Idler arms and ball joints on a 1998 Nissan Sentra SE
Asked by migration_Scorpio012... Sep 18, 2014 at 04:54 PM about the 1998 Nissan Sentra SE
Question type: Maintenance & Repair
I'm looking for advice on how difficult it would be for a person with average mechanical skills to change the idler arms and ball joints on a 1998 Nissan Sentra SE? Any idea on the approximate cost for those parts? Thanks
4 Answers
Are you referring to sway bar linkage, control arm or tie rod by "Idler arm" For the ball-joint, it's pretty simple IF you have the right tools. You'll need a ball joint kit, bought or home-made to remove it and place the new one. You can borrow one from a local parts store. You'll also need a pickle fork or a ball-joint separator. You'll need a socket the right size and pliers for the cotter-pin. You can do it in place or remove the control arm if you feel you'll need more space. This is not the best tutorial but it's exactly your car model: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puxXqptHxvs
migration_Scorpio012... answered 9 years ago
Yes I had mistakenly wrote "idler arm" in my original post, but what I was referring to was the tie rods.Thank you for the info on the ball joint replacements and thanks again for answering my question.
Are you planning to replace the inner tie rod or the outer tie rod end?
migration_Scorpio012... answered 9 years ago
The reason I'm even considering changing tie rods, is that there is a lot of shimmy in the steering wheel at higher speeds, 60-65mph. Front end alignment didn't help much. I assumed, maybe wrongly, that the next option would be to replace the tie rods. As far as inner or outer, which do you think would solve the problem I described?
