Two friends of mine have reported that their ball joints or tie rod ends must be replaced. Both vehicles are F-150, one with 38,000 miles and the other with just under 30,000. Neither suspected they had a problem but the dealer "found" the problem when the vehicles went in for a normal lube and oil change.
Are there problems with truck ball joints and tie rod ends?

 

Depending on what type of driving they do that sounds about right. Where i used to work we had a ford e-350 that would come in for an alignment and new balljoints every 15,000 miles apparently they drive on some pretty rough roads.

The tie rods and balljoints may be just slightly loose. If they are the dealer will recommend that they be replaced so that they can make the sale. Realisticly they may be good for another 5,000 miles or more. You will feel it in the steering wheel when they get really bad. Of course i had a car where the balljoints totally went bad and the wheel fell off. You shouldn't let them go that long!

 

I've owned a 59, 78, 84 & now a 97(f-150) ford p-ups. The drivers side outer tie rod end popped out of its socket yesterday after making a hard left turn. this truck has only 48k miles on it!
luckily it wasn't at 55+. Does anyone know of a tsb or recall notice on this? I am no longer a happy ford owner.

 

Same with mine. I went in for a vehicle safety inspection and mentioned I was having a problem with a strange noise from the front end during slow speed left hand turns. Sounds similar to tire rubbing the inside fender but very faint. It also vibrates the steering wheel above 40MPH. The tech at the dealership knew what it was right away what the potential problem was. Ford uses greaseless ball joints and for some reason the passanger side tie rod has a high failure rate. Go figure, try to save a buck by engineering a part that prevents the end user from having to maintain and end up spending more in the long run replacing the failures.

My appointment is on monday and will post what they found........

 

I lost my passenger side outer tie rod at 120,000 miles, also while making a hard left hand turn. I shouldve had them checked out earlier, but I know much better now. The driver side outer tie rod was also replaced at the same time, FYI.

 

There was a post not too long ago about how other members have been using a needle on their grease guns to lube up the tie rod ends that are supposed to not need grease. I tried this out on mine and it seems to work. Won't know one way or the other for some time, but figured it couldn't hurt. Mine took almost an entire tube of grease (it's only one of those small 3oz ones, but still )

I didn't do the ball joints because they had this plastic ring around it and couldn't get a good look to see if it had a rubber boot on it or now.

Still not sure about punching a hole in the boot, but only a small amount of grease came out of the hole when I pulled it out. Others have said it's not a problem, because the rubber kinda seals itself up and the extra grease will keep the moisture out I hope.