After 3 years my "permanently lubricated" ball joints (read: no grease fittings, nor even any places to install fittings) have suddenly started squeaking when turning. I lubed the tie rod ends etc. which seem fine. Anyone have a nifty trick for injecting some grease under the ball joint boots to eke a little more life out of the ball joints? (The wost I can do is ruin them, which is happening right quick anyways.)

My garage's source was Advance Auto, I believe - the right set failed after 15 months and had to be replaced, now the left ones are following suit....

 

permanetly lubed means we get to replace them real soon
you can drill a small hole in it and use a needle grease point
if it is already squeaking, most likely, they will have already worn out
just go ahead and replace with greasable joints

 

I got cheap balljoints from autozone but they do have lube nipples installed, I wonder much cheaper it gets.

 

My son has a F-150 that he put new ball joints and tie-rod ends on less than 2 years ago. Last week while in a parking lot, a tie-rod end just came apart. No warning, no play, just fell apart........ TRW brand with no zerks, made in Mexico. I was appalled, what if he had been on the highway at speed ????

John

 

I replaced the two outer tie rod ends on my '94 Aerostar today. Don't know if they were factory or not, but they had no zerks and actually had pencil-sized holes on the bottom side that let water/mud/salt in them. I guess the winter may have accelerated it, but they were fine last fall and now they were really bad and I was thankful they didn't fail while driving it. There was no wobble or jerking of the steering wheel at all and it drove real smooth before they were replaced. Things like that really scare me......

I replaced with some USA manufactured Perfect Circle branded parts.

 

The shop tells me that the joints are still tight despite being noisy, and that the replacement joints are also non-lube-able. They've had no success in time past with drilling in to lube the joints. They are pursuing the mfr limited lifetime warranty from the supplier so that at least the parts cost would be covered.

Will update as it develops.

 

Just replaced my lifetime warrenty ball joints for the third time all 4 since they are free replacement just sucks think they make a better unit than that

 

When I owned my shop we quickly learned that Advance and Autozone parts would end up coming back and we would have to replace them under warranty. Sure, the parts house would replace the part free but we had to eat the labor and the customer certainly wasn't happy about having to come back.

I switched to using the commercial parts houses like CarQuest and most of those problems went away. Also, I have found that CarQuest prices are not that much more in most cases. There are some price differences in some parts.

The ignition wires on my Clubwagon are a typical example. I had been using Standard brand wires for years. They are OE quality wires and last 50,000+ without problem. Well, I messed one up changing the exhaust manifold gaskets a while back and because it was sunday and the commercial parts houses weren't open I got the Autozone Bosch Lifetime warranty wires. I have to replace those almost annually. While Autozone replaces them free, the job is a PITA.

 

Ford just replaced the ball joints on my '05 E350 (60,000 miles), presumably with factory parts. Looks like a fellow could put zerks in, or just take the plugs out and use a rubber nippled grease gun?