I know this is an old post but it still comes up on an internet search so as way of help for anybody else looking for advice on citroen lower balljoint replacement.

I have just done a citroen c5 mk2 lower balljoints and they were a challenge!

This is the type with a big screw in portion which screws into the hub carrier part.

The balljoint seperator with a bolt and lever action work fine. Best to use it and hammer onto the area were the ball joint bolt is seated as well. By putting some pressure with the seperator on first then hammering onto the point where the tapered bolt sits it will eventually give up and pop out. The car needs to be jacked up and on axle stands but that's all.

You should remove the ball joint nut completely first before using the seperator.

Now the ball joint will be staked at two points so you need to get in and unstake with hammer and chisel. In theory you then attach the special removal tool. A castlelated socket goes on and is tightened on using the ball joints nut. A big socket goes over this with a 1/2 inch breaker bar and an extension pole of some sort (scaffold pole etc..)

Then whole thing has to be tied down using straps, wratchet straps etc to stop everything moving while you turn anticlockwise and unscrew ball joint.

I say in theory as my ball joints were on very, very tightly. I have read of others who also could not get these slack easily.

The first one I did I was not sure of and ended up taking the whole hub carrier off the car i.e. removed the brake calliper, tie rod end, hub nut etc.. and removed whole unit from the car. Then i could see much better make sure it was unstaked etc.. put it into a vice and it did come off with the 1/2 inch breaker and a 4 foot pole on the breaker bar.

I could have probably done this while still on the car but it did not come off at first and may not have. I ended up welding the ball joint up solid to put some heat into the casting then it slackened off. Hooray!

By the second ball joint I knew what to do more but it proved more stubborn than the first.

I broke a good quality 1/2 inch breaker bar with the force, it would not budge.

Removed from car put in vice and used another older breaker bar with 4 foot pole.

Still would not budge. So went up to a 10 foot long piece of 4mm thick 2" box section as pole. Now I know this is a little bit overkill but it's all I had at hand. Snapped the breaker bar sheared through the square section clean as you like. This was a cheaper bar so I was not that surprised.

Now I read about someone who took theirs to two different citroen garages and they could not get them out and recommended whole new carrier, so this is not that uncommon a problem. He took his to a blacksmith who could heat the carrier with oxy-acetalyne and use a cold chisel to remove.

At this point I thought of getting a 1" breaker bar and 1" socket and trying again but that would have cost about 70 quid and I may have just went and broke them too. Also my bench which is an old but well made thing of solid hardwood was starting to come apart with my wrenching attempts.

So what worked in the end was to weld a piece of steel tube about 30-35mm in diameter and 2-3mm thick onto the balljoint, turn the whole thing upside down and weld other end onto my hugely thick box section. I then put that back in the vice. For extra good luck as whatever was going to happen the box section was not going to break for sure I heated up the carrier as much as I could with a map gass torch then place in vice and turned.

The carrier did not fit into vice properly but it was possible to close down so it resisted the turning motion. This finally slackened the ball joint out of the carrier.

My final take away from this is though it seems like it should be an ok job, it's much harder than that. Also it's totally possible to get done but could defeat you unless you have access to heat and maybe a welder some long sturdy pole to help with leverage and a decent vice. Mine was over 50 years old so a good vice as those were the days where every vice was a good vice.

If doing again rather than breaking my 1/2inch breaker bar I would use heat for the hub then try with bar and 4 foot pole. This won't break your breaker bar and may work. Then if still not budging I would go to welding the tube onto the ball joint then onto the ten foot or I am sure an 8 foot pole would have done provided it's reasonably thick in section.

That setup will not break! Your vice may break, your bench may break, maybe even the carrier may break but not the pole. Using heat also on the carrier gives you the best chance because it expands the threaded hole and should help the ball joint to be loosened off.

Hope this helps someone contemplating tackling their citroen ball joint replacement.

The above long post about removing the C5 ball joint was interesting reading, and reminded me well of the hard work involved in removing such things over the years, and i agree completely with using lever type ball joint separators, the wedge type work but are destructive.

I only have one slight disagreement and that was

''You should remove the ball joint nut completely first before using the seperator.''

in practice i've found it best to remove the nut and then screw it back on so the top of the nut (if castellated) is flush with the end of the ball joint taper thread, or as far as the nylock section if a nylock nut.

The reason for this is that when trying to separate without the nut in place the end of the thread will be crushed, and if it proves to be impossible to remove the joint itself from the assembly, you have VOR'd the vehicle where it sits on axle stands because you would be unable to get the nut back on.

Plus with the nut on the point of contact with the separator is larger so less chance of the parts slipping off when under tension.

You would make sure the nut was easy finger tight tension only when using the separator, in the event the pressure makes it tighter on the thread you would only need to apply slight weight under the suspension arm with a jack to stop the taper spinning in the taper hole and unscrew, then when the nut and jack are removed the slightest tap with a hammer would then see the taper tension again broken.

Other than that minor alternative view, an excellent description of the trials and tribulations of working on suspensions.

I really dislike ball joints being threaded into hub assemblies, much prefer a clamp bolt or even rivetted arrangement, where removal is simple and straightforward.

As an aside i've always found Japanese made suspensions to be reasonable to work on, almost always coming apart without resorting to such extreme techniques as described above, and some european cars are a complete nightmare when suspension work is required, this has been confirmed by lorry mechanics i know who fix their own cars, VW's especially disliked.

Edited by gordonbennet on 03/03/2019 at 09:44