Here is the question:
What is the proper way to check for ball joint wear on a car like Ford Crown Victoria, which has upper and lower A-arm suspension. The spring and the shock absorber are made into a single strut unit. Mechanics at 2 different alignment shops told me the jack should go under the lower A-arm, because in the suspension like that, the lower A-arm is load-bearing, so jacking up the frame would make the lower A-arm push into the ball joint, so that it would be difficult to detect any play. But I was taught to raise the frame and was never told of any other way of doing it.
Here is the long story.
I had the front suspension checked out by 3 different mechanics. First was Massachusetts state safety and emissions inspection. He did it by jacking up the frame and found no wear on ball joints or tie rods.
Second was a mechanic at an alignment shop. The guy at the front desk told me the ball joints are bad, and they won’t do an alignment before I replace the ball joints.
Third was another mechanic at a different alignment shop. This time, I told them that it passed the state inspection and I jacked up the car myself and verified that the ball joints and tie rods were fine. This mechanic told me that a car with upper and lower A-arms need to be jacked up on the lower A-arm. I took the car back.
I took the car back, and lifted one wheel and found that that the ball joint had a very slight play, but more importantly, the tie rod was loose. It’s been at least 3,000 miles since the state inspection, so I am thinking the tie rod could have worn out after the state inspection.
Are these mechanics trying to deceive me?