I just bought an 03 LS shorty L6 with busted trans. I swear everything was original on the vehicle at 183,000 miles. I bought a lot of Moog parts on
www.rockauto.com Sway bar links, upper arms, and lower brackets. The way we replace ball joints in the shop, I think mine may have been replaced before, because my suspension guy said they were solid, and he is PICKY. I know I said everything was original, but a few things have probably been replaced. While at it, I replaced the shocks all around with KYBs, it had a bit of lift and dive on accel and braking, almost gone now, but its still a SUV, its not a tight little honda like I used to daily.
I probably only drive 3000 miles a year, so I cannot say how the longevity of Moog is, but my front end is much quieter than my honda going over small bumps. I can get parts cheap at work, but I don't think its worth the $$hundreds they want for a GM ball joint. Upper arm is easy to replace without alignment work, as is a sway bar link.
Worst case, spend the money (GM parts) on the lower arm supports/brackets and you won't have to worry much about alingment again soon. All of your alignment is in them. Everything else can be replaced in a driveway and you can still drive it up to a shop if it reallllllly needs alignment.
If you are doing the work yourself, the front upper left control arm, the front bolt is a Bbbbbb, so take channel locks or something and bend the frame out of the way of the bolt, I bought a gearwrench 21mm ratcheting wrench to do it at Home Depot for less than $15, and it didn't help much because once you get so far the box end wont come off the bolt, so you have to use the open end. Be easy when doing the lower brackets, that you dont mess the threads up on the welded in NUT, 3 per side. I had to clean mine out for some reason on the pass side, so I went in from the top of the nut and fixed the threads slowly with dielectric grease and anti-seize.
Goodluck! -Mac
