CAJUNLAWYER
Member
Blue broke down and I had to have her towed this morning. Have to replace upper and lower ball joints and I am PISSED! How long are these supposed to last???
How lond are ball joints suposed to last.
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Coldshooter
Member
I think it has something to do with when your front end shop has a cash flow issue.
Were your balljoints "lubed for life" or were they greaseable?
Greaseable balljoints last much longer (when properly maintained) than the "lubed for life" type in my experience. I've had some go over 175K. I've had some that were "lubed for life" that didn't see 100K.
Greaseable balljoints last much longer (when properly maintained) than the "lubed for life" type in my experience. I've had some go over 175K. I've had some that were "lubed for life" that didn't see 100K.
Vulcan Bob
Member
Depends on the vehicle, how you drive it and most of all how well you get along with life's "Nasty surprise department.". Trucks and such that get a lot of hard use on rough roads may get 45,000 miles or so. Ones that never leave the pavement and haul nothing more than grocery's may get a lot more. And other's, who knows! I'm a retired fleet mechanic and I can only tell you one thing, they are all junk!
Dont you have 500,000 miles on old blue [emoji16]?
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CAJUNLAWYER
Member
Well, she's a 1999 Suburban with 367,500 miles. I don't think I've had anything done on the ball joints before today. These are easy miles mind you, no off-roading with a little boat towing and some launch ramp work thrown in.. But I always launch the boat from the rear hitch so the ball joints have never gotten wet.
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CAJUNLAWYER
Member
No I DON'T smart aleck
Comrad
Member
After 367,500 miles I think you owe those ball joints a kiss on the lips, that's pretty impressive service.
Sir, there is no pat answer for your question. If the mileage you quote is real you have done good. Curbs, chuck holes dirt roads and things of that sort cause the joints to fail. Here in the great state we have some teeth rattling chuck holes because of the wet freezes and hot dry weather. If you have large over size tires with reversed wheels that will make it even worse. All that out of the way you did real good. Have them replaced with good parts lifetime warranty..
Eaglestroker
Member
I've had to do mine on my Super Duty twice, and am just now at 200k miles. Consider yourself fortunate 
S.Alt_4"44's
Member
I'm with Eaglestroker,
My Ol' Whitey, a 2006 Ford F-150 XLT Super Crew shown here with its 35"x12.5"x17" Mickey Thompson's Baja ATZ's, has had a 6" lift and 35" tires since it had 10,000 miles on it. I had to get all new ball joints at 80,000 but they were replaced under factory extended warranty since the dealership installed the lift(sub'd out, actually). She gets mild 4x4 use when out shooting really. I dread when they go out again as my extended is over and I am up to 135,000 miles now To add, mine are "Lubed for Life" type. Like 4barrel said, it took the guys at Desert Rat all of about 10 minutes to tell me what was going on when I took it to them for an "alignment issue". They could have easily "wooled" my eyes, instead, they did me a nice write-up to take over to the dealership and asked if I had a warranty. Good guys are out there for sure and that keeps me coming back!
My Ol' Whitey, a 2006 Ford F-150 XLT Super Crew shown here with its 35"x12.5"x17" Mickey Thompson's Baja ATZ's, has had a 6" lift and 35" tires since it had 10,000 miles on it. I had to get all new ball joints at 80,000 but they were replaced under factory extended warranty since the dealership installed the lift(sub'd out, actually). She gets mild 4x4 use when out shooting really. I dread when they go out again as my extended is over and I am up to 135,000 miles now
To add, mine are "Lubed for Life" type. Like 4barrel said, it took the guys at Desert Rat all of about 10 minutes to tell me what was going on when I took it to them for an "alignment issue". They could have easily "wooled" my eyes, instead, they did me a nice write-up to take over to the dealership and asked if I had a warranty. Good guys are out there for sure and that keeps me coming back!
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BobC357
Member
My old 67 Ford had 496,200 miles on it when it was T-boned by a drunk teenager. Anyway, with nearly a half-million miles on it, it still had the original ball joints. They were greased at every oil change and I did that myself. I've never replaced a ball joint in 50 years of driving.
If you had never done any front suspension work on old blue then you got your money's worth.
CatSnipah
Member
JJEH
Member
Depends all on how you drive and where. If you really just drive urban environment with less to no pot holes and sidewalk, the BJ's should last forever...
NCW Ray
Member
Generally mine have lasted right up until they failed.
Yorkie Man
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If you plan on keeping it replace all of the rest of the steering components, inner & outer tie rod ends, pitman arm if your vehicle is equipped with these parts. If some of these parts fail it could cost you your life.
I had a couple of friends in high school that tried to weld a tie rod back together on a 1968 Cougar. While he was traveling about 45 mph the weld cut loose and both front wheels faced outward which caused him to lose control and hit the other one's car which they had just spent two months repainting. Luckily no one was hurt.
All the manufacturer worries about is that the parts don't fail before the warranty expires after that you are on your own.
I had a couple of friends in high school that tried to weld a tie rod back together on a 1968 Cougar. While he was traveling about 45 mph the weld cut loose and both front wheels faced outward which caused him to lose control and hit the other one's car which they had just spent two months repainting. Luckily no one was hurt.
All the manufacturer worries about is that the parts don't fail before the warranty expires after that you are on your own.
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