355 Ball Joint Failure on 6k Mile F355

Glad no serious issues happened. Looks like rim damage though but as you stated could have been worse. Never heard of that out here at least, certainly not a know issue. This is why I replace everything that is a consumable part and ball joints and tie rod ends are consumable.

 

Very scary. Please post some closeup pics of the bolt where it broke, esp the mating surfaces. Can sometimes give clues about nature of failure.

 

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Sorry this happened to you and glad everything is ok and no one got hurt.

I can now envision a new series of threads on the topic "How Often To Change Ball Joints - 3 or 5 years".

 

Sorry to hear, I’m changing my ball joints now - they are in super tight!

I just saw this the other day: same thing that happened to you both on the track…

 

Some people stretch it to 10 years but 7 is probably ok.

 

Glad you're safe OP. Always a risk for any of us driving 20+ year old cars on the road. As for replacing ball joint every 3, 5 or even 10 yrs is new to me. I had a 911 track car with over 20yr old suspension and never even thought about preventative ball joint replacement. They should usually give some ominous noise ... like wheel bearings or your race tires taken beyond adhesion.. you'll typically know before they let go!

 

I know on 360s it’s good to treat ball joints as consumables, idk if the same goes for 355. 6,500 miles or not at the end of the day the youngest 355 is 23-24 years old (as we are coming to the end of 2021) No wear item is immune to age.


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I know it probably won’t make the OP feel any better but it seems like this was a fluke occurrence. Judging from one photo it looks like shear stress, but the other where the two pieces are being held together it looks like it broke off jagged so I’m at a loss.


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Over tightend?

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Never seen it ...

 

Odd failure location. My money is on over torqued, defective part or maybe a little of both. I wouldn't expect that age or mileage would show at that location.

 

probably a combination of a bit of corrosion as well as overtorque at some time. Not something that would be common. I was surprised, having recently rebuilt the rear suspension on my 348 that most hardware was assembled "dry". I always like to apply some kind of anti corrosive/lubricant when assembling close tolerance components

 

Or maybe an unreported mishap during transport? Though if the case alignment would be off and noticeable during drive. Not even the cheapest Kia would have a suspension just snap. I'm not aware of a recall on this area of the 355s as well.

 

I assume the ball joint itself is not frozen.

 

I mean the joint itself, does it move around? The part in the rubber boot.

Personally, I think under torqueing the nut may have allowed the ball joint to loosen and that would have put all the pressure on the threaded part. A properly seated ball joint can be a ***** to remove.

 

Ball joints go in dry, it's a close tolerance friction fit. The ball and socket in the knuckle is what turns. When you remove them they are TIGHT and when they pop it goes off like a gun. Fairly violent activity.

 

Bit confused as to how this could possibly happen.

If the car has only done 6k miles I would imagine it's still on it's factory assembled OEM ball joints???? Or has some work been done on the car that required disassembly of the balljoint and re-tightening?? Again if it only has 6k miles what work could possibly need doing....very strange??!!!

On a 348 the balljoints ae pinned with a castle nut - did they stop doing that on 355s?? That's the only thing that makes we wonder whether it is an OEM balljoint???



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To my lay-man's eyes, that looks like over torquing. The center of the bolt looks stretched. But I am not a metallurgist or automotive engineer, it just looks similar to a water pump bolt that I snapped by over torquing on a Jeep I once had.

 

The nut should move freely up and down the threaded part now, is that the case? if its frozen onto the thread there is your problem, over torqued thus stretching the threads of the shaft inside the nut.

I would agree with the under torque theory though, which allowed the thread to move down the taper and then shear off.

 

If you were able to get that nut off the snapped part of the threaded shaft easily enough, then I doubt the shaft broke away from the ball of the joint as a result of over torque, so this would point in the direction that over time the nut has gently eased itself loose of the original torque, allowing the threaded shaft some free play in the suspension knuckle which eventually caused fracture and breakage of the shaft.

I must say though that it does look waisted under the nut to such an extent its far narrower than the thread, but that stretch may have been just before failure as it moved around in the knuckle.