i have an 02 4x4 scab with 60k miles. steering seems a little loose but not out of control.

I have changed the balljoints on wife's 2000 mountaineer twice at about 80k per set. Her truck is AWD which might accelerate wear. And I'm probably an "overmaintainer" and it hauls my family so safety is priceless.

I was just curious what the average life is. with only 60k on the clock my truck is more of a weekend warrior seeing some offroad use (beach driving) but they are 10 years old and original.

thanks in advance,
Dan

 

My bottom ball joints were changed at 83,000, upper control arms at 120,000.

 

Not hitting potholes, deer, or tree limbs will help extend their life. Usually they wear loose and tire wear indicates problems along with a loss of feel for the road. If U are getting the feeling U no longer go where U point the truck, " it"s time to see the doctor."

 

I usually got around 80k on Motorcraft oem ball joints with occasional offroading. 30-60k on Moog's but a few members here say they've come up on their quality since I last ran a set. (2007)

 

I got about 100,000 out of them on my 2000. I replaced all the ball joints upper and lower, idler arm, pitman arm, end links and etc all at the same time. It wasnt a big cost increase to do it and since it had to be aligned after pulling ball joints anyways it was the perfect time.I was surprised at the wear some of them had and how much tighter things were after.

 

I got 3 years, from new to 3 yrs out of my first set of lowers, replaced with OEM greaseless, haven't had an issue since, that's since fall od 2002 and 200k km's ago. Uppers are original, 258k km's on them. Still good last I checked, tie rods have been more the issue with mine.