Ball joint popped out of the LCA... fortunately was only going 3mph in a parking lot. Tore my axle out of the trans. Not sure of the extent of damage yet, might be a straightforward fix. Two years ago when I was replacing the axles, I thought to myself, "maybe I should be replacing these ball joints" when I was putting everything back together. Hindsight 20/20. Fortunately the rollback driver was a pro and lowered the car onto my jackstands IN my garage. Super fortunate for that, because moving the car otherwise is impossible.

 

^
While you are there, might as well check #9,10, 11.

Front Lower Arm for 2006 Acura TL | Acura OEM Parts

 

Look on the positive side. Some people pay for rolling the fenders and you had one side done for free.

 

Thanks, yeah those other bushings are both in the same condition they've always been, half torn. I got the wheel off and fortunately it's just looking like an axle and a ball joint. Didn't realize how expensive OEM joints were, but I also don't want this to happen again. The failure was crazy, it sheared straight off. Idk if it's just had a rough life or what.



Thanks for the laugh

 

That's quite an unusual failure for a ball joint. At least I never saw one fail like that. Usually they pop out of the socket, so you have socket in the knuckle and ball part still bolted to the control arm.

Did somebody worked on suspension recently? Maybe ball joint was put back together with impact gun, got it too tight, stretched the metal, and that's why it failed.

 

I was thinking about this more last night, and if I had to guess, I think I have the most likely scenario. (this is entirely speculation).

Two years ago when I did the axles, I remember using a sledgehammer to "reseat" the LCA's back over top of the lower part of the ball joint. I mean, reseating the shaft above the threaded portion of the lower ball joint into hole in the LCA.

This seemed to be an interference fit, and at the time, I THOUGHT I had the LCA completely back to where it needed to be. I was able to thread my castle nut all the way up to the point where I could insert the cotter pin through the threads of the screw. I thought everything was fine.

Now, again, pure speculation, I'm thinking maybe over time, the LCA slowly "creeped" down off of the lower shaft of that ball joint, putting more and more weight on that castle nut and pin. I never used any tools to torque the ball joint other than re-tightening the castle nut, which I doubt I over-torqued, but anything is possible. Is it entirely the job of that castle nut to keep the LCA propped up like that? I figure the shaft of the ball joint with that seemingly interference-type fit would help with support of the LCA, not leaving the entire job to the castle nut. Hmmm....

 

The way suspension is setup here weight of the car is trying to pull apart the ball joint. So leaving the nut off would cause it to fall apart, especially since shock absorber mounts to the lower control arm.
That's why lower ball joints are so important on the hondas (and other cars) with this suspension style - basically any shock from the road travels wheel -> knuckle -> ball joint -> LCA -> shock absorber.

 

Glad you got out pretty unscathed...
the guy that bought my black TL had the same thing happen....
I think in his case they reinstalled that balljoint and stripped
part of the threading...they sent it on down the road as is, unfortunately.

 

Pure speculation, but by the looks of mine, it seems like there was corrosion right around the tops of the threads where it failed in the pic. Perhaps during the reinstall, it was imperfectly fitted around the LCA, and allowed water/salt to sit inside the hole of the LCA. Not really sure. But to your point, there is a chance I may have done that same thing, though I only used hand tools when reinstalling that castle nut onto the bottom of the ball joint. Who knows...I am definitely glad it happened in a parking lot.

 

That is an unusual failure. It is likely from too much torque on the castle nut.

What did you torque the ball joint to when you reattached it after doing axles?

All this sledgehammer business...is not good mensch.

That joint (as you can see) holds up the entire corner of the car and it is always in tension. So...the torque setting is extremely important, as is a proper installation.

Glad you're going with a factory part.

 

my sympathies, that is a very unusual failure for a ball joint.
Perhaps America Acura will give you some good will with a failure like that?

 

this happened to me as well man. same side too! ball joint had a different failure. it was called rushing. was installing front coils on the my car and the shop i was at the owner was rushing me to finish. well i usually dont but i hit the lower ball joints with an impact gun on full blast. put the cotter pin in and finished assembling everything. on the way home going about 40-50 my left front ball joint nut came off (i stripped it with the force of the impact) sent me flying across a couple lanes. I was lucky didnt hurt anyone but yea that sucked. for some odd reason i had ball joint press with all my electric tools because i had to go home and do ball joints on a buddys accord. legit did the ball joint on the side of the road. cops were super nice and held the light for me lol. good luck with repairs sir and im glad you came out okay.

 

For sure it is, and I mean, would they actually do anything? Like i send them a pic of the failure and description, and say "give me money"? lol.

Oof. Yeah I'm definitely glad it didn't happen during spirited driving. New ball joint is pressed in, and my axle should be arriving today, hopefully on the road again by this evening. Planning on doing the other side ball joint sometime within this next week just to be safe. Should hopefully be all good.