hello everybody i have an 2002 sebring that i need a left upper ball joint replaced my question is can i just replace the bj or does it require the entire upper control arm to be replaced as well?

 

You can replace just the ball joint with the right tools. There's a how-to with good pictures over at the Chrysler Sebring Convertible Club website. You can do it without removing the control arm from the car. It's actually much easier and cheaper to replace the ball joint rather than the control arm because to replace the control arm, you have to pull and disassemble the strut, so you might as well replace both struts while you're at it which means for a bad ball joint you wind up rebuilding the whole front end.

You'll need a ball joint puller and a ball joint press which you can rent or borrow from the parts store. I've done this job on two Sebrings, both sides and it's really not bad.