Ball Joints

Looks like I have the infamous ball joint issue on my 99 Durango 4x4.

To begin with - I don't drive the vehicle much so I don't really notice problems with the D until they are pretty bad.

I bought the thing used and have had nothing but trouble (expensive trouble!) but I keep thinking "surely this will do it..." I really do like the look and feel of the Durango.

About 6 months ago I bought 2 new tires for the front end. My brother drove the vehicle shortly thereafter and said it felt like it had a lot of "play" in the steering. Well from then on I noticed it too. Don't know why, but I just chalked it up to an idiosyncracy of the vehicle.

A month ago I checked the tires and the two (new) front tires were totally worn on the outside and looked fine on the inside tread -both front tires exhibited this.

I parked the vehicle again. Got in it a few weeks ago and pulled out of the driveway and heard a grinding sound. Figured it was the brakes. As of this point your 'not so swift' author here figured I just had some bad front tires! and I noticed that one of the roters looked bad. Also, at that time I noticed that one of the tires looked like it was sitting funny when parked.

Well finally got around to changing the tires so I hopped in it this morning to take it and have new tires put on. got out of my driveway and heard the most awful grinding noise! Figured it was the brakes but not wanting to take too much of a chance I turned it around and parked it again.

When I got out of the vehicle the Right front tire is sitting totally askew. from the front of the vehicle the tires look like this: / |

I looked at the wheel and the grinding noise I heard was the luminum on the wheel being ground into. YIKES!

Ok, so what am I in for? Brakes and roters I can do. Replacing ball joints sounds like a PITA and seems like I'll need an alignment anyway.

I have read other posts on this board which differentiate between the upper and lower ball joints -with the price being $450. for lower and $800 for upper and lower. Is that "per side" or is that "total vehicle?"

Also, looks like it requires a good bit of specialization so I think I'll have a mechanic do this job. I don't want to get rooked into paying for a lot of unnecessary add-on stuff. What type of service is typical in this case and what might they try to talk me into that might not be necessary?

Thanks in advance for the help!

Auto Zone will loan you free a ball joint removal tool if you buy the joints from them. I think the sell TRW ball joints. You should be able to replace all 4 for under $200.00. Maybe $100.00.

I recently had my upper ball joints replaced by the dealer. It fell under the Daimler-Chrysler warranty/recall.

This was done about two months ago on my 2001 Durango 4 x 2.

You might want to talk them [dealer] about it.

Hope I helped.

Your uppers should have been covered under the recall I beleive, search some here for the exact link to the Dodge Technical Service Bulletin(TSB) that might give the detail. Your lowers were not covered, and the grinding you've recently experienced might be a wheel bearing. My growing experience and general consensus is that the Durango fronts were badly designed/manufactured and will need constant maintenance to keep in proper (safe) working order. If you're mechanically inclined then you can probably put up with it for a while, but if not the repair bills are going to add up.