How long do ball joints last?

[tvr keith]

Put my 2000 450 Chim in for MOT last week. 39000 miles, and 3000 miles since I had a major service at a TVR main dealer. It failed on the N/S upper ball joint which the tester (who is a good mate of mine) said was totally sha**ed. Purchased one from said dealer and fitted it myself within one hour.
The result is a totally different car. It now feels like it's committed to bends and inspires confidence. I have only driven one other Chim about a year ago and that was for a short distance, so I have always put the nervousness of the car down to a TVR characteristic. I have driven well over 1 million miles and usually know if there's something wrong but I didn't detect this. Even more worrying, neither had the dealer on the service. The car had done 5000 miles since the last MOT 11 months ago when I bought it.
Removal of the rubber boot revealed that the joint was rusty and devoid of grease, and required a hammer blow to move the shaft around.
I have now had the retest done and the tester agrees with me that perhaps I should replace the other three joints. After all, they can only be inspected for play and the condition of the rubber boot (which was ok), but the condition of the interior is unknown.
What do you guys think? The car is not driven especially hard and no track days.
A bit worrying, after all, these are all that hold the wheels on!

[tvron]

just had all four of mine changed at 40000 miles.I was having upper wishbones replaced but when guys at Leven looked at joints etc we decided to change all joints and wishbones. I must say car has never driven so well. It feels totally different and well worth expense

[M@H]

I replaced one on my last Chim at about 40,000 and wasn't suprised or worried by the timeframe/mileage.

[mak]

tvr keith said:

Put my 2000 450 Chim in for MOT last week. 39000 miles, and 3000 miles since I had a major service at a TVR main dealer. It failed on the N/S upper ball joint which the tester (who is a good mate of mine) said was totally sha**ed. Purchased one from said dealer and fitted it myself within one hour.
The result is a totally different car. It now feels like it's committed to bends and inspires confidence. I have only driven one other Chim about a year ago and that was for a short distance, so I have always put the nervousness of the car down to a TVR characteristic. I have driven well over 1 million miles and usually know if there's something wrong but I didn't detect this. Even more worrying, neither had the dealer on the service. The car had done 5000 miles since the last MOT 11 months ago when I bought it.
Removal of the rubber boot revealed that the joint was rusty and devoid of grease, and required a hammer blow to move the shaft around.
I have now had the retest done and the tester agrees with me that perhaps I should replace the other three joints. After all, they can only be inspected for play and the condition of the rubber boot (which was ok), but the condition of the interior is unknown.
What do you guys think? The car is not driven especially hard and no track days.
A bit worrying, after all, these are all that hold the wheels on!

[mak]

i'll add a bit to that last post (bloody computers) full service history means sod all, i've had cars near death traps with total history and there's no way your ball joint was in good order when they dumped the oil and changed the plugs and charged 600 squid for the prevalige.

[That Daddy]

ive been viewing cars with my brother(chims)with so called specialist & main agent servicing got to say the standards are low, half the time it dosent even look like they had the wheels off never mind air filter checks,dist cap etc,diff & g/box levels probably missed too,probably taking the piss out of the owner cos they think there caked.poorly maintained chassis oh yer.

[aerospoke]

Hi all!

Just a quick question: are the balljoints TVR specific or are they Ford parts? Mine have done 75k but feel OK and don´t make any noises. Unlike the ones on my Fiat Spider(15€ each) that had done less than 10k and allready made very strange noises till i replaced them with uprated ones(45€ each).
Now all fine.

Cheers jens

[M@H]

aerospoke said:

Hi all!

Just a quick question: are the balljoints TVR specific

[tvrchim]

Hi just to add i have all 4 ball joints changed today on my 95 Chim, and you can only check them with the car on the ground, if you suspend it the joints feel ok, but on the ground you can feel the play. When they were removed they were absolutly sh...ed but the car felt ok to drive, i have also changed top and bottom wishbones both sides, i carnt wait to see how it feels now.

Steve.

[tvr keith]

Thanks for all your replies. Been on hols for a couple of weeks, have to start thinking seriously about replacing the other three I think

[pete1]

I changed all of the ball joints when i rebuilt my suspension a few weeks ago,

It makes a BIG difference, considering the cost there is no reason not to do it. The upper ball joint is a Saab and the lower off a Lada Riva if i remember correctly.

Pete

[TVR keith]

Just been out and bought the other three, maybe fit them tomorrow

[M@H]

pete1 said:

The upper ball joint is a Saab and the lower off a Lada Riva if i remember correctly.

Pete

that sounds more like the S Series setup to me..(could be wrong) When I got a lower one for my car the TVR Dealer network and David Gerald (where I got mine from) said it was TVR specific !?

Edited by M@H on Thursday 6th July 16:49

[pupp]

I was told they're TVR specific too but, if that's the case, it doesn't account for the heads interfereing with the wishbone ends (on the upper) if neggy camber is sought on set-up... plenty of slot left but a grinder needed to use it

[GreenV8S]

One way to knacker ball joints is to over-extend them, for example by jacking the car up when the damper length combined with the camber settings exceed the travel on the ball joint. Ball joints don't last forever, but it might be a combination of suspension parts not-quite-right rather than normal wear and tear.