Another bad ball joint recall - Page 2

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[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Another bad ball joint recall (Page 2 of 2)

Posted: 5/19/2005 2:05:23 PM EDT

[#1]

For all you domestic bashers I would like to let you know even the leftist wet dream manufacturer isn't all what it is cracked up to be. Volvo is being investigated now for not passing rollover safety standards for the US.

As a 15+ year professional mechanic I have to say no manufacturer is better than any other. They all make mistakes and they all make damn good vehicles. It all depends on which one you get.

I buy domestic because I perfer to support american auto companies and american workers.

My latest vehicles;
2005 Ford F250 (Lousiville, Ky)
1999 Dodge Dakota (???)
1994 Jeep Wrangler (Toledo, Oh.)
All made in America

Posted: 5/19/2005 2:19:19 PM EDT

[#2]

Quoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:
I'm not going to name the Mfg..

So you're not concerned about warning any fellow ARFcomers who may be driving these vehicles?

You are right Boomer, I didn't think about it that way, but I am a little concerned about it and I apologize for not being forthcoming in my original post, I was just trying to add my personal experience with ball joints that I consider to be problematic without starting a hijack.

However, before I go any further I want it to be clear that I can't speak for the entire run of these vehicles, only the ones that I service at our shop, which equates to somewhere between 75 -100 vehicles(A relatively small number compared to what's produced). About half of them are fleet owned, but nonetheless this shouldn't be anywhere near as common as it has been. I don't want my information to be taken out of context, I'm just a mechanic, I didn't start a data collection page on this issue or anything else, I'm way too busy to do that, I am just speaking from my personal experience and from that of the other mechanics at the shop. We all agree that this is a big problem.

I will do my best to keep you guys informed, the following list is certainly not as complete as I would like to present to you guys, but it's what I can recall offhand as far as the model and years of affected vehicles are concerned.

Ford E-250, E-350 vans '97-'03: Definitely the most common at our shop.
Ford F-250, F350, F450 trucks 2x4 and 4x4, we get mixed years, I would range them from '98-'04
Lincoln Navigator 4X4, '98-up, Also noticed tie rod ends wearing prematurely on these.
Ford Excursion 2x4 and 4X4, '01-'03

Bottom line, if you have one of these vehicles and you hear a knock or thump when going over bumps you should have the front end checked out by a mechanic. In many cases where I found this problem, the customer didn't even notice anything was wrong and didn't hear any unusual noise. Symptoms may vary but are usually an audible knock from the front wheel area, most noticeable when pulling over a slightly raised edge on a driveway or bumps at slower speeds(25-30mph).

Bear in mind that it takes less than 1mm(actually .08mm or 1/32") of lateral play for most of these ball joints to fail a safety inspection and require replacement. That's not a lot of movement, but it is easily detected during ball joint inspection. Most of the vehicles that I have checked were way beyond that limit by the time they came in to the shop.

Sounds like I need to replace the ball joints in my Ford pick'em up.
But it's an '84.

Posted: 5/19/2005 2:28:07 PM EDT

[#3]

Toyota has fully earned its position as the no. 2 auto maker in the world, second only to GM.

In no small part, it's because they're VERY willing to right any wrongs rather than try to sweep them
under the rug and hope nobody notices.

Between my parents and me, we have three vehicles. All are Toyotas, and we've owned cars and trucks by Cadillac, Ford, Dodge, Datsun, Infiniti, Mazda, Honda, and Chrysler.

We own only Toyotas now. And they're proving themselves every day. I drive a '92 Camry (V6 LE)
and for a 13 year old car, it's had less work done to it (work meaning, other than preventative
maintenance or scheduled maintenance) than any other car we've ever had or even heard of.
The ONLY major repair it ever had was a recent replacement of the steering rack, and that was
due to a leaky seal. (A pint every two days, eventually!)

Toyota is on track to eclipsing even GM, eventually. And it's only because Toyota works
harder at getting it right and not cutting corners than anybody else.

If Toyota decides to directly compete against Ford or GM in the super heavy duty work truck field,
it will be a bad day at GM and Ford headquarters. Toyota reliability in an equally tough chassis
will be a combination that may prove impossible to beat.

CJ

Posted: 5/19/2005 2:31:21 PM EDT

[#4]

But....But.....But.......
Toyota can't have a recall, I've seen the Special Forces guys driving around the Toyotas in Afghanistan.

Posted: 5/19/2005 3:03:19 PM EDT

[#5]

Quoted:
Could you imagine a US automaker willingly recalling a vehicle for something like this?

My Durango had a ball joint recall just last month....Problem was I kept telling them something was wrong about 9 months ago. Had them do it then and I paid for it. Then I get a letter about the recall and make a bitch about it.
They tell me even if I had it done and paid that it needs to be redone. REASON you ask. Because they might have used defective parts. I then get a call and told that I will get $100.00 for the ball joint's I did. Turns out they had the recall a year ago but I never got a letter.
Now I am really pissed and tell them take your $100.00 and shove it up your ass. I am taking you to small clames court. It cost me nearly $600.00 and you want to give me $100.00 back.

Waiting for the court date to come up.

They knew they had a problem in 2002, the local dealer's scheduler told me way back then, thing was, it would have been covered under the vehicle warrenty, so they let it run til they could not hide it any longer. And the japanese hide as much stuff as any other manf. Witness Mitsubishi, toy trucks and rust in the mid 80s, toys 4 banger oil problem, Nissan fuel injectors and harnesses [300z and turbo]lot of manf. have "hidden" recalls.

