doodoo

iTrader: (8)

About how long or how many miles before changing your ball joints and tie rods? My car is a 2004 at 115k miles already. I dont have any noises or problems but just curious if I should be getting ready to change them out. Thanks

BradTank

It all depends on how the car was driven more than the mileage, if it mainly driven on smooth highways, they can go a really long time, if it was rough roads fulls of potholes, they go out much faster.

The "old school" way to check them is to jack each of the front wheels up one at a time and grab the tire on each side and attempt to shake them back and forth with a good amount of force.

For the ball joints, you grab them by the 12 O'Clock and 6 O'Clock (top and bottom) position and attempt to rock them back and forth to find movement. If there's more than say more than say a quarter inch of movement, it means the ball joints are probably on the way out.

For the tie rods, you grab the tires by the 9 O'Clock and 3 O'Clock position and also shake them back and forth to find movement. Make sure the steering is locked. Have someone check under to see what is flexing, it could be the inner or the outer tie rod, or both.

When they're bad and you do this test, it will be a "pop, pop" type sound and obvious movement. It's not an exact test, and even on good joints you'll see a little bit of play, but more than say a half inch is when they probably need attention.

Also, visually check and see if the boots are torn or leaking grease.

Boomer01

I have an 01 with 193K miles and have not changed them out. There's no specific time frame.