Ball Joints
 

I have a 2005 Dodge 3500 Cummins 5.9 with about 58,000 miles. It has had a lot of those miles with a camper on it. I had my snow tires taken off, and the tire shop guys (who also have a repair shop) said I needed new ball joints on the left front. Their quote was for replacing upper and lower ball joints plus "thrust angle alignment", for a total of $312.

I took it to another place, and they said it would be $384. I asked if it were normal for ball joints to be worn after 58,000 miles,and he said "yes, you know those Dodge truck...". I am gulping at the thought of having to replace them all over time.

Questions:

1. Is it normal for ball joint replacement after 58k miles?
2. Are the quotes reasonable?
3. While I am not terribly mechanical, I do have most tools. Is this something a dummy could do?

Thanks.

My son's '05 were just replaced, 88,000 miles...

Did he get just the joints replaced or the whole upper control arm? Did he/you do them?

I had to replace both left and right side ball joints at 47K miles..

Well I just found a Utube video where the guy pressed out and replaced the upper joint and retained the stock control arms so that's what I'm gonna do. Maybe just not tomorrow.

I am at 65K and my pass side ones need replaced. I will do them in a full set and use XRF joints, as they should last longer than stock.

He has a 4X4 no control arms, both sides upper and lower were replaced by a friend, he has been working most weekends so no time...

Ahh. 2X and 4X are two way different animals from a ball joint perspective. My latest plan is to proceed with lowers this weekend, and break apart one upper, take some measurements, then order new boots, and clean and grease what I have. The uppers on a 2WD are really more like just kingpins, and don't do near what the lowers do. I have no slack at all in the uppers and slack only in one lower, but I'm gonna do both lowers anyway.

Make sure the ball joint end play was measured. Some shops seem to be condemning ball joints as soon as they see any movement in them at all instead of going by the wear spec. There is quite a bit of movement allowed in 3rd gen 4WD trucks, as there is with many vehicles, and at your mileage you may still be within spec. I would certainly wear my own out to the maximum spec provided there were no further symptoms. Granted, hauling a camper would accelerate wear quite a bit.

There's no question my one lower is in need of replacement. I've been looking for a banging source on that side and once I found it, it's in the 1/4-1/2" play, as in fix it before I drive it.

My truck never worked and had a bad left side joint around 10k, luckily dealer replaced all four under warranty.

well i just had my hub bearings replaced at $229 a piece, and since I have 93,000 miles on it I decided to have the factory ball joints replaced with xrf.around here $350 a side is not out of the question. the bearings going out seems premature to me but it is what it is!

Did you install the XRF yourself? I heard they can be a bear because they are a tad bit oversized, and the trick is to put them in the freezer to slightly shrink them. They say this is to compensate for the cups on the control arms not being perfect and it will reduce any possible slack between the housing and the arm.

no I had it done, no time with work and all. I have heard the same thing about doing it yourself.

One lower ball joint is done. The other was still just as tight as can be. That one was a bear to break loose. It had so much slack in it that I had to make some shims to hammer in there with the separator fork. But once it broke free from the knuckle, it was all downhill from there. The old one pressed out quickly and putting the new one in the freezer over night made quick work on the press back in process. I did find what seemed to be a little slack in the tie rod end on the same side, and one small tap on it and it flew apart. So that came out and a new one went in. What started all this was a terrible rattle. Mostly on washboard dirt roads. I've been looking and looking for it. Well when that was all done, the rattle was still there, yet it was better. Now it was sounding like a bad front shock, so we pulled the front shock and drove it again, and that for sure wasn't it. We looked and looked and finally found a bad end on the front stabilizer bar. The same side as the wore out ball joint and tie rod. And the wheel bearing on that side seems a little rough and dry sounding, so that will be soon. It odd that the drivers side can turn out to be in such terrible shape and the passenger side seems to show no wear at all. As funds permit, I'll be replacing that bearing assb. and then I'll go to the other side and replace it's lower bj, tie rod end and stabilizer strut. Then the other bearing, and then to top ball joints. They both have bad rubbers but still seem to be tight.

Overall, I'm happy with the progress today.