Ball joint boots

[crabapple]

At my last vehicle state inspection of of my 2003 ford explorer, iwas told I needed all of my ball joints replaced but, they were not so bad as to fail inspection and I also needed new brakes and rotors at all four wheels. The price for doing the work was $1700.00 . Of course I told them I would check out the vehicle myself and if it required repair I would do it myself. I also told them I did not understand how the ball joints went bad while sitting in my drive way, because the car had less than a thousand miles on it since it was last inspected in their shop. In fact the car only has 40,000 total Miles on it and they are all on good highways.

I checked all of the ball joints by jacking up the car at each wheel and placed a jack stand under the frame and let each wheel hang free. There was absolutely no play (zero) in checking for lateral or horizontal movement, even when using a bar and prying up on the wheel. The only thing I found visually wrong was the upper ball joints on the left front and right front had torn rubber boots, but the ball joiints were okay. ( Q: ) can I replace just the rubber boots and where do I get them.

 

[Ronin8002]

I don't think you can buy the boots but you can replace the entire ball joint, or you can buy new upper control arms with new ball joints in them:

http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=249135

At my last vehicle state inspection of of my 2003 ford explorer, iwas told I needed all of my ball joints replaced but, they were not so bad as to fail inspection and I also needed new brakes and rotors at all four wheels. The price for doing the work was $1700.00 . Of course I told them I would check out the vehicle myself and if it required repair I would do it myself. I also told them I did not understand how the ball joints went bad while sitting in my drive way, because the car had less than a thousand miles on it since it was last inspected in their shop. In fact the car only has 40,000 total Miles on it and they are all on good highways.

I checked all of the ball joints by jacking up the car at each wheel and placed a jack stand under the frame and let each wheel hang free. There was absolutely no play (zero) in checking for lateral or horizontal movement, even when using a bar and prying up on the wheel. The only thing I found visually wrong was the upper ball joints on the left front and right front had torn rubber boots, but the ball joiints were okay. ( Q: ) can I replace just the rubber boots and where do I get them.