hello, I recently failed my safety inspection here in good old massachusetts, due to bad upper and lower ball joints on both sides, plus the drivers side outter tie rod.I was shown exactly what was wrong and they deffinetly need fixing,(allthough you wouldn't know it buy driving it) my question is this. what should i be looking at for parts and labor to do the job?I have a 2001 super crew, 2wd,v-8 5.4L engine. the place that rejected me , quoted me $715.00 parts and labor,what do you think?

 

I replaced all (4) ball joints on a friends 99 F150 4X2 and it cost about $250.00 in parts and 3 hours of my time. If you do it yourself, remember to get the camber kit for each upper control arm. It will save you money during the alignment. When you get new upper control arms and lower ball joints, be sure to get ones that can be greased.

 

It has been a while since I lived in Mass (Concord actually). I just replaced all four of ball joints and tie rod ends.

Do you have an auto parts store that will Match competitors prices? I went to the ADVANCED AUTO PARTS website and found a complete upper control arm and ball joint for $41.48 (http://www.partsamerica.com/ProductD...ype=85&ptset=A)
This is an el-cheapo part, then I went to a local HI/LO (AKA O'reilly auto parts chain) and they matched that price with their MOOG part.

I did the same with front wheel bearings. I got each bearing assy (mines a 4x4) for $152 each. NAPA wanted $250.

For the Tie rod ends, I went to NAPA. Their RIDE MASTER tie rod ends are MOOG, but they are the ENHANCED design. they actually look like a better quality part than others that I have seen (i had a tie rod end break three weeks ago)

DITTO on the camber kit!

I hope this helps.

Good luck!