Signs of Worn Ball Joints and U-Joints
Ball joints act as the pivot between your wheels and suspension. When they wear out, you will usually hear a dull clunk or popping sound when driving over bumps or turning the steering wheel. You might also notice your car wandering on the road or wearing down the inside edge of your tires. Universal joints, or U-joints, sit on drive shafts and axle shafts. A bad U-joint often makes a high-pitched squeak that speeds up as you drive, or a loud clunk when you shift into gear.
Ball Joint and Control Arm Replacement
How we fix the problem depends on your vehicle. On some rear-wheel-drive cars and trucks, we press the old ball joint out of the steering knuckle or lower control arm and press a new one in. On many modern cars and truck upper suspensions, the joint is built into the control arm itself. Replacing the whole control arm assembly replaces the worn ball joint and worn rubber bushings at the same time.
Heavy-duty trucks like a Ford Super Duty or Ram 1500 put a lot of stress on front-end parts. On these, replacing upper and lower ball joints at the same time usually makes sense. Taking off the wheel hub and axle shaft takes up most of the labor time, so doing both joints while the assembly is apart saves money on labor down the road.
Alignment and Safety
Replacing a ball joint or control arm changes your front suspension geometry. Because of that, the job requires a wheel alignment when the mechanical work is finished. Skipping the alignment will wear out a set of front tires in a few thousand miles. Nick Porter handles diagnostics and suspension work in our shop, and we run wheel alignments on-site so you do not have to take the car somewhere else to finish the job.
A completely failed ball joint can cause the wheel to separate from the car while driving. If the vehicle is generally reliable, replacing a worn joint is straightforward safety maintenance. If an older car has severe rust or needs both sides completely rebuilt, we will explain the total cost upfront so you can decide if the car is worth putting money into. Auto Star is located at 28801 Meridian E in Graham. Give us a call at (253) 375-7057. We are open Monday through Saturday, 8am to 6pm.