drfister

Went in to get an oil change (yea yea I know, but its winter) and a trustworthy shop I have been going to for years now. Everything was fine with the oil change but when they had the car up on the lift, they were tellin me I need new lower ball joints.
Im lowered with an Eibach Pro-kit and running dspecs. Ive had them on since mid September and maybe 6500kms. The parts were installed by Steeda.ca, the local mustang shop where I also ordered the parts, prices arnt the cheapest but I trust their work and know they installed everything correctly. I had an allignment when lowered, and another alignment about 3 weeks ago (hit a curb, no damage).

This is the first Ive been told my lower ball joints are shot. They guys [at the oil change shop] showed me what the problem was and showed how the wheel/ lower arm assembly is loose and/or wiggly. I appologize, thats as best as I can describe the problem. I had them order me up some new ones and have an appointment on Sat for instal. They said $320 for parts ($90) and labour.
Has anyone else encountered this problem? Am mI being taken advantage of? Is this because of normal wear or hitting the curb? Thanks all for your help in advanced.

Texotic

IIRC, the ball joints will wear faster on a lowered car, that's why Steeda sells their X5 ball joints as an upgrade for lowered cars.

Norm Peterson

What were they moving and in what direction(s) were they moving it? I don't know offhand, but somebody with a shop manual handy may be able to tell you if that motion is abnormal or not.


Norm

drfister

They grabbed the wheel and were shaking it and showing me the lower arm assembly and some little black piece and were describing what the ball joints do and how they work and how since i lowered the car the oem ones were shot and these new ones would last like 5-10 years.
I dont fully understand whats wrong but it its not really my forte, hope this helps the online diagnosis.
The owner of the shop owns a whole bunch of nice cars like vipers, hummers, beemers, etc and races them, and he dosent hire any random person. Everyone that works there is very knowledgable and respectable, so I trust they wernt jerking me around. Ive been doing consitant business with them for 3 years now. I just thought Id ask the mustang family for some further insight before saturday. thanks alot for the responses

Sleeper_08

I've been running my lowered car, Steeda Competition springs, with the Steeda X5 ball joints for about 10 K miles and 6 road course track days and so far no problems. In fact it was at Steeda Canada today for trans and diff fliud changes and they checked out the front for looseness and all was OK.

You might want to consider get the Steeda X5 joints installed as they also improve the geometry on a lowered car.

drfister

hmm, I will have to look into this. thanks for the reply. My first choice would be the steeda x5's but they are $145 vs the $90 these guys can get, i dont remember the name of the company, it starts with an S. Only problem is money is tight, this $30 oil change turned into a $300 adventure that I can barely aford as is, but we will see how things go. It just occured to me but since the front suspension is comminf undone for the ball joints does this mean I have to get another alignment? arrrrrughh I f'n hope not

Argonaut

I don't know that we can conclude the Lowering of the car caused the ball joints to wear out in 6500KM. That doesn't sound right, there are lots of guys with lowered cars, lots of miles and haven't reported issues. Was it both wheels are just the one that hit the curb? Now you got me thinking, I'm going to have to go 'wiggle' my wheels.

drfister

Yea it seems like way to few km after lowering for them to go, but its also a daily driver, just turned 90k this past weekend. It was just the front passenger wheel (my summer rims too, *****). It wasnt a hard hit. It was snowy, was making a left turn into a parking lot to play around a bit, but had too much speed comming into the turn, and beached the car over the curb maybe goin 5-7km/h. not fast at all, only damage was chipped rim. Just backed right off and went on my way. What an embarasing moment. I went to go get it realigned and had them check to see if anything else got messed up in the process but they couldnt find anything. Im sorry I cannot expalin further then 'wiggling the wheels' I wouldnt even know how or what to describe. But from what I could tell it didnt look all too safe. I guess Im gonna have to bite the bullet on this one. Thanks for ya'll time

Ill post a follow up saturday and let everyone know what exactly went down.

157dB

Component Test - Ball Joints
Page 204-00-4

drfister

157db your the man, for real! Thats exactly what they were shaking, and those are the problems. Im gonna print this off and bring it to them for referance. Its nice to know there is actually a problem and they not lookin for a quick buck. Its ***** though that its a bunch of money to fix but ya gotta pay if you wanna play. Thanks a lot everyone for the timely and most important acurate/ helpfull respoinses!