Today i went to the service shop; i needed a wheel alignment for the Explorer. I felt the truck with a little wandering, but nothing bad. I guessed because i recently changed all the tires (235, now 31.5 * 10.5) maybe the truck needed a wheel balance. Ok, i got my four tires balanced and felt OK. I said "well, maybe an aligment would be better for the stability" and went back to the shop. Asked for the wheel alignment and wait......10 minutes later the guy said "Your truck has bad ball joints, cant be aligned" mmmm" i said, Ok, how much does the that service cost?" . He walked away and come back with a HUGE list of parts, and of course nothing cheap. I said "Ok, maybe later, please give me the bill for your inspection" . He walked away with a BAD face and charge me a very little. But Now, the truck feels soo bad! i noticed this nearly at the instant when i took the highway to home. If you left the steering wheel alone, it cant go straight. Its there a posibility of:
a) The suv needs really the ball joints...
b) the guy is a son of a b!#$ and left my truck worse to get the deal...
c) Maybe a properly alignment at another store would solve my problem...
I want to ask another question....How do you know, particulary, when your car/truck needs an aligment ? thanks...
Bad ball joints in a 10 year old Explorer wouldn't surprise me in the slightest - 4WD trucks of all makes seem to eat them up regularly (at least on our frost heaved, potholed roads).
If you don't know how to check your own ball joints try taking it to another shop and see what they say.
My dad got a whole new front end from a shop. About a week later he brought it back to get the alignment done. Then they told him all this stuff was wrong with his car and gave him the same list he had the first time. Definetly take it to another shop.
It does sound like they made the attempt, found bad parts, and put it back together without doing an alignment. I can tell you that lower ball joints are very common replacement parts on Explorers and replacing them does NOT require an alignment, although it's good to do anyhow. You only NEED to have the truck aligned when the uppers are replaced. I would concur on taking it to another shop. I don't know about Mexico, but here the parts for Explorers are very cheap. Hopefully they won't rob you blind...