Aeropooch

well, just a heads up to all those 944 drivers out there. If you hear popping when you make turns then your lower control arm ball joint is on it's way out the door and don't make any sudden turns!!
Thank God I was not driving on the freeway when mine decided to snap. When it did i was making a right turn getting ready to park when "thump/SHHH" I hear this sound and my car leaned over. When I opened the door to see what it was, my car fender was leaning on the right tire and would not turn. I had to force it forward which caused my fender to bend. When I got it parked I saw the tie rod end nice and snug with the bottom knuckle...way to close.
So I'm working with Ian at 944online.com to work a deal.

Geldfalle 944

I just did mine with the Rennbay kit. Works like a charm. I was worried about this very thing happening as both my my boots were torn and the right one was making noise. Sorry for your luck.

catamax944

Strange though,they had to have major play in there to pop out of the arm.The arm has to be VERY worn to let the "ball" just pop out.You should have noticed that play long before this happened...

Geldfalle 944

I had play since I bought mine in January. Just drove VERY gingerly and not very often. As with most of us mine is my second car.

JonH

I'd be curious to know a little more history on your car, year/mileage/original ball joint/use/lowered? etc. I've seen two failures at the track but not on a street car.

ZW 944

I changed out my ball joints with the bronze ones from 944online. they were very easy to change, and it felt like they tightened up the front suspension, although the inner and outer tie rods were changed too.

JohnKoaWood

There was a post a few months back IIRC of a failure on the street... but yeah..more of a hard track use type failure... or a REALLY bad joint that has been bad for a while!

Oddjob

The popping when making tight turns is the dead give away. Feels like the control arm is being hit with a ballpeen hammer when backing out of the driveway or pulling into a parking spot. Check the balljoint for excess movement. Need to replace the arm/joint immediately once the balljoint has been diagnosed as bad.

Luis de Prat

The OP's control arm could also have been rebuilt before when the socket was already out of round. That rebuild wouldn't last very long, either.

Aeropooch

well I just got the car from a previous owner who had the head rebuild due to a timeing belt failure. He didn't do much to it after that. Plus the odometer broke two years before I bought it and it had over 180k on it. I have never heard a ball joint make noise like that and did not know what was to come ahead. Live and learn right.
Well, I was able to find the part at a local pick-a-part junk yard along with some other parts. Turns out the 85' 944 car I took it off of, had just replaced the lower control arm on the drivers side! Brand new! I grabbed the rear sway bar and my sunroof cable snapped so I grabbed that as well. All those parts only came out to $55!! I love junk yards.

peanut

with plenty of food and drink ....best day out a bloke can have... bar maybe shooting or fishing lol

Yarf

Aeropooch
I am curious, do you have a state inspection where you live? If so then one of the items that normally gets inspected is the ball joints and tie rod ends for excessive wear and integrity. You were fortunate that all that happened was a fender bend, send some of your luck my way.

Aeropooch

Well, another update. I started to hear popping from the left side, but only when I would go over a bump. I imediatly ordered a rebuild lower control arm from 944online.com, becaue I saw that the ball joint boots were cracked in two places. So today I check the suspension because I have noticed the ride is a little soft, only to find out that my right sturt is leaking. When I add pressure on it, you could hear the strut shaft rubbing against the tube sleeves. It sounds like water shaking in a plastic containder with rocks at the bottome of the container. Horrible sound. I wanted to lower the car anyway, so now I have a reason to do so. I was going to go with Koni inserts and lowering springs, but I would really like to have the ability to adjust the height whenever I wanted. How much would full adjustable coilovers run??

Aeropooch

Yarf, we do have inspections in California, but I think they only check the emissions and not the suspension.

xschop

If you install a ball-joint rebuild kit, doesn't matter bronze, plastic, unobtanium, into an out-of-round control arm socket.....call and increase your Life Insurance policy.... it may seem fine after the new B-joint install until a large enough impact takes it back out in one hit...

The real culprit on the alloy arm socket destruction is the struts get worn and there is less progressive or no shock absorption in the socket, where the alloy deforms at a much higher rate than the steel B-joint. If your struts are worn, best bet your b-joint socket profile in the alloy arm is ruined and no rebuild kit will remedy that.