I took the Durango in for an alignment today, not because of any drivability issues, but because I'm ****/OCD - whatever you want to call it.

My steering wheel has been about 10-degrees off center since the day I bought it, and it annoyed me, so I had it fixed.

Got it back and the steering wheel is perfectly straight and I couldn't be happier.

On the paperwork, the technician noted that my drivers side lower ball joint had some movement in it.

I have not verified this myself, I will this weekend however, nor was it noticed on the pre-purchase inspection.

I do believe the upper ball joints were replaced in 2004 due to the recall.

My question is... If I'm not noticing anything weird, and one balljoint has some play in it, should I be concerned?

 

I wouldn't be too concerned about it until you hear or feel movement. Now you should measure the movement and see what he's talking about yourself.

I had a mechanic tell me the same thing, he was full of ****.

 

i agree to take a look yourself and make sure they are not just trying to scare you out of your hard earned money, however if it is moving that means the clock is counting down on that parts life so i would consider changing it soon, but then im OCD about stuff like that

 

If it is failing, fix it before is fails completely. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

IndyDurango

 

Thanks for the replies guys! I will check it tomorrow and report back.

 

So I put the truck up on jackstands today... I couldn't find any play in the balljoints.

I did however, find a leak in the passenger side tie rod end boot, looks like my steering rack is leaking. That wasn't there 2 months ago when I bought the damn thing. What causes something like that?

 

Bad O ring.


The best way to test suspension issues and look for movement is to raise the truck about 1 inch from the ground (one side only) and get a tire iron or big flat bar and pry under the ground to tire in an up and down movement. This increases torque on the outside joints.