Lower ball joints

[4carbcorvair]

I installed new lower ball joints about 9 years ago, and have only about 20,000 miles on them. Granted, it is a bit of time. This seems to be unusually fast for them to wear out. I jacked the front up last night and had my oldest shake the wheel for me. Side to side (in and out) play in both lowers. Is this abnormal? I work on other cars at the repair shop, and their are a few vehicles that are notorious for ball joints, most of which are 4wd trucks. This seems a bit unusual for a car with a light front end. And yes, I grease them.

[tiger13]

Side to side would be more of an indication of wheel bearings than ball joints. Jack the car up about an inch of clearance under the tire, and with a long bar, see if you have much up and down play in the wheel , which would indicate ball joint wear. If you can, have someone be looking AT the ball joint in question when you are doing this, and you should be able to see any movement. Also see if you are getting play in the tie rods, steering arms, or the idle arm when your are doing your side to side motion.

[4carbcorvair]

I did that. That's how I found the in and out play. As I said, I had my oldest move the wheel after I found the play. No/minimum up and down. You can physically see the knuckle move in and the lower control arm stay in place. It's visibly in the lower ball joint. Upper bal joint good. Tie rods good. Idler. Good. Just the lower ball joint. Grab the wheel at 1 and 7 and you can move the bottom of the tire in and out. I e seen this on other vehicles, usually more so on upper ball joints.

[tiger13]

20,000 miles on "new" ball joints and they are worn out again, and you greased then, there is a problem.
Unless you did not tighten them down to specs, and get the taper fully seated before you installed the cotter pin, or did not fully grease them, then you should NOT have worn ball joints. The only thing I can tell you if you say you did all of the above, is you got a bad one.