Lower ball joints - Honda Accord
 

Any idea for long (in miles) a set of lower ball joints should last on a 2001 Accord that isn't exposed to speed bumps or rural roads?

I have the originals on my 91 crx, :p

My Insight has 234k on the original ones

Just curious, what is the context for the question???

eg. Joe mechanic says, 'lower ball joints are shot on my sister's car', but car only has 60k.

286,000 miles on the original set on my '90 Accord. :-)

Change Joe to Honda and sister to wife... yeah, that's the context.

Frequency of lubrication & tire balance will effect how long lower ball joint will last.

A lower ball joint coming apart at 60 mph is a life threatening event, so a second opinion is required before she can decides to get a new mechanic and ignore this one's advise.

Any competent alignment shop should be able to test for bad ball joint(s)* in under 10 minutes.

*Jack front of car up and look for movement in ball joint while wiggling wheel. Specific jacking point(s) depend on suspension design. In a few instances, the ball joint is designed with an inspectable wear indicator pin = no need to wiggle wheel - don't know if honda had that.

Assuming you're limited to help over the phone, give her a script to memorize. eg. "The Mechanics (heavy sarcasm goes here) at Joe Blow Honda, are telling me I need lower ball joints. The car only has xx thousand miles on good roads, so I'm thinking it's a line of B.S. - 'cause I'm a woman'. Can you check them for me and show me if there is anything wrong?"

FWIW The mechanics (can't put enough sarcasm there) at the local Chevy dealer once told a female cousin and her mom that the noise from the rear - when going over rail road tracks - was the differential about to fall out. Very dangerous and 'your car is too old to fix, so buy a new one.' The noise was the jack and tire iron rattling around loose on top of the spare tire.

Here's the situation. I was having the mandatory safety check done and this added $200 + taxes to the safety that they already charge more than most for. For a car that has been on the road just under 7 years and has 60K on it, gets all of its oil changes there, isn't exposed to speed bumps, rough roads or harsh driving, I was surprised... very surprised and just wondered what the expectations here are.

I had assumed that the safety would have been a financially painless affair and just wanted to get the opinions of the other here... thanks.

most of the time ball joints are not checked by wiggling the wheel, thats for wheel bearings and tierods. balljoints when going bad will squeak at slow speeds when turning, and possibly over bumps. To check you have to pry the lower[or upper] control arm away from the spindle/hub. But that is just from my observations, training, and experience.

As to how long they last, there is no set standard. At minimum at least 25-30Kmi. I have seen 2 accords break a lower ball joint. Like just sheered off. first was highway speeds, tire jambed into the fender, fender hit the door and hood. The right front underside of the car was all damaged because of it. And the 2nd was lucky as it was in the owners driveway. Both were cheap off name replacements