Odds of ball joint failure
 

I have a friend whom I just helped do a tedious brake job on her 2006 Mazda 3 wagon. As with all of these cars of this vintage, it is still running strong, but the body looks like it was pulled out of a lake.

We noticed after fixing the brakes that there is a very slight clunk in the front end, and I found that the right side LBJ is worn (around say 1/8" axial play). It is not greasable.

Given that the car has MacPherson struts up front, and therefore the LBJ is bearing mostly lateral load, how unsafe is it to drive it like this? There is no sign of issue on the tire treads, the car drives straight as an arrow all the time, and so on. Besides a very light thump which is fairly rare, and the visible wear, there are no symptoms.

I know that we "should" fix it, but the odds of being able to repair it without causing other damage (stuck fasteners, rusty parts, etc) are very low. Can we at least get the money's worth on the new brakes (about 3 months / 3k miles)? She is hoping to avoid replacing the car until next spring.

I cant recommend driving like that for that long until spring. I had bjoint done at speedy auto, came in at 250sh taxes in, seems like cheap enough of an insurance and investment if she plans to go until spring. Granted i did drive for a week or two with the clunk, while i found the shop i trust and price i liked, probably not smartest idea either.
I know its bad feeling when u dump money in a car and then let it go, but u got to evaluate circumstances and needs. Maybe if u fix the bjoint ur friend may ride it for a bit longer. Or maybe something else $$ pops up :)

Although worn ball joints make for weird alignment issues, they're unsafe because every clunk is a hammer blow. Eventually there will be a catastrophic fatigue failure and it's impossible to predict when that will happen.

All those parts are significantly more brittle in sub-freezing temps. Just sayin'

I would not run a bad balljoint through out the winter, or any season to at all.

Ball joints get worse throughout time, they can start effecting the steering inputs, even causing grip to be lost in high speed situations. I had a worn ball joint in my FRS, i would hit two tire bumps on the highway and the car would be thrown to left drastically.

http://accurate-alignment.com/wp-con...re-300x170.jpg

Coming soon if not repaired...

Fix it. Please fix it. It'll get progressively worse and what you feel/hear is nothing compared to what's actually happening. You DON'T want a catastrophic failure.

Fix it. Fast before winter.
Back in the early 90s I had an 81 Mazda GLC. Once on the coldest day of the winter I was taking my sister in law and her two small children someplace and I stopped at a red light. When I stopped there was a light thud and a weird screech. I though a brake had locked up. A cop turning the corner looked at me, hit his lights and whipped around behind me. He walked up and said "You know you aren't going anyplace right?". I got out of the car and sure enough one wheel was laying horizontal on the road and fluids are pissing out on the road. Was so bad a day that it took a wrecker 3 hours to get there (the cop sat behind me the whole time because it was a blind spot at the bottom of a hill). Cost me $80 for a tow and a $200 clean up fee from the city for the fluid spill. That was half a week's pay then. All I could think of was that there had been zero indication it was going to go and if it had happened at any speed the situation could have been much worse.

I slept on it, and came to the same conclusion. We are going to fix it by replacing the whole LCA which is relatively cheap and should be pretty much painless.

good man. :cheers:

I've seen more than one fail... they are cheap enough so just replace it.

Putting on a new LCA this Saturday