Am I neglecting these ball joints?

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I took our Suburban to a shop this morning because there was a bunch of grease packed around one of the upper ball joints, and I thought it had come out of the boot. I haven't noticed any sounds or odd handling characteristics from it, but this is a tow vehicle so I want to keep on top of it.

The tech just called me and said the upper ball joints are fine, no cracks in the boot, and the grease looks like somebody just overzealously applied some lube up there. He did say that both lower ball joints (load bearing ones) have about 200 thousandths of play in them and that if we wanted an alignment they should be replaced. He quoted about $600 for both sides including an alignment.

I asked how critical it was and he explained that if the alignment is fine and the truck doesn't have any bad handling characteristics (which it doesn't aside from being a truck in the first place :) ) then it's not really a safety risk.

In summary: ball joints have lube, no cracks in the boots, but have some play just from wear over the miles.

Am I making a mistake declining the repair for now? The truck has other problems too and if I'm going to spend $600 on it I want to make sure my priorities are correct as to where the money goes.
 
it's nothnig urgent IMO bt i would plan to have them replaced when it is financially convenient. I think 600 is a little steap though. One upper joint with an alignment for my car was just under 200. that was at a shop that only does alignments and supsension work...so I would get another estimate.
 
Upwards or sidewards play? IMO upwards is a little more inert.

Thing about play, though, is once there's a gap, it'll start hammering against itself, wearing out faster. Load bearing BJs aren't a whole lot of fun so I'd expect to pay somewhere in the middle, 350-400.
 
Yeah another estimate is a good idea. The labor rates might be higher here, though, and these are *big* ball joints (3/4 ton truck) which may also account for some of the higher cost.
 
Originally Posted By: eljefino
Upwards or sidewards play? IMO upwards is a little more inert.

Thing about play, though, is once there's a gap, it'll start hammering against itself, wearing out faster. Load bearing BJs aren't a whole lot of fun so I'd expect to pay somewhere in the middle, 350-400.



Not sure, but I'd guess upwards because he specifically mentioned that it was load bearing in the context of making it less critical.

My logic is that this vehicle gets 1000-1500 miles per year so even if they wear out faster it might not be worth replacement yet.
 
How long is "for now?" Play in your suspension components will start to affect tire life even before you have tangible handling issues, and if a boot is cracked then you can expect the wear to accelerate.
 
Originally Posted By: d00df00d
How long is "for now?" Play in your suspension components will start to affect tire life even before you have tangible handling issues, and if a boot is cracked then you can expect the wear to accelerate.



Not really sure how long "for now" is, honestly. No cracked boots, though, and even if tire wear is accelerated most likely these tires will need replacement from age before mileage.
 
In that case, as long as there's no risk of sudden failure, you can probably afford to wait on it for a while.
 
I'd wait and shop around for a better price. My buddy had ball joints replaced and a wheel alignment done for $400. Granted it was a different vehicle but the going rate of that job with alignment should be in the $400-$500 range IMO.
 
Every other week I would just jack up each side and see how much play are in them by moving the wheel in and out (one hand on top of tire, one had under bottom). When you start to see more than a little wiggle you'll want to get ready to swap them out most likely.

If you were close by I'd help you swap them out, as they aren't toooo terrible to do. Darn!
 
Just for information, how much play is generally considered "too much" as far as vehicle handling is concerned? I think the truck handles fine but we've only put about 3000 miles on it in the time we've had (2.5 years or so now) it so I don't exactly have a good baseline...
 
How much play is too much when using my method?

If you can move it out with your bottom hand under the tire (and top hand pushing the top of the tire) and feel 2 discernible "locations", you've probably got too much. A fraction of play can just feel like a tiny bit of "slop" (aka minimal movement when you try to push-pull the tire). Think about how much play the ball joint has in terms of how far the tire is pushed in or pulled out from its stationary axis.
 
OK I'm thoroughly annoyed right now. First, though, here's the deal on what they told me:

The play is .2" on the left and .18 on the right, spec is .125. Their estimate was basically 4.5 hrs labor + $99 each for 2 Moog ball joints, + $89 for an alignment which seems pretty steep to me for just the front, but there's a lot that's adjustable up there so what do I know?

Knowing the spec is .125" makes the figures a little more jarring to me, so I'm not sure what to tell the wife about whether she's allowed to tow with it soon.


Here's what ticks me off, though: This ball joint looks pretty neglected, right?

f1ce1b19.jpg


That's the upper joint I took it in for, the one they told me had no cracks and just had some extra lube sitting around it. What the heck?!? After I got home from picking it up, I wanted to look down there again to see if maybe they'd cleaned off the lube so it was obvious there were "no" cracks. It looks the same, and to my eyes that's obviously a tear in the boot.

A while ago I took this thing to a different shop to fix the likely intake gasket leak due to coolant in the oil detected via UOA, and they claimed they couldn't find any problems. What's with people not wanting to work on this truck??!

Having an upper ball joint look like this makes me very uncomfortable with respect to towing...
 
Originally Posted By: Steve S
They are a wear item.

Pretty much. They just take a while to wear.
wink.gif
 
Yeah to clarify, I'm not annoyed that I need to replace any of them. I'm annoyed because I basically took the truck to them this morning, said, "hey, the driver side upper ball joint is torn and has grease leaking out of it" and after looking at it they said it wasn't torn. I assumed I was just wrong at the time. I'm just trying to make sure the truck is safe to tow with, but it's hard to get people to take my money and fix it!
 
OK my head is clear again. Guys, I need a reality check here:

How bad would it be to let my wife tow without doing anything about the upper ball joint pictured above?

I'm tempted to go back to the shop tomorrow and ask how they could've missed this (it's in a really convenient location), but at this rate I'm not sure I like their quote anyway so it might not be worth it.
 
Have you cleaned the ball joint off and checked it? Maybe I missed that if you mentioned it. I know I would and then I'd grease it too. You should know right away if there was a tear. You shouldn't even have to jack it up, just turn the tires and crawl/work around the tire.

BTW, I grease my Silverado and it always has grease pushed out on the top. I wipe it off, but normal driving conditions always pushes some out.
 
Gunk around the ball joint doesn't mean it is in bad shape if there is decent grease inside the boot, though.

I've seen a ton of Scouts, Fords, Chevys, etc. etc. that are 40 years old driving around with "hardened grease and debris accumulation" outside the balljoints, but that doesn't necessarily mean anything is wrong as long as there is clean grease inside.
 
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