LCA Upper Ball Joint Issues (maybe?)

[NAEightySix]

Hey all, I felt like my car's alignment was severely out of whack a few days ago, so I ran to my alignment guy, had him check everything, and top it off with an alignment. He said the issue was the upper ball joint on my driver's side control arm being very loose.

Kinda weird to me since I've never even touched that, but my car is on coilovers. There was enough play to move the control arm around, which resulted in my car wanting to drift side to side in a very unpredictable manner. He ended up tightening it and doing the alignment, however not even 5 miles after having driven the car off the shop, everything went back to how it was... I've still got the same vibration, steering issue, and my car's making some gnarly noises. I've refrained from driving it as much as possible, but this is clearly something that needs to get fixed ASAP.

Anybody else have an issue like this before? If so, is the ball joint really the issue?


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[Tcoat]

I wouldn't drive it at all!
Did you hit anything recently? Pothole? Curb?

[NAEightySix]

Originally Posted by Tcoat

I wouldn't drive it at all!
Did you hit anything recently? Pothole? Curb?

I do recall hitting a pothole on Monday, the day that the issue started. However, it was on the passenger side and the side affected is undoubtedly the front driver's side


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[wparsons]

Which end of the car was he referring to? There's no upper ball joint in the front suspension, just a lower. Could be the ball joint in front lower control arm if it's definitely at the front? Only upper option at the front would be the upper mount for the strut.

[NAEightySix]

Originally Posted by wparsons

Which end of the car was he referring to? There's no upper ball joint in the front suspension, just a lower. Could be the ball joint in front lower control arm if it's definitely at the front? Only upper option at the front would be the upper mount for the strut.

Front driver's side from what he told me, also seems to be where all the noise is coming from. Car wants to pull right when braking and wheel has to be tilted very slightly left to go straight.


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[Racecomp Engineering]

The front suspension has lower control arms...since it's a strut suspension the "upper ball joint" would be at the topmount or camber plate. What exactly did he tighten? The lower control arm should never have play.

Pop the hood and post a pic of your left vs right camber plates.

- Andrew

[NAEightySix]

Here's the right plate...



...and the left one





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[Racecomp Engineering]

Well they look fine at least.

My next guess would be a loose camber bolt on the lower strut mount. Then maybe busted tie rod. After that, maybe completely fubared lower control arm.

- Andrew

[NAEightySix]

Thanks Andrew, I'm gonna look a bit further into it once I'm back home.


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[NAEightySix]

Update: control arm seems fine (lol fubared), camber bolts seem fine, tie rods are fine. I checked everything for play and couldn't find a thing except a ball joint that had a little bit of grease coming out of it, but it seemed fine upon further inspection.


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[Turdinator]

Park the car and put the handbrake (e-brake) on firmly. Grab the front wheel that you suspect has the issue and try to turn it as if to rock the car backwards and forwards. The grab the top of the wheel and push and pull on it hard. Does the wheel move around or make any clunking noises?

[NAEightySix]

Originally Posted by Turdinator

Park the car and put the handbrake (e-brake) on firmly. Grab the front wheel that you suspect has the issue and try to turn it as if to rock the car backwards and forwards. The grab the top of the wheel and push and pull on it hard. Does the wheel move around or make any clunking noises?

Just tried this, no noise or movement whatsoever... I'm stumped as to what it could be. :/


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[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by NAEightySix

Just tried this, no noise or movement whatsoever... I'm stumped as to what it could be. :/


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This is indeed baffling. If it happen after hitting the pot hole then oviously something is damaged but just what that is is the question. Have you checked the steering rack for damage? Long shot but possible.

[NAEightySix]

Originally Posted by Tcoat

This is indeed baffling. If it happen after hitting the pot hole then oviously something is damaged but just what that is is the question. Have you checked the steering rack for damage? Long shot but possible.

It's very weird, I would've thought for sure it was something that was loose, since that's what it felt like... nope. Checked everything I could. Control arm was rock solid, no play on any suspension components. I do tend to be a little paranoid of my car and always feel like something's off lol, but this time it was blatantly obvious. Gonna keep fiddling with it tomorrow and check the steering rack.


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