Hi All, let me tell you about my troubles, cue sad music...
Well, I scraped the rotors (where are the wear sensors? I know, dummy me should inspect at regular intervals, save the sermons, lol)
Replaced both rotors and pads, tempered the rotors in a bit, right side was sticking so I got rebuilt calipers. Also got new hoses, no reason to break the lines without going all the way. They are all done, front brakes are great.
I jacked it up after just to check nothing was sticking and I noticed the left side wheel/tire sort of dropped when it came off the ground. Holy moly, thought it was wheel bearing. Nope, upon further investigation it was upper ball joint worn to a frazz.
Sheesh, I hate to take all of that apart and fix just one ball joint.
Help me. Should I go ahead and do the complete front end rebuild while I'm in there, or just do the offending ball joint and be done with it. (upper left ball joint)\
Have to drive it to St. Augustine in a little over a week, then two weeks later to Garden City.

 

Wear sensors fell out of favor in the late 90s. The industry uses the brake fluid sensor as the warning, however that depends on brake pad wear balance between the axles, and if the reservoir does not get topped up.

Typically the reason that ball joints fail is the boot fails, dirt and water then accelerate the wear. You could do both ball joints on one side only, but the other side will not be far behind. Then comes the question, how many times do you want to pay for an alignment? If you’re good at string theory, you could set the toe for the short time until the other side needs work.

 

Do them ALL when you do them. I just got done with what started out as bushings on the front axles (twin I-beam) and radius arms and ended up doing ball joints and rotors, too. Two days turned into 4 but it was WELL worth it (THANKS YAHIKO) in terms of drivability and peace of mine.

 

Can’t help myself.
Have to do it all.
Y’all wish me patience and luck. I have the tools, and since BMW is down this week I have the time.
I’ll tear it all down tomorrow. Get parts ordered, put it back together before the weekend, get an alignment too.

 

I've done my balljoints 2 times with that removal kit from oreilys and it's a workout what a guy needs is a little press

 

Do all the ball joints at once. Use OEM/Spicer brand, much better than aftermarket. Mine were worn at 140k and tire cupping was my symptom of worn ball joints (vertical movement from worn joints).