Ball joints or control arms?

[buck91]

If you were maintaining a vehicle with approx 130-140k miles with shredded ball joint boots but no noise or slop yet (and they have been shredded for probably 40k miles) what would you do

1. Continue using the same spray lube and wait for them to develop a problem- hopefully NOT during 0*F winter blizzard.
2. Replace with decent quality ball joint such as Moog, Motorcraft, Napa, etc.
3. Replace a-arm assembly to refresh ball joint and bushings in one shot. Hard to really know the quality of these pieces, it seems now.

I am probably going to default to #1 for now, but I want to have a plan in place and maybe even tackle it preemptively before the weather turns this year. Right now I'm on the fence between Moog BJ's from AAP or Napa brand replacement control arms from, obvious Napa. My concern with the Napa pieces is that it seems they are non-greaseable (which I'm 100% OK with for OEM-level parts) but I'm not sure the extra cost is really worth it. I can get the Moog's from AAP for about $80 total while the arms are listing at $130'ish a piece. Should be able to get a fleet/account discount on that, but not sure realistically how much impact it will make.

Further, it seems like every other replacement control arm option, short of Motorcraft, is Chinese imported, even the well reviewed pieces from Latemodelrestoration...

 

[eljefino]

How do you know the AAP Moogs' country of Origin?

I assume you have access to a press. When I did my HHR's LCA bushings it turned out a BJ was stuck on one side and needed the pickle fork to get loose. I'd wait to see it all apart if you're doing less than everything with all new LCAs.

 

[bdcardinal]

Is this on the Mustang? Get 03-04 Cobra lower arms, they have improved ball joints and bushings. If I was sticking with the stock spring location on my 95 that is what I would get.

 

[Kuato]

I would go with #3, because #1. And because #2 can get you to #1 and also might require #3 anyway.

 

[gregoron]

I'd wait for whichever comes first prior to replacing both ball joints and lower control arms:

1. failing a state safety inspection,
2. ball joint makes some noise and the wheel shows play.

On the parts, if you want to keep your car longer I'd pay for higher quality parts. You can check your car specific forums for reviews. Also, you'd need to get your wheels aligned afterwards.

 

[Silverado12]

They make replacement ball joint boots. Ball joint boot

 

[stevejones]

If the control arm bushings are in good shape, I'd do the ball joint assemblys now & be done with it for a long time.

 

[chevys10]

I got replacement boots for my Mazda joints several years ago from Napa...didn't take too long to do and I was able to clean out the grease pretty well to see how much contamination/play there was. Still holding up today.

 

[Kruse]

Do the #2 route.
I've seen ball joints come apart with little or no audible warning. Matter-of-fact, I saw it happen to a Mustang a little over a month ago. Luckily, the driver was doing 5 mph instead of 75 mph. I replaced it right where it happened, in the parking lot on a 100 degree day with no breeze. The next day I replaced the opposite side in my work shed.
While these ball joints were obviously neglected, the driver had heard no noise.

 

[JHZR2]

I'd refresh all the components that make sense to touch at the same time, assuming the car is worth keeping. Do the right job once and have everything back to spec.

You mention failure in the winter... I'd also probably not do the job immediately, instead I'd wait until the fall to do it.

 

[Merkava_4]

Before I can help you, I gotta know the following:

1. What is the vehicle Make, Model, and Engine size?

2. Do you do your own vehicle maintenance?

 

[01rangerxl]

I kind of ran into this situation on my 2002 Ranger. At just shy of 130K all four ball joint boots had cracks. I had time then to deal with it, but knew that downtime would soon be out of the question, so I proactively replaced all four ball joints with Raybestos Pro ones. It's entirely possible the original ball joints would have still been good now, but at the time it made sense to knock it out and make sure they were good for a while. I opted to just go with ball joints, not control arms for the lowers. For my application, I felt the aftermarket ball joints I could get were much higher quality than the available complete lower control arm assemblies. While technically the uppers can be pressed out and replaced, SOP is to do upper control arm assemblies in this application, so that's what I did. No regrets, but I did take the originals out of service early. Ford truck ball joints tend to give a lot of noisy warning before they are actually unsafe...mine never got close to that.

In short, if cracked boots are the only issue, I'd probably only worry about it if downtime won't be an option in the future.

 

[buck91]

Well, scored some 2004 Cobra a-arms off ebay with 17k miles, so it looks like those will be going in when I find the time. These have slightly better wheel clearance as well as better bushings compared to the units in my 96, and the seller is even including the bolts and endlinks.

 

[andyd]

I have had several 528es. Rust wins, so I harvest the good stuff before it goes for scrap. I'm down to what will probably my last one. It needs front end bushings and ball joints. The car isn't a daily driver. If a ball joint is sloppy, I find a good one. Then I drill it and run in a zerks to lube it. I re-boot with day glow orange boots from Auto Zone and put them in.I just finished the left side, I will start on the right as soon as it stops raining.