Tie Rod or Ball Joint?

Nacho98

Well-Known Member
Joined
May 4, 2011
Messages
1,226
Reaction score
60
Damnit. I had a little steering wheel shake at 50-70 mph, took the car in for a tire rebalance and turned out one of my new tires was out of round and not apparent until it was rotated up front. Tire was replaced, car felt pretty good, thought that took care of it.

Well, I still get a *slight* shimmy just around 55-60 mph...it's VERY slight, as in it's pretty hard to see the steering wheel shaking, but I can ever so slightly feel it.

Then starting yesterday, at low speeds turning, I can hear a few ever so slight clunks, wife heard it too just now. It' doesn't really sound like one BIG clunk like you get with a balljoint, but rather several slight clunks.

What am I looking at? I sure hope whatever it is fixes both problems.

This ultra sucks since I have brand new tires I don't want to wear and just paid for an alignment when I got them. I swear alignments are the biggest waste of money, they never last or some other crap breaks in the suspension shortly after. I don't think I've EVER gotten more than six months out of an alignment but I know I'll be doing it again after this.
 

framda

Active Member
Joined
Aug 24, 2011
Messages
904
Reaction score
32
Location
Naples, Fl.
Lock the steering wheel. Jack it up, leave the tire on the car. Grab it at 3 and 9 oclock if it wiggles you have play in the steering. If it wiggles with your hands at 6 and 12 oclock you have suspension play.
 

1997gtRioRed

Well-Known Member
Joined
Sep 29, 2011
Messages
2,272
Reaction score
200
Lock the steering wheel. Jack it up, leave the tire on the car. Grab it at 3 and 9 oclock if it wiggles you have play in the steering. If it wiggles with your hands at 6 and 12 oclock you have suspension play.

not necessarily. ball joint play will be side to side and feel like a loose outer. play in all directions would be a wheel bearing. If you jack it up by the frame there will be no way to tell if the bal joints are loose due to the springs putting pressure on them. either jack it up by the lower control arms, OR.....

just take to a shop. 99% of places out there have free inspections and can SHOW you what it wrong with it once its up in the air
 
OP
OP
N

Nacho98

Well-Known Member
Joined
May 4, 2011
Messages
1,226
Reaction score
60
Unfortunately I live in an apartment and don't have access to a jack...my bro in law has my jack but it's stuck supporting some crappy ass truck piled under garbage to the rafters in their garage...I know how to check but I can't, what does it sounds like from my description?
 

1997gtRioRed

Well-Known Member
Joined
Sep 29, 2011
Messages
2,272
Reaction score
200
what does it sounds like from my description?


its impossible to tell over the internet. those symptoms are the same for a wheel bearing, bad inner, bad outer, and POSSIBLY a bad ball joint.
 
OP
OP
N

Nacho98

Well-Known Member
Joined
May 4, 2011
Messages
1,226
Reaction score
60
Cool...does tires plus do free inspections still? I remember years ago they did...I'd like to have the dealer look at it but I'm sure they want $150 for a "drivability" diagnostic which is retarded if I can at least get it looked at elsewhere for free and then have the dealer fix it with Motorcraft parts.

Fuckin' old cars, hope like hell it isn't a ball joint.
 

1997gtRioRed

Well-Known Member
Joined
Sep 29, 2011
Messages
2,272
Reaction score
200
Cool...does tires plus do free inspections still? I remember years ago they did...I'd like to have the dealer look at it but I'm sure they want $150 for a "drivability" diagnostic which is retarded if I can at least get it looked at elsewhere for free and then have the dealer fix it with Motorcraft parts.

Fuckin' old cars, hope like hell it isn't a ball joint.

although possible, i DOUBT that its a ball joint. if it was a wheel bearing it would most likely, but not always, make a loud growling noise. best bet is an inner our outer tie rod, but once again, could be so many different things.
 
OP
OP
N

Nacho98

Well-Known Member
Joined
May 4, 2011
Messages
1,226
Reaction score
60
Cool, that's what I'm leaning towards. How much do those run parts and labor? Are inners or outers more expensive?
 

330CubeGt

Well-Known Member
Joined
May 15, 2008
Messages
3,880
Reaction score
99
What ever you do don't lock the steering wheel to shake down the front end. If there is up and down play its more likely to be the balljoint but could be the outer. If you hold it at 3 and 9 like stated above and you feel play have someone hold the outer and see if you feel it there then have someone hold the inner to see if you feel it there.

Or you can do what i did. Go on ebay look around there is a company that sells a kit. Both Inner Tie rods, Both outer tie Rods and both ball joints for around $100 Cobra needed both inners so i just did both and V6 needed ball joints so it worked out and it was dirt cheap but i did do all the work myself. Tires plus would charge you an arm and a leg, i used to work there.

They do inspections for $19.99 or some shit at most shops around here Tires plus, TK , Pep etc etc normally if you buy the parts and do the work with them they drop the inspection fee. Or you just go pay $20 have a legit tech tell whats wrong with it and get it fixed at a later date...
 

