excitid

What would the difficulty rating on changing this. If you've done this please give a little detail.

FourthGenHatch

Probably not that hard. Only thing is Honda usually only sells balljoints with the control arms. But if you could get a ball joint all you need is the special seperator tool and it shouldn't be that hard to take apart.

jaje

get a good lower ball joint from the auto parts store...only the tie rod end require a whole new arm built into the ball joint for it...the lower you can buy separately (do both at the same time to)...beware...they cost like $60 each (moog makes quality ball joints)

Removal of the old one isn't hard with a pickle fork (tends to hurt ball joints but it's being replaced and all you do is hammer it in there [it's like a forked chisel]) or just banging with a metal hammer on the lower control arm while having a friend pull up on the knuckle

Installation is a ***** b/c you have to press out the old one and press in the new one...it's not for the faint hearted

i suggest going to a local mechanic (they do these all the time and special tools that used the pnuematic wrench to take them out and install new ones) but buying your own parts b/c it'll be slightly cheaper and much cheaper than your honda dealer