Ball Joint

[4G63 for Me]

So I'm driving along at 45-50 (cruising, the car wasn't even warmed up yet) the other day and BOOM, car squats to the front driver side... I can barely control it. I finally come to a stop, get out, the tire is at an angle. I immediately assume the ball joint went out. Obvious damage to the fender and tire. That's cool, I thought, should all get covered by the recall.

Long story short, get it towed home (it was 11:30 PM) for $65, get it towed to a dealer for $115, they do a $40 diagnostic and it turns out the BOLT holding the ball joint to the steering knuckle came out, so it isn't covered under warranty. A bolt?! I've put 30,000 miles on this car, replaced the struts (with OEM parts) about 15,000 ago and everything was fine. A BOLT?!?!?!? So now I'm stuck with repairing A) probably a ball joint B) probably a half shaft C) gotta get aligned D) my fender is REALLY jacked E) my door got damaged F) the tire got jacked ($180 x4). Wow. All because a bolt came out, that I have never touched. Imagine that. I'm guessing after everything is said and done, body work + paintjob, I'll be paying $2000+. Maybe that's steep, I certainly hope it is.

I filed a claim with the insurance company, hopefully I'll just have to pay a deductible. But seriously... a BOLT?!?!@$ How is that for luck??

::begin sarcasm:: Hey, some tips for everyone, go through every bolt on your car and make sure it's nice and tight. ::end sarcasm::

[v413nc3]

Also be careful about cross threading any ball joints. Seth Williams had one that we did not know about after he purchased his car. One day he was driving along and BANG the damn knuckle jumped off the ball joint and his tire went perpendicular to his car. The ball joint was completely smoothe, not one thread on it. That was fun to fix lemme tell ya.

[4G63 for Me]

An update: Insurance company said they won't pay for the mechanical defect (the bolt??) but they will pay for any damage it caused. So a deductible and I get a free rental car. Heh. Didn't turn out too bad I guess.

How do you prevent this kind of stuff happening? Do those "6 point" or "10 point" inspections check for stuff like this? Or is really just a matter of "crap happens"? I tell you, I'm not really sure how this happened. Maybe the bolt just broke. Who knows? It seems to me it is just one of those freak accidents that happens occasionally. Still, I am ~$500 lighter in the wallet now, thanks to this "freak accident".

Moral of the story: Anytime you do a job on anything, make sure to torque stuff down to the right specs. There, that seems better than my angry, sarcastic closing of the first post. :p

Thanks for the info, Styro. Did the ball joint get damaged from what happened, or did you just have to replace because of the threads? I guess I'm wondering if I'll have to replace the ball joint (I obviously don't know anything about them).