How much damage do you think I did? Failed suspens

[The motor guy]

I thought I had bad anti sway bar links which I think I do, but I guess it was really a bad upper ball joint according to what the tow truck driver has seen. It's been rattling for the last few days, but I guess it was worse than I thought. Whatever it was the brake caliper got caught on the rim and seized the tire up. Luckily I was able to get it off the road and off on a little side street, so I had a 10 feet black skid mark all the way into the turn onto that road. I'm worried that it messed up stuff like the brake caliper or control arm and that kind of thing. Anyone have this happen? I wish it would have made it a couple more days since I had an appointment at a shop for Tuesday morning. Truck has 90,000. I know dodges have bad front ends. What do you guys think? I just hope I'm not in for a 3000 dollar bill.

 

[KzMitch]

Dammit.
I saw the title and got all excited thinking it was another Avery4 post.

 

[SilverSnake]

Originally Posted By: KzMitch
Dammit.
I saw the title and got all excited thinking it was another Avery4 post.


That's funny! I thought exactly the same thing!

 

[The motor guy]

So is this common for this to happen?

 

[Number_35]

Bad luck! Ball joints usually fail when the wheel is turned sharply at low speed, typically into a parking spot.

I can imagine it could be catastrophic at higher speeds.

 

[eljefino]

That's pretty weird. I think maybe it's more likely your wheel bearing went kaput.

If your bearing were in good shape, the wheel, hub, and knuckle would be in alignment, and your caliper bolts to the knuckle.

Anyway I'd get a new caliper, bracket and all hardware, and inspect the knuckle real well for cracks and bending. Or get a junkyard knuckle.

 

[AdRock]

By the time a ball joint gets to be rattling it's been bad for a really long time.

 

[Dyusik]

Originally Posted By: SilverSnake
Originally Posted By: KzMitch
Dammit.
I saw the title and got all excited thinking it was another Avery4 post.


That's funny! I thought exactly the same thing!

same here.
The anti sway have nothing to do with anything. Pull stuff off and compare it against known good parts. If it is all well, check the mounting area so on. Replace broken parts, align the front and on your way. 3k is a stupid price, cant you find a complete front end for it if worst case happens? I swapped in a an axle for 100, and 200 bucks before.

 

[01rangerxl]

I don't have any experience with Dodge HD pickups, but I have heard that ball joint replacement is common on them.

A few days from the start of the noise to total failure does sound very, very quick.

The repair bill might not be $3K, but it will be over $1K, plan on that.

 

[TFB1]

If wheel is still straight it wasn't total ball joint failure... Since noise was only for a few days my guess is the caliper has worked loose...

 

[The motor guy]

Originally Posted By: TFB1
If wheel is still straight it wasn't total ball joint failure... Since noise was only for a few days my guess is the caliper has worked loose...


No it's crooked. The caliper rubbed against the inside of the rim. I think the rim is still usable though.

 

[The motor guy]

Originally Posted By: TFB1
If wheel is still straight it wasn't total ball joint failure... Since noise was only for a few days my guess is the caliper has worked loose...


It always had a slight rattle for a while which I wrote off as the tailgate rattling or the trailer hitch ball rattling around, but only recently in the last 4 days or so did it become a lot worse. Just wish it would have waited a few more days to get it into the shop.

 

[The motor guy]

Originally Posted By: Number_35
Bad luck! Ball joints usually fail when the wheel is turned sharply at low speed, typically into a parking spot.

I can imagine it could be catastrophic at higher speeds.


I heard one big clunk and then heard metal on metal when I rolled the window down and the tire didn't lock up until I was going pretty slow. I was probably only going 10mph at that time and then I got it to go another 15 feet with the wheel skidding to get it off the road. Who knows. lol it is what it is.

 

[dishdude]

Still trying to figure out how the caliper would contact the rim if the ball joint failed. Isn't that all part of the knuckle held on by the ball joints?

 

[The motor guy]

Still trying to figure out how the caliper would contact the rim if the ball joint failed. Isn't that all part of the knuckle held on by the ball joints? [/quote

The tow truck driver was thinking it was the upper ball joint since it was sitting the rim was sitting on the caliper. I guess technically the caliper mounting bracket. I could see through the rim where the anti rattle clip on that pad was scraping against the rim. That's just going off what he said assuming he even knows what he's talking about. I guess it could really be a number of things.

 

[Subdued]

Originally Posted By: dishdude
Still trying to figure out how the caliper would contact the rim if the ball joint failed. Isn't that all part of the knuckle held on by the ball joints?

Yes.

I know Chrysler likes to be different, but not that different.

AFAIK there are only 2 things that can make a caliper scrape against the wheel:

- Catastrophic bearing failure
- Caliper bolts backed out

Ball joint makes no sense for this to me.

 

[The motor guy]

So a wheel bearing isn't all that expensive of a job then right? Assuming nothing else got messed up? The inside of the rim got scraped up, but I think it's still usable.

 

[hattaresguy]

Your wheel bearing let go, it might be an expensive job now because it probably did more damage.

 

[KzMitch]

A wheel bearing can be cheap, or not so cheap.
On my Tundra, the front wheel bearings are pressed into the hub.
And no, you can't just whack them out with a hammer and a socket.
The job requires a press, and in order to press it out, it requires removing the steering knuckle, which is a good time to replace the upper and lower ball joints.
For me parts were around $200 per side, and I did all the work myself except the press. I found a local shop that took care of that for $50.

Every now and then you gotta make a car payment on a 15 year old truck.
I'm ok with that.

 

[The motor guy]

Yeah. Things happen I'm hoping worse case scenario it will just be a new wheel bearing on that side and maybe a new caliper bracket if that's bent up from the truck sitting on it. Hopefully they can check it out tomorrow.