Had the Jeep (2008 Rubicon JK) in to Firestone to get an alignment check. They said all 4 ball joints were bad. They showed me the up and down movement. Looked to be way more than the 1.25 mm allowed by specs.

Went to dealership I bought it from they said they had never heard of all 4 being bad at once. The manager even said they had never replace any JK ball joints.

I am taking it in to them to check this week. I just got finished with forcing the dealer to honor my warranty on the hinge painting so this will probably be interesting.

I am hoping when they check it, it is nothing more than Firestone not being familiar with Jeeps.

Any thoughts would be welcomed.

The Jeep has never been off blacktop due to neck and back injuries.

 

I had to replace the driver's side twice once under warranty ( factory joints) by the dealer within a year. (2007 jk) Just replaced them again with mosse joints. Replaced the passenger side 2 years ago with mosse and have had no issues. This is including a fair amount to of offroading. if your replacing either top or bottom might as well upgrade and do both. Not gonna cost much more. Just don't go with factory joints. They are crap!

 

I have 61,000 miles on the original ball joints, no problems yet. (They have about 0.040" vertical movement on the lowers. The uppers have no side play.)
Others have had theirs wear out in less than 15,000 miles.

 

Thanks for the feedback guys.

 

JK ball joints seem to go out pretty quick..All four of mine were completely toast at 80,000 and probably should have been changed around 70,000. I have heard stories of them going out around 30,000 before. It is weird that they went out so quick without ever being offroad. It takes a little while but changing them out yourself isn't too bad and it saved me about $700!!

 

I've got 65,000 miles and all four balljoints are bad, just ordered a set pf synergys

 

Ill find out tomorrow. The Jeep is still under warranty. So if they are bad it should not cost me anything to get them replaced this time.

Yea in looking at them I think I could replace them, but it would take me a while.

I'll update all tomorrow.

 

Mine were toast at 13k. Ive pretty much come to the conclusion that any mopar part that wears out other than the engine or tranny is getting replaced with a superior aftermarket part regardless of the warranty.

 

That does sound very early, but like others have said - some have had it happen even sooner.

It seems I'm a lucky one and got over 100K on my ball joints. Nearly all on-road use. Went with Moogs for my replacements.

For what it's worth, the uppers 'will' have up and down play (if the lowers are bad) -- it's side to side play with the uppers that makes them bad. But its' basically one of those jobs where 'while you are in there', might as well do them all. In fact, the uppers may need to come out to remove the lowers, depending on the press tool used.

 

Just thought I would let anyone that might have replied/had an intrest in this thread.

Got the Dealer to check ball joints, all are well within specs. Got the print out from the dealer showing the specs the ball joints are at now and that is the only reason i feel good about what Dealership is telling me. It would allow me to come back at them say if the were BSing me waiting for the warranty to run out. I kind of thought Firestone was full of crap.

One bullet dodged for now.
Thanks all.