I brought my 19 year old F150 for inspection today and, while it passed without any problem, the shop guy said it needed new ball joints. I need a second opinion. Even though the truck is older, it only has 137K miles so I’m not sure why it would need new ball joints.
So two questions:
I only use the truck occasionally and that’s mostly for trips to the dump or hauling wood from the wood store/lumber yard.
I had a 2006 F150 4x4 15 years ago. The front ball joints went bad. They were not trashed but worn enough to screw up the front tire alignment.
I tried to do the job myself and was sorry, I did. It was easier to replace the lower control arms than to use every tool I had to get the ball joint itself out of the control arm. I broke two ball joint removal tools and finally took the entire control arm off the truck to use a 30-ton press to remove it. At that point, the bushings were also toast. So I went to the auto parts store and bought two new ones. Hopefully, you won’t go through that experience
Ball joints being replaced at 100k miles should be more common than it is.
I understand a lot of people follow the old adage “if it ain’t broke” but replacing them would be preventative maintenance.
They do wear and will have a lot more play than when they were new.
I’d just replace them myself.
You don’t want to have one break on you, as it’ll cost you way more money repairing shit.
A lower ball joint going bad can sometimes be heard as kinda of a thump sound. This guy does a good job of showing how to check them.
How to Check if a Ball Joint is Bad properly On a Ford Truck Or Any Car
137K is not unreasonable for them to be bad if they have no zerk or haven’t been greased if they do have a zerk. Off-road usage and/or oversized tires definitely shortens their lifespan.
I’ve changed a lot of ball joints over the years and as Bigdaddy said, it is usually easier to change the whole control arm. I’ve always just done the joints due to the cost of the arms. All the auto parts stores rent removal tools if you want to just relpace the joints. I’ve had to use oxy/acetylene on some though.
Well THANKS! You guys have convinced me. Next stop is my goto repair shop, get a quote, and probably have them do the job. I know ‘I’ won’t be trying to fix them!
A set of components people are absolutely notorious for neglecting are shocks.
Shocks, whether stock or parts store type, are all disposable and cannot be rebuilt.
With that said, their life expectancy is roughly 50k miles. That’s 4-5 years for the average driver in the US.
You’ll see vehicles that are between 10 - 20 years old still riding on the same suspension all because “it ain’t broke”.
Thing is, they should be replaced because they don’t dampen anywhere near as well as when they were new. Just because they aren’t physically broken though, people skip on them all the time.
You don’t "feel’ the difference either because they wear over time.
Think of putting a frog in a pot of boiling water - that fucker is going to want to jump right out (or die right away).
Put it in a pot of room temperature water though and slowly turn up the heat, it’ll sit there for way longer before it’s too late. It’s because it’s difficult to feel the change when it’s done over time.
Get a second opinion from the guy that normally does your work. Have him show you the play.
Depending on who services your truck maybe nobody is greasing them if the they even have fittings.
If they don’t have fittings they may be dry of grease and if so if one of the boots gets a hole or slit, then water gets in then rust can start and they just grind themselves away or time.
Always make the the tech show you the wear
I’ve been ‘religious’ about keeping the maintenance schedule on things like that so the fittings SHOULD have been greased on the normal rotation. Still, since the guy did comment on the joints, I’ll bring it to my regular and see what he thinks. It’s nice to have people you trust.
I do have oversize tires and have done ‘some’ off roading… 
Well, if you count a number of trips into Canyonlands Maze and Beef Basin where my truck was the Mule hauling water and fuel ‘offroading’