93 Accord ball joint & tie rod end boots

I recently purchased a 1993 Accord DX with 151k miles. The car was in
very good condition
overall, but two items came to my attention: the muffler (now replaced)
and leaking grease boots
on both front upper ball joints and tie rod ends. The lower ball joints
appear to have been
recently replaced, so they don't concern me at present.

The local Honda dealer says "replace all these, as soon as possible,
because they will soon
seize and break, with CATASTROPHIC consequences!!!", and showed me the
usual graphic
images of death and destruction. Needless to say, I did this on my
previous Accord (a
1993 SE), to the tune of about $900 for all four joints and both rod ends.

The people who sold me the car (an independent garage which specializes
in Hondas)
say "you can replace them if you want, but it's a lot of money for
something which will just
reoccur in a year or so. Just keep 'em greased."

Who's right here? And, why can't I just replace the boots? (I know
Honda doesn't sell them
separately, but aren't there aftermarket replacements?)

 

AFAIK, honda sells them separately. Its listed on hondaautomotiveparts.com
under 'Knuckle' for your car. $10 for lower boot, but i think on the upper
you are outta luck. You may be able to find a generic out there that could
work....

t

 

You were right about the lower joints, and the rod ends (listed under
"Tie Rod"). But it's the
upper ones I need, and it's these which are not available
separately--to get the joint, one
must purchase the entire upper arm assembly. :-( At least they look
easy enough to replace.

To return to my first question, is it necessary to replace the joints
just because of bad boots?

And if not, how frequently should these be greased?

Thanks, MLA

 

As long as they are well greased, you shouldn't have any problems. Odds of a
catastrophic failure on an upper balljoint are quite low. You can easy do a
'wiggle test' to check for play on upper balljoint. Just grab the top part
of the steering knuckle where it meets the upper ball joint. Any clicking or
movement indicated wear on the balljoint.

I would wait until there is play in the upper balljoint before replacing. I
would then replace with OEM (if you can afford it) and if you can't afford it
like me, then go for a good quality lifetime warranty aftermarket part like
Moog or TRW.

 

the results can be catastrophic. poke about on tegger.com to see what
happens when joints seize because the boot's no longer effective.

and whatever you do, DO NOT EVER take this vehicle back to the idiots
that used the pickle fork on the ball joints [assuming you know from the
service history]. it wrecks the boots. there's a proper tool for the
job. again, tegger.com for examples.

 

On my '94 Accord, the Upper boot is the same size as the Tie Rod End boot
right down to the retaining clip. Was the same on my '91 Accord Wagon and
my '86 Accord IIRC.

Hope this helps.

AmmonMan