I understand the OE aluminum ball joints on early cars can fail. My '80 has only 37K miles. Should I be concerned at this point and how do I check them? What do I look for? Or should I just replace them regardless?

 

Just replace them - and if it were me, regardless of the condition/mileage, I wouldn't drive the car until they are replaced.

 

Use a magnet to verify whether they're steel or aluminum. If original, then they're aluminum & should be replaced immediately.

 

Agreed with the magnet test to determine if they have been upgraded already. If not I would replace them immediately and not drive the car. These were a documented failure point that caused numerous accidents nearly 40 years ago!

 

Mine failed with no warning. At low speed- turning tight in an intersection thankfully.

 

also when your ordering the new steel BJs,
you need to get two more eccentric adjusters.
one for each side,
as one of them will not adjust the new BJ

 

Thanks all. I was hoping for " no hurry with such low mileage". Already checked and magnet says aluminum. Plus I have most records since new (one-owner until 2022) and ball joint replacement not shown. Sounds like I'm on borrowed time!

 

biggest dont is turning the car with the wheels turned all the way in either direction

 

I do that every time I take it out of the garage. Guess I need to a 3-point turn!

 

https://rennlist.com/forums/928-foru...t-failure.html

https://rennlist.com/forums/928-foru...b-84-01-a.html

 

Hmm....15" wheels just like mine. Guess it's good I asked. How many miles on the car when it broke? Will order parts tomorrow. I have been driving it a lot since purchase mid-May.

 

Not my cars^^but I do know I replaced a previously owned 79 when it had 11,400 miles.

 

Jim, SRSLY park it and disconnect the battery.

 

Jim, I drove 4 years on the aluminum joints my car came with, from 114k to 145k on the odometer. They were still very tight when I changed them in 2007. Yes, they can fail, but I would just order the parts and enjoy the car until you change them.

I'm not disagreeing with anyone else here, but some of us have survived aluminum ball joints.

 

the failure has nothing to do with miles, how tight they are, or even if they look good. Unless you can X-ray them after each drive and see stress cracks internally, you are playing Russian roulette. If the failure happens at speed, all bets are off. To drive it at this point would be just silly. It doesn’t matter if somebody else was able to get away with it. This is not like a IMS failure on a Boxster or 996. This one can come out of nowhere, wreck your car and maybe seriously injure or kill you. You decision of course.