it shouldn't cost you $750!

 

I got a written estimate from them. Upper ball joints at $168.49 each.

 

That is an insane price for ball joints.

 

Got my tires and alignment today, they said I need adjustable ball joints to correct negative camber. I'm -1.0 degree off each side. My last set of tires wore fine so I'm going with leaving it off camber and staying with all nonadjustables that I just installed. They quoted $400 to do it...so yeah the OPs quote is way high.