let me tell you from experiance that my ball joints went out at 26,000 miles and 490 dollars latter i found out that it was due to firestone, so i took it to ford and had them replace them again, so right now my car is at 29,000 miles and on its 3rd set of ball joints, i am going to firstone to get a refund of my money due to them putting faulty equip in my ride!

 

I don't understand why people are saying it's BS if he has bad ball joints with that type of mileage. Crap happens!

 

I don't think it's so much calling BS as it is just suggesting a second opinion. Sure, crap does indeed happen. You never know when you'll be the guy who has something break or go bad early. Could happen to any of us. However, *most* daily drivers can get up to 150k miles out of those ball joints so it warrants a little surprise is all.

Plus, it's worth knowing that there might be an underlying problem that made them go bad in the first place. It'd suck to pay to have them replaced, then see the new set fail because the root of the problem was never addressed or looked into.

Yeah, people can get sarcastic around here, but these discussions can (and often do) lead to some "holy sh*t, I didn't think of that" moments.

As for the OP original question of the GT500 set-up on a GT: IDK

But most agree (including the OP) that this needs to be figured out before such drastic measures, and big money is spent on that particular upgrade.

That said, yes you are right, that a lot of the comments (including my second one) have not really been helpful.

 

Yeah, I'll raise my hand as the first in-line to call BS. But see post #8.

Sarcasm is my middle name...

 

Had mine replaced by dealer under warranty at around 28,000 miles, 2 other 05 or newer Mustang guys at work also had theirs go bad before 35,000 miles.

Here is a really good write up on a different forum:
http://www.teamshelby.com/forums/ind...ront-end-lcas/
"Per the title on the top of the TSB - All the 2005 - 2010 Ford Mustangs (V6'rs, GT's, GT500's & KR's) built before 8/3/2009 have the older front LCA's with the 0.71 (18mm) ball joint shaft and the old style hydro bushing. If you want to check it, use a suitable caliper and measure the ball joint shaft. The new and improved ball joint shaft is 0.75 (19mm) and of course has the new hydro bushing."

 

shot an e-mail off to sparta performance last night, here was the response:

"These are the control arms you're looking for. M-3075-E no modifications to wheels, brakes or chassis required. They bolt right on."

So - looks like I should be good to go - assuming they do need to be replaced.

 

Not sure if this was covered in another post, but you know you dont HAVE to replace the whole control arm right? You can just replace the ball joint. Much cheaper.

 

I thought I read the opposite - that the a-arm and ball-joint come as a single-piece assembly.

Here's the deal. I'm going to get a 2nd opinion on it. Its not inconceivable that these ball joints could need to be replaced - the car was in an accident (which i didn't mention )

I'll let ya'll know what happens

 

Good Luck jteems... I hope things work out for you and you don't have to spend too much. Let us know if you end up going with the GT500 setup.

 

checked the situation with the control arm or just ball joint replacement... per my computer system at AAP you must replace the entire control arm if you still have factory control arms once you replace the factor control arms with an aftermarket control arm, then you can replace the ball joint only (like you would prob never need to again)