Life of a ball joint

Tiny
TIM KEENAN
  • MEMBER
  • 2002 BMW 325
I replaced both front ball joints and struts in October, 2010. My car won't pass inspection because of my front ball joints and struts. 2002 BMW 325xi
Wednesday, April 20th, 2011 AT 2:31 PM

4 Replies

Tiny
CARADIODOC
  • MECHANIC
  • 33,864 POSTS
Did they say what the problem was?
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Wednesday, April 20th, 2011 AT 7:53 PM
Tiny
TIM KEENAN
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They just said that they were worn and they had too much movement.
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Wednesday, April 20th, 2011 AT 8:07 PM
Tiny
TIM KEENAN
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They just said they were worn and had a lot of movement.
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Wednesday, April 20th, 2011 AT 8:16 PM
Tiny
CARADIODOC
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It appears I looked up the wrong model previously. Do you have a lower ball joint that is part of a long curved control arm? If that joint is non-greasable and is held together with injected rubber, they are a high-failure design, but they will still last many years.

Where are you located that they are so picky with inspections? There are a lot of cars on the road, Fords in particular, that can be fine in an inspection, and have steering parts break a few hundred miles later. Lot of good those inspections do. I guess I would want to either have them show me what it is about those parts that offends them or I would return to the place that replaced the parts and have them explain why there is nothing wrong with them. New parts DO have a warranty because every once in a while new parts do fail.
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Wednesday, April 20th, 2011 AT 9:32 PM

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