My steering wheel was a little crooked so I decided to take it in to the alignment shop to check it out and fix it. After a few mins, the owner called me to come over to see somethnig. He showed me the upper ball joint and the inner tie rod on the driver side had a little play in it. He made it a point to say it's not dangerous, but there's some play, and he showed it to me. He then told me that if I take it to the dealer, they'll put in the same garbage, and he told me he would put in good stuff when he does the job, which I'll let him do, just not now. Is this normal for 22,000 miles? My '66 442 has the originals still in it............... Btw, this guy has been in biz for 18 years so I do have some trust in him, just want to know what y'all think. He says he's seen them before.

 

do you have any play in it while driving?

 

My buddy has an 03 with about 40'000 miles and hes on his 3rd set of ball joints.

 

Took mine in for the balljoint deal also... The mechanic (pretty good friend) also drives an 04 ctd and works on them all day - anyways he says that they all do it, even his, and considers it normal. He then took me out onto the lot with a floor jack and lifted the front of a used ctd with 15000 miles on it and sure enough theyre loose. I think the cummins is just so heavy that nothings going to fix it. My experience / your call.

 

replaced my whole entire front end this past june at 63,000 miles. tie rods were shot, ball joints were shot, had a bad hub assembly and one bad axle u-joint

 

42k on my truck and it steers great and I have no balljoint problems.
Scott

 

52k miles on my pickup with no problems. 15k of those on logging roads with lots of potholes and washboard and still no problems. I hear so much about this issue but I don't understand it, mine must be the weird. I'm runnig 285/70/17 tires, I think, so what gives? why arent mine bad yet?

 

I'm at 72K miles andfront end all original. Also have run bigger tires (315/70-17) all this time. Dunno, maybe I'm lucky.

 

Three guys in a row with 4.5's and no ball joint problems , make that four , mine is at 56000 and still no problem what so ever with the front end . Does that mean something is different on ours or just a coincidence ?

 

I use to have an 03 Dodge cummins, I traded it with 40,000 miles and bad ball joints, my 06 ball joints are loose at 28,000 miles.

I bought an old 97 12v to hot rod a few years back, bought it with 160,000 miles, got rid of it at about 190,000 miles. Ball joints were tight when I bought it, and when I sold it they were just as good.

 

05 with 60k, getting ready to do ball joints this weekend, only the uppers are bad, but I am going to do all of them and the axle u-joints at one time.

 

23k on mine with 325/60/20 tires and no problems.... so far! ;-)

 

Likewise, my 04.5 has about 62k and no ball joint issues yet. Been running 315's since new. Had new tires put on last month and tire guy said the joints look good yet. Just my .02, but I think replacing the factory shocks early w/ Bilsteins has helped. Did that on my 01 as well and still had good joints at 117,000.

 

Is it normal... yes... no... very hit and miss as the replies have revieled...
I had a front axle u-joint go out at 70,000 miles... did both sides. Checked ball joints at the same time they're both still good.
Like I said it's been very hit and miss... one guy has one go out at 10K and another goes 80K with no problems...

 

155,000 on mine...and no huge ball-joint problems. There is some play in the steering wheel, but it is a truck....not a BMW. So some play is to be expected.