I know how to test ball joints on a conventional front end with upper and lower ball joints, but what's the best way to test a MC with inner and outer ball joints? Thanks for your help!

 

How many miles are on the car? Most of the time they will start making some noise when they are getting sloppy. If you have 80,000 miles or more....just replace them to be safe. Mine were all shot at 80,000 miles....and that was a car that sees mostly highway miles.

 

Get the car in the air and shake the wheel, doing so will show many points of wear/failure; inner/outer ball joints, inner/outer tie rods, FCAB, wheel bearings, etc.

The joints all wear as they age, and many cars we're working on have sloppy ball joints or loose inner tie rods, we really only replace them if they have "free play", torn boots, or are excessively loose.

If you're not finely tuned with how the car should perform not many people notice the difference between new ball joints or their ball joints with 75k on them. I will say though; by replacing the inners, outers, FCAB, and full tie rod assemblies makes a huge difference in the tracking, handling, and ease of alignment.

 

Good question. I just replaced all of mine to be safe around the 115k mark.

 

Thanks for the info guys....The reason I ask is that I don't know the history of the car and don't know if the ball joints are original or not. I do know that from visual inspection they are all dry and the boots are intact. It has 141K miles and feels fine (to me) when I drive and I don't hear any unusual noises so for now I think I will do the shake test and if everything is tight I will concentrate on other areas. Thanks again!

 

When I replaced all four of mine, I did not hear any noises and nothing was leaking out.

What I did notice after removing each ball joint is that you could spin it around in 360-deg with a lot of ease. A new replacement ball joint will NOT let you do that. It is quite firm, no movement and easily tells you where to go.

Since installing those on my Cooper, I have noticed it tightened up the front end considerably.

 

When you replaced your ball joints, did you do the control arms rear carrier bushings too?

 

In a perfect world yes. I was lame and went in twice. I replaced the LCA bushings first.

Round 2 consisted of both ball joints and that sides axles. Saved me having to drop the subframe.

 

If you don't hear pinging noises when driving over gaps between highway blocks or other bumps, and your ball joints are dry and intact, you don't need to replace them.

The LCA bushings are the big thing that goes on these cars. Mine were so bad at 105k mi that I was able to pull the arm out of the bushing with one hand when everything was unbolted.