About two weeks ago I had my front two axles to my 98 accord replaced because I heard creaking and saw the damage to the axles myself, so I took it to the mechanics, now im shy of the holidays and without a car because a ball joint fell off the attachment of the axle. Meaning, it literally was so coroded it fell completely out. Now these mechanics conjured into getting a new rear tire to reduce wear and tear which I get, but how could they not spot the need off new ball joints? Do I have a good case or am I going to have suck it up due to unfortunate events and bad luck?
Not much of a case. The mechanic had to separate the lower ball joint from the lower control arm to get the axle out and really should have noticed it was bad - if that is the one that failed. As the author points out in the first source, all the pictured failures are the lower right ball joint. None of them gave much warning (that is the scary thing about ball joints). Trying to get the mechanics to pay for all repairs will be an uphill battle, but if you are diplomatic you can probably get them to do the ball joint replacement labor if you pay for the part and other repairs. Even without clear responsibility on their part they will be happy to see this go away.
you have a case of a bad mechanic blaming them for worn out parts after your comment about a cunjured tire (whatever that means) sounds a lot like you get to pay to fix your worn out front end. There is no way they could know if your ball joint was coming apart it was likely covered in 30 years of dirt and grease until it hit the pavement.
