They failed my 2005 escape hybrid for leaking rear shocks.Both these vehicles would have passed if I was still living in Mass.

 

Do you happen to have the part numbers for the ball joints? Did you do both upper and lower? I have been looking around and found lower ball joints from napa for $84 each and Moog from summit for $34.00 each...

I cant find upper ball joints listed anywhere!

 

I took my 04' F-150 with about 89k miles on it in to the Ford dealer today to get the front end aligned and they told me my right lower control arm and ball joint needed replacing as well and that it was badly worn and loose. I ran off in a ditch about 3 years ago and that tire took a hard hit breaking the bead. I've noticed my steering isn't ligned up correctly and just got new tires so that's why I took it in. We recently replaced all 4 rotors so I think from reading this post my dad and I can handle, just don't know if I need the arm and the ball or just the ball. Any thoughts?

 

I went to get inspected and my mechanic said i needed ball joints bad. I noticed the ride quality had worsened. I ended up in the same deal, paying $900 for new A arms with removable ball joints, and that included my inspection. I do my own general maintainence and never greased my ball joints so.... I guess I learned.

This was at 71,876 miles also

 

they arent greasable from the factory on our trucks man, cant grease them...they actually last longer than greasable ones because nothing can get in or out of a sealed unit...I will never put greaseables on my truck unless they are Camburgs

 

hmmm... Ok good to know. Thanks.

 

Back in November when I went to the Ford dealership to get a new set of tires on my truck. They told me my lower ball joints were starting to go bad and something that I would need to keep an eye on. The truck had just under 43k at the time. I guese driving fast over the speed bumps at my old apartment complex took a toll on the ball joints.

 

hmustang,

did you notice any clunking noises going over those speed bumps. we got a ton of the damn things in my neighborhood and im getting a clunking noise when i go over the 'sharper' more aggressive speed bumps. Any thoughts?

 

How can you say they last longer? My 98 eat a set of sealed ball joints in 65K, in my 01 they were good for 55K and my 03's ball joints were good until 72K. Where my 89 ran for 169K on the factory ball joints and my 93 had 120K on them when I sold it, also on the factory ball joints. The 89 and 93 were greaseable units.

As your friendly Ford service writer, what it typical for ball joint life on these trucks. You'll be shocked to hear that many fail at only 40K miles.

 

If yóu service them regularly yeah they'll last long, but rarely does anypne do that...inmy experience with plow trucks...greasable ones do not last near as long unless you grease them every 4 hours...my dads super duty had a set of greasable ones last 10k with 3k grease intervals and sealed ones last 80k

 

No never noticed any clunking noise going over the bumps

 

So I went to autozone and told them I needed a lower ball joint for my 2004 F-150 (not heritage) and the one that came in after they ordered it was a Duralast D104368 that appears to be greasable -- has the hole on top with a grease fitting. Should I take it back since the part should be non-greasable? I've heard duralast is a bad brand too. I need to get my frontend aligned as it's messin up my new tires but I can't until I change this passenger lower ball joint. I hear MOOG is good but I need one now. Have the duralast in my hand but don't know about greasable ones.

 

just curious hoe do you tell they are going bad?

 

Wow, weird.
I just placed my ball joint order from RockAuto and what do I see at the top of the Forum when I drop-in? This thread!
I got all Moog components: upper control arms with bj's and just (2) lower bj's (using stock lower a-arms). Total shipped is $246.00 (do an online search for "rockauto coupon" for a 5% discount). Ball joints are pretty easy as long as you get/borrow the tool from the local autoparts store...at least on my past Chevy's.
Reason: I am install my lift kit later this month and I am just getting all my parts lined up. I figured after a few thousand miles with the leveling kit, I might as well replace all the bj's while I have it apart. I would hate to tear it apart again in another 30-40k (currently have 35k now), plus that Moog stuff is tough as heck. RockAuto has good pricing and everything is in stock.

peaceout...

 

So does anyone know how much of a pain it is to change out the upper control arms? I have a punctured drive side upper BJ and figured I could just replace both the upper control arms with this moog gear I keep hearing about. Has anybody done this? And how much of a pain are we talking about here? I'm guessing I'd need an alignment afterword.