Ball joint rivets

[freddyokel]

My 207's having a wishbone replaced this week and I was wondering...
Is it worth drilling out the rivets on the new part and replacing them with bolts before fitting it to the car
to make future replacement (of the ball joint) easier and cheaper?

I know most people just replace the wishbone when the ball joints goes as you've got to remove the wishbone
from the car to drill the rivets out anyway. But, ball joints are available and cheap and it makes replacement
a 4 bolt job.

ServiceBox states that it's perfectly acceptable to run a mixture of riveted and bolted wishbones.

[Arkis]

This is up to each person's taste. I don't drill out the rivets to change the balljoint alone. When it's time to change the balljoint, the arm bushings are quite old too and are past their prime time. So I change the arm as a whole unit. The cost is a little higher but after changing the balljoint or an arm you have to do alignment. I do mechanical work on my car but can't do alignment so I have to pay quite a lot of money for alignment. Actually more than the whole arm costs.

So if you change only the balljoint and if by any chance the bushings fails before your next balljoint does, you have to pay the alignment twice thus making it cheaper to do the whole arm at once time for one price of alignment.

[PaulC5]

If this is the first time the joint is being replaced since new in 2008 I would not be considering making it easier for future replacement, the car may well be scrapped before needed. Also if the arm turns out to be faulty or does not fit you would not be able to take it back.