Occasionally under mild to heavy braking I hear a thump or shift sound coming from the front of the car. My balljoints are original w/120,000 miles. Do they usually need replacing around this time? Is it involved? Will I need a press?
Is there a quick way to test if the balljoints are worn? Are they attached to the spindle and front control arm with the greasable fitting underneath?

Please help, thanks,

 

Put the car in the air, and look at the bottom of it. Our cars use wear indicator ball joints. Clean it of so you can see if the center of it is raised, flat or recessed. It should be raised, if it's flat, I would replace them on my car, If recessed definitelt do them.

 

i had a thunk noise too but only when flooring it. turned out to be my tranny mounts.

 

That feels like the floor is being hit with a sledge hammer.

 

My balljoints have 150,000 on them and are still good but I"ve been keeping them greased well since the car was new. One other thing that can cause a thumping noise is loose or missing sway bar end-link bushings, mine dried up and cracked so bad they fell out and it made all kind of noise.