I bought the truck in 04. I currently have 38000 miles on truck and tow a 5th wheel trailer with it once a month in the summer and once to Myrtle Beach (1500 mi) each year. Other than that is is driven 16 miles a day to work. I am being told by Ford dealer that due to the age of the truck they have seen this issue, mileage aparnatly has nothing to do with it. Has anyone else? I contacted Ford CRC and they won't help. Calipers & pads have been replaced on all 4 wheels.

 

What evidence is there of bad ball joints?

What kind of roads do you drive on?

What load?


Is it one bad joint? all? which ones? what side?

 

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Front tires are starting to cup on insided tread. Dealer says ball joints are bad.
I drive on highway type driving, no off roading. when I am towing I tow a 33' fifth wheel trailer.Dealer syas ball joints are bad on both sides. I replaced the ires once at 25000 miles due to cupping but did not take it in for fromn end alignment.

 

Upper and lower ball joints both bad?

Are you using oversized / non standard tires?

Is the truck lifted? Spacers? Any suspension mods at all? Shocks stock?


How often did you have alignment done?

What tire pressures are you running?

What maintenance did you do on the ball joints?

 

Yes, upper and lower. I am using standard tires. I have not made any mods other than I changed out the Ford shocks with Bilstein. This is the first I have asked to jhave front end alignment checked. I am running 80 psi (I beleive. I will need to verifuy tonight. in the front and 65 in the rear. Ford F350 dually SC. I have done the normal maintenance check with dealer oil change, etc.

 

38,000 miles to have ball joints wear is somewhat below the normal 70,000 to 80,000 mile life.

The circumstances that can lead to excess wear are:

A) misaligned tires causing "hopping" --- showing up as cupping.

Alignment should always be checked annually - or more often if there is something wrong.

I would say that you have had alignment issues in this truck for a long time --- and that is a major issue.

When you are towing big loads, everything have to be perfect or the stresses just pile up.

Once tires start to cup (which can also be due to imbalance), they place enormous stresses on the suspension components, not just the ball joints.

B) severely unbalanced tires can also do this.

Cupping can be caused by totally unbalanced tires.

All your tires should be removed, checked for runout (roundness), and also balanced.


C) Ball joints and the front end need to be regularly greased.

If you grease it twice a year --- they last 2X or more longer.

I don't know your factory ball joints. The worse ones are "sealed".

The more common ones have a bolt you can remove, and add a grease nib and then grease them.

Insist on that getting done.

If the factory ball joints are "sealed", then order top quality replacements that have grease fittings.

If you ever encounter water (e.g. fording a stream), that can kill the ball joints and wheel bearings in 5,000 miles if you do not purge the water out immediately.



Looking at the facts as presented so far, I would say the no. 1 suspect (without a detailed inspection) is:

A) improper alignment combined with heavy loads

B) improperly balanced tires

C) no maintenance --- i.e. annual or more grease job.



I grease my ball joints and front end 2X a year if I can, at least once a year if I cant.

So far, I have never had to replace a ball joint.

Mind you.. i removed the "bolt" and added grease fittings.

 

Here are a couple of things:

1. Mileage does have a lot to do with it. Ball joints don't go bad with age, they go bad with wear and tear like most other mechanical parts. 38,000 isn't a lot of miles, but depending on the conditions of the roads, it can kill a set of ball joints.

2. You need to get out and verify their diagnosis. Jack the front axle of the truck off the ground with a floor jack. You only need one side of the front axle off the ground at a time. With either of the front tires 4-5 inches off the ground, slide a 2x4 or breaker bar under a tire from the front of the vehicle. Try to pry up on the tire. Look at the Y-Axis connection point. These are your ball joints. See the movie below; any movement is not good at all. In my video you can only see slight movement, but it's serious enough to cause horrible cupping on the tires.


You really need to confirm their diagnosis before you go any further. Replacing ball joints isn't inexpensive by any means, so you want to make sure it's actually the cause of the issue. That being said, on the 99-04 trucks, these BJ's fail quite often.

You might also want to take it to a Firestone or some place similar to see if they can throw it in an alignment rack. If it's got bad ball joints, they won't be able to align the truck. If everything is tight up front, then you're just out an alignment and your issue might be as simple as that.

Edit: gearloose1 is saying you need to grease them. On the 99-04 trucks you can't grease the factory joints. There is no Zerk fitting on the motorcraft joints, and that's 90% of the reason why they fail so early. Like he said, a good set of aftermarket joins such as Moog or XRF Ball joints are the way to go.

BallJoint013.flv video by MikeMcCa - Photobucket

 

2003- had both sides replaced a few years back- probably at 50,000 miles. uppers and lowers. one side one year, other side following year, so 40k on one side 50k on the other.
Towing a few times a year, 10k motorcycle trailer, very little sand off roading once a year at beach, no other hard driving.

 

On my 2004 E series.

There were bolts that can be remove to fit grease fittings.

On the lower ones, there was actually not enough clearance to do a proper zeke --- so I had to add washer in there.

I have heard of people (not done this) very carefully drill through the cap (clearing out debris) and then fitting a grease fitting to the bottom of the joint even though they are factory sealed.

But that is hard work.

 

My '01 F250 says 45 psi front and 70 psi rear. I don't know that would cause your issue but I would check the door jamb for the recommended pressures.....

 

BAH, I had to do them in my '06 at 38K miles too....was sadly idsappointed.

 

mine lasted 110,000 miles. go figure?

 

The SD's are known to eat ball joints. These are the heaviest trucks in the industry. Some may have better luck than others. As mentioned, driving habits, maintenance and related hardware are the determining factors.

My left wore at about 50k and right at 70k. These were replaced at the first sign of trouble by the dealer on warranty. I hope the left goes out again just before 100k.

They also have caliper hang-up issues as the slide pins were probably not properly greased from the factory.

 

Thanks for all the suggestions. I am going to get a second opinion before I decide what to do. If I can't get it in this weekend I will manually check the ball joints per threads below. I checked air pressure and here are the results:

Before After
RF 65 65
LF 66 65
RRI 65 56
RRO 53 56

Specs call for 65 front and 55 rear. Tires are Michelin LT235/85R16 on front. Rear are General Tire LT235/85R16.