Over sized tires, ball joints, and ABS

[tubaexplorer]

I just wanted to share my experience with you all, hopefully it can save someone else some headache. In December I put on a set of rims and 33 inch tires. In February we had a decent freeze and my ball joints started squeaking, but right when I decided to change them they stopped squeaking and started acting right. I thought everything was cool so I forgot about it, until I went for a little trail/mud ride. After splashing around and all that I went to my house; half-way there I heard my ball joints start squeaking again. I decided to drive around for a bit and dry them off, but when I went to stop my brakes felt like my calipers were freezing up and my pedal shook and fought back. I took it to gateway tire service and was like, " I pulled the wheels and the rotors look good and the pads are fine, can you check it out?" they took it and told me that I needed the ball joints two weeks ago and that I was lucky to make it in. They change out my joints, and test drive it for the brakes and told me, "yea your ABS module is reading wrong because of the wheel sensors working off the factory 29s and with your 33s it's throwing it all off. We just pulled the ABS fuse and everything is fine."
Sorry it's so long of a story, but I thought details might help others. Anyways I'm just glad that I did take it in and that it wasn't my caliper falling apart. Hope this can help.

 

[JohnnyO]

Thanks for the info. In my experience the ball joints are kinda weak and crap out whether you have bigger tires or not. I had ball joints replaced on the factory 3/36 warranty on my 02 Ranger and 05 Sport Trac.

 

[03_Sport_Trac]

The factory ball joints are just as bad as the factory shocks. Both my lower ball joints went bad at 40k.

 

[tubaexplorer]

Well it's moog all around, and if they hold up like they didn't on my Nissan that I beat to absolute death I'll be happy .