1997gtRioRed

Well-Known Member
Joined
Sep 29, 2011
Messages
2,272
Reaction score
200
inners are usually around $50 to install, and about $30 to install an outer, at least thats what we charge at work. plus alignment of course. i paid $35 for a set of moog inners on ebay, they are about $30 a piece at a parts store. outers are about $20 depending on what you get. dont get the cheapest ones available or like you stated before, you will need more parts and another alignment in another 6 months or so.
 
OP
OP
N

Nacho98

Well-Known Member
Joined
May 4, 2011
Messages
1,226
Reaction score
60
Cool, thanks for the tips and links...I'm a stock nazi though and want to keep her Motorcraft throughout lol. It's served the car well so far being kept up with Motorcraft.
 

1997gtRioRed

Well-Known Member
Joined
Sep 29, 2011
Messages
2,272
Reaction score
200

i do upwards of 3-5 alignments a day. to get there, i inspect at least 2-3 cars before i can do 1 alignment. when you have a macpherson strut setup, ball joint play( if bad enough), WILL be side to side and feel like an outer. for gods sake i just had a taurus in today, i know.

if it is only slightly bad, you will NOT feel play, no matter how hard you shake the wheel, the only way to tell it is bad is to stick a pry bar between it and the bottom of the rim and pry upwards. it if moves its bad.
 

framda

Active Member
Joined
Aug 24, 2011
Messages
904
Reaction score
32
Location
Naples, Fl.
i do upwards of 3-5 alignments a day. to get there, i inspect at least 2-3 cars before i can do 1 alignment. when you have a macpherson strut setup, ball joint play( if bad enough), WILL be side to side and feel like an outer. for gods sake i just had a taurus in today, i know.

if it is only slightly bad, you will NOT feel play, no matter how hard you shake the wheel, the only way to tell it is bad is to stick a pry bar between it and the bottom of the rim and pry upwards. it if moves its bad.

Ok back out of defensive mode. I am trying to learn something new, not accuse you of not knowing what you are talking about. I am factory trained, and have done a gazillion alignments also. Not many of them have been on Mcpherson struts, mostly old school suspensions. So I asked "how". If you do not want to explain how a ball joint can do that never mind. If so thanks for the help :)
 

1997gtRioRed

Well-Known Member
Joined
Sep 29, 2011
Messages
2,272
Reaction score
200
Ok back out of defensive mode. I am trying to learn something new, not accuse you of not knowing what you are talking about. I am factory trained, and have done a gazillion alignments also. Not many of them have been on Mcpherson struts, mostly old school suspensions. So I asked "how". If you do not want to explain how a ball joint can do that never mind. If so thanks for the help :)

sorry, its been a long day.

usually ball joints on a FWD vehicle have a powerful spring underneath the ball inside of the socket. this is done so that the joint can suffer some wear and still be tight. what happens when you try to shake it up and down is that you will not feel any play in them, because of the springs tension on the ball. the only way to check them for up and down play would be a pry bar under the ball joint pushing up on it off of the rim.

these are meant to handle up and down loads, so they have no compensation for side to side wear, so when you thrust the wheel side to side the ball will be moving inside of the socket, but the spring under it will not allow any up and down movement, to an extent. if the ball joints are MASSIVELY worn they will have up and down movement

ok, that is really hard to put into writing. the next time i have a car in with them bad, i promise i will take a video and post it here. it may be a day, it might be a month until a car with them bad enough comes in, but i will take a video to better explain what i am talking about.
 

framda

Active Member
Joined
Aug 24, 2011
Messages
904
Reaction score
32
Location
Naples, Fl.
Ganzey, Thanks. I am an old dog trying to keep up on all of the new tricks.
 

JerZeyStangz

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jan 13, 2006
Messages
3,616
Reaction score
42
Location
Northern NJ
I vote inner tie rods. I had a lot of play in the steering wheel, and shimmey like you did when driving. I replaced the inner tie rods myself with a OEM inner tie rods which is actually very easy to do. The only thing left is to replace the OEM steering shaft with a needle bearing steering shaft from Maximum motorsports to elminate the smallest bit of play I have left in the steering wheel. Right now there is almost no play in the steering except for the tiniest bit. I replaced inner and outer tie rods, and new ball joints.
 
OP
OP
N

Nacho98

Well-Known Member
Joined
May 4, 2011
Messages
1,226
Reaction score
60
Any reason not to just replace all inner/outer rods? Car has 86k miles, if one is bad then the other three are right around the corner...I found a local Ford dealer that lists them for about $30 a piece online, that's cheap as chips.

On that note, would it be cheaper to do the ball joints too at the same time? Do you have to pretty much take that part of the suspension out anyway to do the tie rods? if so, then why not. Then I should be good for a damn long while with one alignment.
 

Latest posts

Forum statistics

Threads
77,414
Messages
1,501,524
Members
14,908
Latest member
txnszn

Members online

Top