2001 Lincoln LS: ball joint or control arm failure

Filed Apr 24, 2023 · Suspension · 114,000 miles · UT

The contact owns a 2001 Lincoln LS. The contact stated while driving 15 MPH, the front suspension ball joint detached. No warning lights were illuminated. The vehicle was towed to an independent mechanic; however, it was not diagnosed or repaired. The contact related the failure to the federal safety agency Campaign Number: 00V359001 (Suspension). The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 114,000.

Filed Mar 29, 2021 · Suspension · 148,000 miles · OR

Tl* the contact owns a 2001 lincoln ls. The contact stated while driving 45 MPH, the contact heard an abnormal popping sound coming from underneath the vehicle. The contact stated that the vehcile began to shake back and forth violently which caused the contact to pull the vehicle over to side of the road. The contact had the vehicle towed back to his residence. There was no warning light illuminated. The contact who is a certified mechanic diagnosed the vehicle with a fractured ball joint. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was 148,000.

Filed Jun 11, 2015 · Suspension · 113,000 miles · NV

Tl* the contact owns a 2001 lincoln ls. While driving approximately 15 MPH, the steering wheel veered out of direction. The failure recurred multiple times. The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic for diagnostic testing. The wheel bearing, hub assembly, and lower ball joints were replaced. The failure recurred. The contact was made aware of the federal safety agency campaign number: 00v359001 (suspension); however, the VIN was not included. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 113,000.

Filed May 21, 2015 · Suspension · 142,000 miles · CA

Front lower ball joints after inspetion are cracked and lose.

Filed May 14, 2015 · Suspension · 69,000 miles · IA

Tl* the contact owns a 2001 lincoln ls. While driving at various speeds, there was an abnormal crunching noise coming from the front driver and passenger side of the vehicle. The contact discovered the ball joints were not attached to the control arm. The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic where it was diagnosed that the control arm needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The vehicle was not included in the recall for his vehicle model. The failure mileage was 69,000.

Filed Feb 9, 2015 · Suspension · 138,000 miles · GA

Tl*the contact owns a 2001 lincoln ls. The contact stated that while driving at approximately 15 MPH, the vehicle was making an abnormal popping noise or bumping noise. The failure recurred on multiple occasions. The contact believed that the failure was related to the federal safety agency campaign number: 00v359001 (suspension). The vehicle was taken to a dealer. The technician diagnosed that the ball joint failed. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 138,000. The VIN was not available.

Filed Feb 1, 2015 · Suspension · 191,821 miles · PA

I was driving down the road around 11pm to pick up my husband, and the left driver side r/r ds lower ball joint in front of the car collapsed to the ground. I had traffic coming from behind and from a cross street in front of me. Luckily, I was able to signal everyone by horn, arm waving and double blinkers before I was hit by anyone. I was able to prevent the accident.

Filed May 20, 2014 · Suspension · 143,000 miles · TX

I was told today while I was getting the oil changed on my vehicle that the front lower ball joints were very loose, and that I was lucky that my front tired hadn't fallen off yet. After speaking with the manager he referred me to ford because of the recall on the suspension that he knew about. He though that my car should qualify considering the severity of the condition that they were in. After speaking with several people at ford I was informed that even though I was having the same problem as described in the recall that my car 's VIN number did not qualify. I don't understand that at all. My car is the same year, make , and model, with the same dangerous situation.

Filed Sep 8, 2013 · Steering, Suspension · 142,000 miles · SC · crash

We own a 2001 lincoln l.s.. While making a right hand turn in a curve last night I heard a loud cracking sound come from the drivers side front suspension. Instantly the drivers side front end dropped causing me to lose control of the steering. Snatched the steering wheel hard to the left out of my hands causing me to cross opposing traffic into a ditch sliding into the front of a concrete pipe leading under the street. While applying the brakes in the grass car smashed into the edge of the concrete pipe. Had car brought to our home. Jacked up drivers side front this morning and found the lower ball joint had came out of the lower control arm it is busted as well as the tire, rim, front steel cross member that mounts the lower control arm is bent. Wiped out the oil pan causing all the oil to leak out also damaging the rear lower control arm mount which is aluminum. Plus busting the front bumper cover/ lower air dam. Driving lights. Cannot find if our car was recalled and fixed per your recall concerning improperly tightened lower ball joints. Unable to find any information from ford motor company north america. Now we are without a car to get to work. Now we have no idea how to proceed. Luckily there were no on coming cars avoiding a head on crash. This is my wife's car which my children ride in. Looked at passenger side lower ball joint and it looks to be coming out of the lower control arm as well. Car is in drive way with both front tires removed sitting on jack stands.

Filed Jan 11, 2013 · Steering, Suspension · 67,000 miles · MD

I am a 66 yr old widow, owner of a 2001 ls purchased june 2001, a recall fix was to have been done before my purchase in march of 2001 to correct a problem with ball joints. I read online that many of these vehicles have the damage that was suppose to be corrected for when they get to about 67000 miles, I am at 67000 miles, took my car in for inspection and need an 1800 dollar fix to correct the issue that was suppose to be avoided by the recall. Ford said, too long ago, no warranty beyond the norm for recall fixes. I can not believe with the amount of evidence that these cars all require a fix at 67000 miles that ford isn't forced to address this dangerous condition. I also don't know if it's safe to drive a while longer, I just don't know how they got away with a recall that did not provide the fix.

Filed Mar 23, 2012 · Steering, Suspension · 70,114 miles · IL

I was driving my car, after driving home from work (approx. 70 miles round-trip). While turning I heard a loud crunch and then felt a hard thud, my vehicle was difficult to steer, felt another crunch. I pulled into a parking stall, after parking my vehicle, another loud crunch, the driver's side wheel had fallen off and was wedged into the wheel well. On march 12th, 2012 my repair facility informed me about the items that need replaced: upper and lower left front ball joints, front outer tier rod ends, new fuel filter- damaged in the incident, two new tires & an alignment. I realized how lucky I was that this did not occur while driving down the road. I conducted google search on 2001 lincoln ls suspension problems, I was stunned on the amount of safety related hits out there (suspension related), I realized that this was not isolated to just my vehicle, there were pages-of-pages of people that experienced similar suspension problems with their 2001 lincolns. There was a suspension related recall: lincoln / ls 2000-2001, ford motor company, date: nov 01, 2000 the federal safety agency campaign id number: 00v359001 n/a the federal safety agency action number: n/a component: suspension: front: control arm: lower ball joint, number of affected: 82,300 summary: vehicle description: passenger vehicles. The front suspension lower ball joints were not tightened to specifications when they were attached to the lower control arms. Consequence: if the ball joint attaching nuts are not adequately tightened, they can loosen and, ultimately, result in fracture of the ball joint stud. If the ball joint fractures, control of the vehicle could be affected, increasing the risk of a crash. Remedy: dealers will inspect the torque on the two ball joint attaching nuts. Vehicles with loose ball joint attaching nuts will either have the fasteners tightened to specification, or if necessary, the ball joints will be replaced.

Filed Mar 2, 2012 · Suspension · 99,506 miles · OH

We purchased a lincoln ls on 2/24/12 and a I was driving the car home I heard a loud noise that sounded as if the wheels were going to fall off especially as I went over bumps. I took the car to midas and they diagnosed that the ball joints were bad, along with the struts, and gasket cover. I did some research and I found that the car had been recalled in 2000 for the ball joints.