blowing ball joints

[89LXcoupe]

Once again I need to call of this boards vast knowledge of the honda accord. Thanks in advance!!

A few weeks ago i was parking my car in the driveway and my left lower ball joint popped out....then....because I am so smart.... I tried to move the car a few more feet to get it off the street, the wheel feel over and pulled the drive shaft right out of the transmisson....500 bucks later my car is back on the road. The garage inspected the rest of the suspension and said the other lower ball joint was fine, but the right rear control arm needed to be replaced. I had that work done today. I picked the car up around noon and was driving around town when the lower ball joint on the other side of the car popped out...this time while i was moving at about 40km/h. No accident or anything, but the bottom of my suspension tore a nice grove into my aluminum wheel as I came to a stop. I called the garage and layed into them for saying everything was fine and they told me to get it towed in. The garage seems like a pretty decent place and the owner said he inspected it himself and said there was no play. So either the guy didn't inspect it properly or something else is causing them to pop out. Thats what they will look for tomorrow morning. The car is lowered, but its been like that for over a year now with only a little accelerated tire wear. I did have an accident with it that may have caused the frame to be a little bent could this be causing it? But that was alomst 2 years ago?? Also front shocks are nearing the end of their life. Thats all I can think of what do you guys think?

[k-roy]

I think whoever worked on your suspension last before the problems should be shot.

I guarentee they did not put in clevis pins to make sure the lower bolts do not come loose. This is critical piece of saftey equipment. Seriouly, I would sue the guy/shop who did the work.

[89LXcoupe]

They never worked on either of the ball joints before they blew.....n one has since I owed the car...thats what is so weird. I looked at the ball joint....the nut didn't come loose, the entire joint just separated. Although I did notice they didn't put a clevice pin on the left hand side.....bastards.

[k-roy]

That sucks. When I got my car it did not have the pins in it. I am anal and did like a 1,000 point inspection.

[Justin86]

So they didn't come unbolted at the bottom they just broke in the middle. How much is the car lowered. Having bad struts and being lowered could have been a factor but the odds are so unlikely cause there are soooo many people with lowered cars and stock struts and they don't have any problems.

[89LXcoupe]

Its only dropped 1.5" The guy had it apart today and said the ball joint looked fine, its really weird. Now that he has the car together he is going to inspect the entire front end to make sure there are no other faults causing the joints to pop. I'm starting to think the joint just needed to be replaced, but didn't have a lot of play for some reason. The car has 250 000 km on it and as far as I know hasn't had the ball joints replaced and from what I have read on the board that is an accident waiting to happen.

[Justin86]

Well it weird that they both went within one day. You might want to get new fronts ones too. With the way stuff is breaking on you it would be a good idea.