Posted: 5/19/2005 3:11:28 PM EDT

[#6]

seriously....Toyota recalled these truck for scratches on a ball joint that might make steering heavy.

"excessive wear or looseness in the joint could force drivers to exert more effort when steering"

There are plenty of 4Runner and Tacoma owners here. Anyone ever had a problem?????

A big three service department would tell you that it was a known issue and it's supposed to be that way.

Posted: 5/19/2005 3:49:11 PM EDT

[#7]

I bought a new toyota truck in 86. Drove the living shit out of that thing for 15 years. The clock read 280,00 when I sold it. The front end never had any component replaced execpt the shocks which is a wear component. It was as tight as the day I bought it, try that with your ford. Still had all oem brake components, only pads were replaced. Never broke down or stopped running and was still getting 28mpg when I sold it.
It is still on the road today.

Posted: 5/19/2005 3:54:16 PM EDT

[#8]

Quoted:
seriously....Toyota recalled these truck for scratches on a ball joint that might make steering heavy.

"excessive wear or looseness in the joint could force drivers to exert more effort when steering"

There are plenty of 4Runner and Tacoma owners here. Anyone ever had a problem?????

A big three service department would tell you that it was a know issue and it's supposed to be that way.

Scratches on a highly stressed part equals fractures= Lawsuits. They are not worried about the scratches, they are worried about the cracks that can form from the sctatches. BTW Nissan also recalled the rims on my wife xterra and gave her all new ones[a few Stress Fractured]. That cost a pretty penny, and there was a recall on the gas fill tube.

Posted: 5/19/2005 3:56:13 PM EDT

[#9]

Quoted:
Quoted:
seriously....Toyota recalled these truck for scratches on a ball joint that might make steering heavy.

"excessive wear or looseness in the joint could force drivers to exert more effort when steering"

There are plenty of 4Runner and Tacoma owners here. Anyone ever had a problem?????

A big three service department would tell you that it was a know issue and it's supposed to be that way.

Scratches on a highly stressed part equals fractures= Lawsuits. They are not worried about the scratches, they are worried about the cracks that can form from the sctatches. BTW Nissan also recalled the rims on my wife xterra and gave her all new ones[a few Stress Fractured]. That cost a pretty penny, and there was a recall on the gas fill tube.

That's my point. Chevy would have waited for cracks and DC would have waited for snapped sockets.

Posted: 5/19/2005 4:01:39 PM EDT

[#10]

I'm happy to see GM and Ford having their bonds downgraded to junk status. Both companies are completely inferior to most foreign auto companies. Make a sucky product, it's not going to sell. The only reason they still exist is because of government support. I do love seeing all our special forces riding around in those tacoma crew cabs.

Posted: 5/19/2005 4:16:38 PM EDT

[#11]

Quoted:
I'm happy to see GM and Ford having their bonds downgraded to junk status. Both companies are completely inferior to most foreign auto companies. Make a sucky product, it's not going to sell. The only reason they still exist is because of government support. I do love seeing all our special forces riding around in those tacoma crew cabs.

The govt takes a hell of a lot more then it gives either. If one or both of these ever went under you would probably be walking the street begging for apples. It would cause a huge recession that would cover many years and effect almost all busineses in one way or the other. Both CAN and do make good products, their problem is with shitty designers, you don't buy a new car because you HAVE to, you do because you WANT to.

Posted: 5/19/2005 4:18:54 PM EDT

[#12]

Quoted:

Domestic manufacturers had 2.4 times as many recalls during this period. However, by sales volume, the domestic auto manufaturers outsold the Japanese by about 2.5 to one. So, the actuall recall RATE is slightly lower for the domestics, although the difference is not statistically significant (Using a Chi Squared test: P-value = 0.262 with 1 DF).

maybe recall per vehicle design is a better measure of who's designing/building better vehicles

Posted: 5/19/2005 4:24:18 PM EDT

[#13]

http://www.edmunds.com/reviews/comparison/articles/104774/page005.html

I believe them.

Posted: 5/19/2005 4:27:15 PM EDT

[#14]

Hey! 17 years as a fleet mechanic. We now have over 800 vehicles and 5 mechanics to fix them, and two lube guys. We have about 1/3 GM, !/3, Ford and the rest are assorted vehicles mainly the large trucks etc. We use Ford Crown Vics for cop cars. Basically, What makes for a good reliable vehicle is having a good dealer for warranty work, and good maintenance. Without a decent dealer, you will be screwed no matter what you buy. You need a dealer that will properly take care of any problems that usually crop up during the first few years. If this is done right, chances are that you will never have any more problems if you pull decent maintenance. The bottom line, of course, is good maintenance. Every brand has their own unique problems. Big rigs have their problems also. With that said, I drive a Toyota.

Posted: 5/19/2005 4:48:20 PM EDT

[#15]

Quoted:
Quoted:
Could you imagine a US automaker willingly recalling a vehicle for something like this?

Toyo fucks up so you shit on American manufacturers?

Yes Toyo will ADMIT when they have a potential problem...
Ford...well after your home burns down cause of its bad part in your F150/SUV...well thats just...
WRONG

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Another bad ball joint recall (Page 2 of 2)

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