How do you know if you have a bad ball joint or a bad struts?

Answer

A good way I found to check struts, is to bounce the vehicle's front end by pushing down on the bumper if it bounces more than 3x get'r done, or a visual would be to check for leaks on the strut shaft itself.

Answer

I had a bad ball joint on my passenger side and my car squealed very loudly and pulled to the right just before it broke on me. When I replaced that broken ball joint. when I put the new one on, it was pulling to the right again and my steering wheel would turn about 10 degrees to the right when accelerating in any gear, shortly after that the lock nut came off and my ball joint broke again.

Struts are bad when you can bounce your car easily, it dips hard in the front when you brake, or it bounces like crazy when you hit bumps.

In addition to the ball joint reply, begin simply by looking at the rubber covering the joint. If there is a tear, it needs replaced. A good maintenance principle is repair before something needs replaced. This part is listed to be replaced just as your tie rods, and any other similiar part. Just like you change the oil, plugs, wires, tires, brakes, etc: these parts are intregal to safety and really don't cost a whole lot to replace. There should not be any gaps or movement in the joint. I have found that most folks don't change them until it causes further problems like the post before this one. Instead of just needing the ball joint replaced, now his spindle has worn and is causing slack and busting. Ball joints are 30-40 bucks. 1hr shop labor

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