About a month ago, I had my ball joint and wheel bearing changed however the mechanic did not align the wheels as he claims he didn't have the right set up. Therefore, the car needed aligning. So, I find a new garage to get an alignment however the mechanic pulls me in the garage area to show me the ball joint wasn't even connected to the anything and that it was perilous if not fixed. The new mechanic also stated that my car (Ford Escape), when needed a new ball joint, also needed a new control arm to go with it otherwise the ball joint wouldn t fit or work properly. I didn't have the money to repair it onsight as I'm a broke student who was faced with paying 430 dollars for a job the previous mechanic botched. I left and called two ford dealerships to get an opinion from mechanics. Both told me that when a the ball joint gets replaced, the control arm must be too albeit one mechanic did say you could get an after-market ball joint without the control arm however it would come cheaper and may not fit properly however in conclusion, all three mechanics recommended and one even stating it's a must to replace the control arm when replacing the ball joint. I ask this question because I don't want to have to spend more money when the initial repair might have been botched or done lazy.
Read more: https://fordnews.org/escape/when-replacing-a-ball-joint-must-i-get-my-control-arm.html
