Ball Joint/Control Arm Replacement
 

Upon buying my 2013 FRS I noticed clunking noises when turning the wheels at stand-still. Mainly when navigating parking lots or driveways. I recently got new tires installed and the mechanic noted that the noise is likely the ball joints needing replacement. My novice mechanic eyes don't see any damage on them visually.



I'm going for an OEM+ type of build so I was wondering of the performance benefit vs comfort trade off in upgrading the ball joints instead of buying the OEM parts? Also, the ball joints look pressed into the control arms, is there any benefit in replacing the whole lower control arm? Doesn't seem to be any damage on the arm itself.



Any insight is appreciated!

The only benefit an aftermarket ball joint is going to have is improving your roll center if you are lowered. If you are doing this yourself, buy a control arm with them installed already. I did mine myself, it was a PITA to get supported properly in the press.

Any recommendations for control arms? Seems like there's a lot of options for the rears but not many for the front.

Well, if you are doing a lot of auto x or track days, then yes you should consider aftermarket suspensions.
But if it's just daily driven, and having fun on the canyons oem parts is good enough.

OEM arms - $400
Racer-X - $600
Cusco - $700
SPL - $1,200

If you aren't sure what you want, I would just by brand new OEM arms.

Honestly, OEM is absolutely fine for the road, even for fast road. Strong and reliable.

.. and easier to find replacement for somewhere close by unlike waiting spare to arrive from overseas. So +1 to sticking with OE. There are exceptions, when aftermarket provides some lacking important feature, or when they are stronger, or when they are noticeably cheaper then OE counterpart, but this doesn't seem to be the case here.

I'm doing a suspension refresh on my '13 (113k miles and 6+ years of daily driving in Chicagoland). I got front LCAs and rear UPCAs for $250 shipped off a salvage '19 86 with 27k on it. Find a wrecked car local to you, either private party or a salvage business, and grab some used ones with low miles.