Granvia 4x4 Upper Ball Joint Renewal

[kaila]

I'm going to replace the upper ball joint/wish arm on both front sides of my KCH16W Granvia. When the "Granvia forum" was alive I saw a helpful photographic instruction on this procedure but didn't keep it. I haven't seen anything on this forum yet. Has anyone got that info for me. I really don't like the idea of giving my Granvia to the local mechanic and rolling the dice and would feel more confident doing it myself with the info up my sleeve.

[raymundo]

I'm going to replace the upper ball joint/wish arm on both front sides of my KCH16W Granvia. When the "Granvia forum" was alive I saw a helpful photographic instruction on this procedure but didn't keep it. I haven't seen anything on this forum yet. Has anyone got that info for me. I really don't like the idea of giving my Granvia to the local mechanic and rolling the dice and would feel more confident doing it myself with the info up my sleeve.

Kaila,

I posted a warning on the old Granvia site about these joints. Because of the unusual design of the suspension, with the torsion-bars acting on the upper arm, many mechanics test them incorrectly and condemn them unnecessarily. They should be checked for "lift" with the vehicle supported under the wheel or lower arm, not with the wheel hanging free. 6-8mm of lift is acceptable, but check with a Toyota mechanic if you're still worried. The senior Toyota MOT-tester at my local dealer told me that new joints have as much lift as mine had, so not to worry.

Hope this helps,

raymundo