I *think* I might be having a problem with my ball joint. I looked under my car and found something that had it's rubber boot completely ripped off (other side still had the boot, thats how I knew something was wrong). I checked on my Nissan FAST and found a pic that pretty much shows what I'm talking about:

I have a feeling this is a ball joint??? If so, what are all of the symptoms (besides visual) of a bad ball joint and how easy of a repair for a DIY'er is this?

 

it is a balljoint. Im am not sure what the symptoms are of a bad ball joint but if the out boot of the balljoint is ripped or cracked it should be replaced. In order to get them out you have to the snap rings of first and then you can hit them out with a hammer. It was much easier for me to hit them out with a hammer since i had the whole lower control arm out and putting in new bushings. Hope this helps you out

 

How hard was it to pull that unit off? I'm thinking of going with new struts but feel I better renew the ball joint and bushings on that unit first. Once you unbolt everthing, does the unit just fall straight down?

 

Well anyway, I looked in the Chiltons and it said that the ball joint isn't replaceable and I should change out the whole control arm. Anyone have anymore information on this?

 

Symptoms of a bad balljoint is noise and out-of-wack steering geometry.

 

I had a bad ball joint that went unnoticed and screwed my tires. I have horrible wear on the inside of my tires now. I just bought a new control arm off of Ebay instead of just the ball joint. My bushings were bad anyway. I was able to get the control arm for like $80. shipped versus the $185 I would have paid at a dealership.

 

ball joints are replaceable. I just replaced mine with new ones for $24 a piece. I had my lower control arms off the car because I am doing all new poly bushings. all you need to do to get the ball joint off is take the snap ring off then hit the ball joint out with a hammer. Thats it. It is not a hard job and buying new control arms is complete waste of money.