Replacing parts on a truck can add up. You might already know this but if you have owned a truck that has experienced a breakdown of some kind and has required that new parts are installed, you probably realize that truck parts are not cheap.
There are some services that are not as expensive as others and some common failures that will not injure your pocketbook as badly as you thought.
The average cost to replace a Ford F150 ball joint is $100-$200. The labor is $200-$250. This range might be different between different models of truck or different years of F-150, but you should expect this average as your starting place for the cost of this service.
If you want to know more about the cost to replace a Ford F150 ball joint, read on!
How Much Does Labor Cost?
The answer to this question has a lot to do with your location. If you are living in a place that does not have a Ford dealership or you are working with a dealer that is also a luxury dealer, you might pay more for your labor costs.
Cities are also much more expensive on average than locations that are more rural. Labor on average costs around $50-$75 dollars an hour for this service. However, if you live in a city location this average might be more like $80-$100.
You might also have to pay more for the service if you live in an area that does not have a dealership or a mechanic shop that is used to working on this replacement process.
You could expect as much as $200 an hour for labor in remote locations that are not set up to work on a ball joint replacement service!
That being said, the labor is not intensive for this service overall and the hours that need to be committed to the project should not be more than 2-3 hours max.
This is not a service that many people are able to take care of on their own, so you should plan on this labor is cheaper than your own efforts to replace this part at your house.
If you do have access to your own garage or a friend’s garage and the skill to complete this service yourself, you might save a lot of money on the labor that goes with the job.
This can reduce the price of the service to the cost of the parts themselves.
How Much Do Ball Joints for an F150 Cost?
You will always have to remember that shipping for car parts can be really costly.
If you are not able to source this part locally and pick it up yourself, you might be adding many hundreds of dollars to your service cost even if you are doing the work yourself.
If you are able to find this part locally and you can drive to pick it up, this will almost always save you a lot of money.
There are many other parts of your vehicle that are more spendy and you should not have to struggle to get affordable ball joints if you want to take care of the sourcing of the parts yourself.
This will not work out with all mechanic shops, but some shops are happy to let you source the parts and then they will do the replacement process for you.
The costs for this part can vary depending on your location and the year of the vehicle. Location will have the biggest impact on your cost.
| Location | Cost of Parts |
|---|---|
| Detroit | $90 |
| California | $120 |
| Texas | $80 |
| Michigan | $100 |
| Florida | $90 |
As you can see, the overall cost of this part is not exorbitant. A lot of the cost of the replacements is usually tied up in the labor that goes with the service.
What Are the Costs of Other Parts That Can Fail After a Ball Joint?
If you have had issues with a ball joint in your Ford F150 failing, you could have other parts that have failed as a result or at the same time.
This can impact the overall cost of the repair process and can add labor as well as parts costs to your service.
This is the least ideal situation and is not common, but sometimes more than one part can fail on your truck and you will need to replace all the damaged parts before you can drive your vehicle safe again.
If you have an issue with your control arm as well as the ball joint, you can expect to pay $200 for the parts and another few hours of labor.
The going rate for labor, as discussed above, will be impacted by your location and the kind of dealer or mechanic that you are working with.
If your suspension itself is damaged, there are various parts that could have gone bad. Struts and other connected parts can be bad as well as the entire suspension itself. (cosmopolitanme.com)
The whole suspension can cost you $ 600-$700 to replace without considering labor.
This can really add up and if you have been using your truck hard or have been driving it off-road a lot, this might be the culprit for the rest of your issues after the ball joint has been diagnosed.
Issues with truck frames and other larger parts can happen if your ball joint has been damaged in an accident and you should make sure that you have all of the possible problems looked at if your truck’s ball joint has been damaged as a result of a collision.
You might find that there are needs that need to be met like complete alignment service as well as diagnostics. Diagnostic services cost on average about $60 an hour.
This is not a big deal if the problems that might be responsible for your need for repairs are easy to track down, but they can really add up if the problem is less obvious.
You should always plan for an alignment service to be done on your vehicle as this kind of repair anyhow, adds another $80-$100.
If you have been worried about the additional costs that might be associated with a ball joint replacement, the most common additional charge is for the alignment.
These other items are worst-case scenarios that might not apply to your situation.
In the case that you have been in a car accident, many of these costs will be covered by insurance, so you may not have to worry about the cost at all.
For failures that are not protected by your warranty or by a recall for damaged parts, for example, you will need to have some room in your planned budget just in case there are major suspension issues that need to be diagnosed and attended to at the time that the ball joint is replaced.
You should always have an additional $200-$300 on hand for any repair service just in case there are unexpected complications that you did not expect to have to attend to.
How Often Should You Budget for Ball Joint Replacement?
You might be wondering how often this ball joint replacement service will be needed when you own a truck.
Since you know that this service can be as much as $400-$600, this is a fair question. You should know that ball joints are intended to last for 100,000 miles or more.
This might not be the situation for your truck if you have been in a wreck or if you drive your car off-road frequently.
There are many reasons why ball joints might fail early but you should be able to count on your ball joints in your truck to last for at least 80,000 miles if not more.
If you have been driving off of highways and smooth roadways, this number might be reduced due to wear and tear.
Most of the failures of ball joints that take place before the stated average mileage is due to a flaw in the parts themselves.
Ball Joint Replacements Are Not the Most Expensive Replacement Part
If you have found out that your truck needs to have a ball joint replaced, there are many other services that are far more expensive to have serviced.
You should not be deeply concerned that there will be other services that are needed after the ball joint in your truck is replaced, but it is possible if you have been in an accident or have driven into a ditch or hit a curb.
Planning for the costs of your ball joint replacement service is easy if you know what the labor costs will be and the associated parts cost for your year of Ford F150.
Working with a dealer can make this process much easier, but you might be able to source the parts yourself and then have the service completed by a mechanic in your area.
There are many ways to save some money on this job but if you take your car to the dealer to have the service completed it will not be exorbitantly expensive.