Apparently I have replaced my ball joints before, since they are bolted in. I bought quick steer brand ball joints this time and when I go to install them, the three bolts that go thru the lower control arm are smaller in diameter than the old ball joints. This allows a lot of slop prior to torquing it down. I suspect after torquing these, I will then definitely need a front end alignment. Old ball joint had M12 bolts, the quick steer has M10 bolts. Do you trust quick steer or should I go with a different brand?

 

Could just get bigger bolts.

 

If it was me, I would find some ball joints with the proper sized bolts as you really don't want them to move. I would have thought the closer the bolt is in size to the holes the better.

 

I looked online but no one specifies the bolt diameters.

 

I have the original M12 bolts, but they do not go thru the ball joint holes. Would it be a stupid or dangerous idea to open up the holes on the ball joint?

 

Depends on how much metal is there. Personally I would order new ball joints like Moog or Mevotech supreme.

https://www.rockauto.com/en/catalog/...ll+joint,10070

 

Ok, I get what you're saying now. The bolts are a good fit in the holes of the ball joint, but sloppy through the holes in the control arm. Yeah, I would want different ball joints.

 

Those Quick Steer ball joints are listed as the economy choice on RockAuto. No better than collision parts. In other words, cheap.
Do yourself a favor, get some decent quality parts.

 

Doubt that those ball joints are really correct for your car. Or this is a classic example of of the parts industry weasel word, "fits." Sucks, but "fits."

unusual for ball joints to fail faster than rear bushings, the usual weak link. Take a good look at those. Those ball joints don't need to be tight to be just fine. But if they're really bad, and the rear bushings, too, it might be a case where replacing the entire lower control arm assembly make the most sense.

Whatever you do, buy good stuff.

 

I ended up drilling the ball joint mounting holes out from 10.5mm to 11.9mm (15/32") and using the M12 bolts. I did order two TRW ball joints off RockAuto yesterday. By the way the TRW JBJ942 were $60 at autozone, but closeout price on rockauto was $15! Yes, ya'll are right I must have cheeped out and bought some garbage ball joints back in 2018. I usually buy the better brand parts. The lower control arm is a mevotech that I also bought back in 2018. The rear bushing looks good, but the ball joint was completely shot. I kept my old lower control arms and pressed new rear bushings in them and drilled out the old ball joint rivets. The HHR drives straight as an arrow now after doing a drivers side brake job, replacing driver side ball joint and new front tires. It is 104 currently in Texas, I'll do the passenger side after the temp starts dropping. Thanks for all the info! I really appreciate this group.