Ball joint question.

[Mneofreek]

My Explorer has had a squeaking noise coming from the front end...mostly the passenger side. I havent thought much of it until recently when I noticed that the passenger front tire has started to wear unusually. The inner side has started to wear just alittle more than the rest of the tire. I am assuming that the ball joint is going bad on that side. I was reading here that if grease is put through the rubber boot to lube the ball joints the noise will go away. But will that help with the tire wear issue?..or do I need to replace the ball joint to end the wierd tire wear?

Thanks.

 

[Bills98Explorer]

Greasing will help with the noise but not eliminate the tire wear problem.The uppers are only replaceable with the upper control arm if you still have the factory uppers.

 

[pax]

I had noise on the passenger side upper ball joint, the joint itself was good, just squeaking. I removed the two bolts on the upper control arm that seperate the two halfs, I pulled back the boot and greased the joint really good to eliminate the squeaking.

If you had uneven wear on the tire, greasing the ball joint is not going to help. On my truck it was caused by the wear on the lower ball joint and loose outer tie rod end.

You can check the tie rod end for wear without jacking up the truck. Just grab the tie rod and feel if it is loose at the joint.

To check the lower ball joint, you have to jack up the truck by the lower control arm, just raise the tire slightly off the ground, use a tire iron to wedge in between the tire and the floor to see if any up down movement on the ball joint when you pry the tire up and down.

I did the outer tie rod my self, it was fairly easy DIY. The garage did the lower ball joints since I can not get hold of a ball joint press. The tires are wearing evenly now.

 

[BuffaloXplorer]

The squeaking is likely not coming from the BJ at all - they clunk when bad, not squeak. It's probably the control arm bushings. Try spraying the upper control arm bushings with some sort of lube and then drive it a while. If the noise is still there, shoot some on the lower control arm.

For the tire wear, you need to replace the BJs.

 

[exploded99]

But you also need to check your front ride height. If that side of the truck is dropping, it will change the front alignment and wear the inside of the front tire.

That kind of tire wear can mean you are toe out instead of toe in on that tire. That can be a torsion bar getting old or a torsion bar adjusting screw backing itself out.

Could be a couple of issues here...