Front Ball Joint - Need to Replace?

[cxzsaq]

taking my front off, so i wonder if i should replace these or not. car has 150k miles on it. will it make a difference? i am thinking of Meyle if i do it.

[FunElan]

yes, replace both. There's no reason not too. I replaced my bent wishbones when I did mine too.

[thehackmechanic]

If your car has 150k and has the original riveted ball joints, hell yes absolutely yes my word YES YES YES replace them. You ever see the aftermath where one of these has let go on a car driven at speed? Not for the squeamish.

Search this forum for tricks on getting the rivets out (chisel versus drilling, etc).

[cxzsaq]

If your car has 150k and has the original riveted ball joints, hell yes absolutely yes my word YES YES YES replace them. You ever see the aftermath where one of these has let go on a car driven at speed? Not for the squeamish.

Search this forum for tricks on getting the rivets out (chisel versus drilling, etc).

great. thank you all.

[InkaSteve]

If your car has 150k and has the original riveted ball joints, hell yes absolutely yes my word YES YES YES replace them. You ever see the aftermath where one of these has let go on a car driven at speed? Not for the squeamish.

Ditto, Ditto, Ditto. It is pretty scary when they let go while you are driving. This was at about 10 MPH fortunately.(roughly 150K on them) Still had to change my shorts after that sudden halt as the tire tucked up under the fender.

[cxzsaq]

If your car has 150k and has the original riveted ball joints, hell yes absolutely yes my word YES YES YES replace them. You ever see the aftermath where one of these has let go on a car driven at speed? Not for the squeamish.

Ditto, Ditto, Ditto. It is pretty scary when they let go while you are driving. This was at about 10 MPH fortunately.(roughly 150K on them) Still had to change my shorts after that sudden halt as the tire tucked up under the fender.

wow. thank you for that eye opener.

[BillWilliams]

pack the cavity with grease to hold down the rust monster.

Uncle CD will say the mating surfaces that are painted black, should be mirror finish plain metal. He is right.

[Guest]

I got to 225K on my originals, and just changed them out because I noticed the boots were cracked. They looked like the hip joint on that skeleton hanging up front of the class in high school biology, only drier. If the ball joints have never been replaced at 150K , look EVERYTHING over. For safety sake, these should be a scheduled maintenance item IMHO, say every 100K? So buy 6 or 8 and you will be set.