Damaged front end... anyone want to give me their input?

[ridiqls]

I know this isn't a gm truck lol but I like this forum and like the people here so figured I'd throw this up to see if anyone here can give me their input. I traded my mustang for this truck to use as my daily and well.. lets just say I got the short end of the stick lol

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You can see the front passenger wheel is way off negative camber. the driver's side isn't as bad. So what happened was the entire front end was rebuilt by Firestone by the previous owner and i have the service records. Now I dont know if firestone is just incompetent or what but it seems like they missed a few problems or didn't do it right. They replaced the idler arm, pitman arm, wheel bearing, front axle bearing on both sides, and did an alignment. This was 5 months ago. There is a warranty on their work which I intend to claim.

I trade my mustang for the truck and after a few days I noticed this. How I did not notice this before is beyond me but I was parked at a weird angle and saw the wheel and thought "wow that looks weird". I took it to a local Firestone (different one that did the rebuild) and the manager said it needs an alignment. What a hack. I did the alignment and it took them 2 hours and the tech comes out and says "he did the best he can". He shows me the papers and says that the camber adjustment won't go any further and it's because the truck is lifted. The camber on both sides are still off and are -1.4 and the passenger side is still -2.2 or something. I took it to another firestone today and an independent alignment shop and while the firestone couldnt help me cause their Master tech wasn't in, the alignment shop was straight with me and said the ball joints are bent (both top and bottom), the upper arm bushing is broken and something is rubbing on the bottom of the frame. He said I'm looking at $1000+ in work. Needless to say I am pretty stressed out. I did a straight trade for my car and the car was running fine so I kind of got screwed on this one. Unless I can get firestone to fix it!


Can you guys look at the pictures and tell me what you think and whether or not the alignment shop's assessment was right? And if it really is going to cost that much or if it may be done for less?

It has a custom fabricated upper control arm that's real beefy and lifts the front about 4-5".

TL;DR version: Look at pictures below and tell me what the damage is. Alignment shop said lower and upper ball joints, upper control arm bushing is cracked (it's obvious) and "Whatever else comes up". Quoted $1000 which I nearly crapped my pants.


Pics: (all passenger front side)

Upper ball joint

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Rubbing on the frame

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Lower ball joint

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Upper control arm bushing:

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One more

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Does the tie rods and other parts even look 5 months old? they dont even look new I wonder if they even did the work.
And when they rebuilt the front end, they freakin routed the brake/abs cable above and not below and it's danging along the springs and what not and now the wire is cut and the ABS light is on. What a headache.

 

[dowsewashere]

Well this truck is pretty bad. The ball joints are roached, and the amount of rubbing on frame and camber in the front is BAD. Im no expert with IFS but it looks that the upper control arm is real torqued pulling your wheel in.

 

[JonZ71]

loosen up the upper control arm and pull it out towards the tire.

 

[twomanymontes]

Seeing as it's a Ford, I believe most lift kits use a extended upper control arm. That one appears to be stock.

 

[ShadowRejects]

Seeing as it's a Ford, I believe most lift kits use a extended upper control arm. That one appears to be stock.

x2!!! check that. usually the lift kit would come with a longer control arm, this one looks stock? who knows. but it looks awfully close to rubbing your tire.

 

[tscherbi]

I dis agree the upper a arms do look aftermarket to me. Most a arms are made out of pressed steel, and these are tube, so they dont look stock to me. The ball joints are definatly roached. I would jack up the front end and see how much play there is in the ball joint, and see how much play is in the bushing that mounts the a arm to the frame, cause its toast as well. By looking at your tire you are wearing the inside out when going straight, and the outside 1/4 of your tire cause it looks like the entire tire rolls in a corner? Just my opinion.

 

[ridiqls]

Thanks. Yeah it's definitely an aftermarket upper arm.
These dinky little things are what it USED to look like stock:

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You guys are right the ball joints are "Roached" or bent. Does roached mean bent or destroyed?

The more I look at it and watch this video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wo6P2HyqYEg the more I think that Firestone may have overlooked the bent ball joints when assessing what to replace and ONLY did the tie rods, idler arm and pit man arms and skimped. Every Firestone within a 20 mile radius of me has terrible reviews and my only experience with them is that the guys working there just do a quick and hasty job. Hopefully just replacing those ball joints and that bushing will set the camber correct.

How much does it normally cost to replace ball joints? Is it reasonable to hope to pay $100-200 for the labor? I saw the video and it doesn't seem like more than 1 hour of labor to me but I could be wrong. I would do it myself but if I went out and bought a ball joint press and the heavy duty punch thing it would be quite some money and I dont know for sure it would solve the problem

Anyone agree or disagree? Think it'll solve the problem?

 

[tscherbi]

Roached means they are wore out and garbage, you can use the word sh*t, roached, garbage, or ford they all mean the same to me.

I think you should replace both upper and lower ball joints and you would be alot better then you are. The upper ball joints on these upper a arms are just bolted on and should be easy to replace. The kicker of the deal is that if you dont know what a arms, or manufacturer made them, it may be hard to find the correct ball joints. If it was me I would do it myself, its easy. A pickle fork is needed and a ball joint press, they both are rented at most big name auto part stores.

 

[ridiqls]

Roached means they are wore out and garbage, you can use the word sh*t, roached, garbage, or ford they all mean the same to me.

I think you should replace both upper and lower ball joints and you would be alot better then you are. The upper ball joints on these upper a arms are just bolted on and should be easy to replace. The kicker of the deal is that if you dont know what a arms, or manufacturer made them, it may be hard to find the correct ball joints. If it was me I would do it myself, its easy. A pickle fork is needed and a ball joint press, they both are rented at most big name auto part stores.

Ah thanks. Yeah well the previous owner's friend actually custom fabricated those a-arms so I'm hoping he did it to fit the factory stuff and made it all the right measurements. The replacement sounds easy enough but I'm not sure if im prepared for potential problems that may come up. Things get stuck, a bolt gets stuck or breaks off, or I get the wrong size ball joint, etc. I may try to give it a shot but if I fail then its going to suck

 

[twomanymontes]

Sorry about that, Now that I'm on a laptop and not the stupid phone, I can see that picture better. In the one picture it looks like where the ball joint is mounted the end appears stock. My fault.