Mazda 3 lower arm ball joint

[stepaway]

Evening all. I’ve got a knocking ball joint with visible play on my 2009 Mazda 3 lower arm.

Managed to get a brand new OEM lower arm off the ‘bay for a much more reasonable price than the stealers want. Yes I know it’s a gamble but as it’s brand new and the seller confirmed it was 100% I went with it.

It turned up tonight, had a quick look and all seems well bar the ball joint boot is slightly creased and appears to have a minimal but visible amount of grease visible where the retaining shaft comes out the top of the boot. They are non-greasable as I understand it. Should it be completely dry/sealed?

Is this ok or not please? There are no visible holes or splits etc on the boot, just the crease.

Thanks in advance

[Smint]

Suspect the boot got pressed up against something during transit, pushing the grease up so its oozing out slightly.

Be inclined to inject a little extra grease in through a syringe fitting and then apply a very tight band or small cable tie to the neck to help keep grease in and water out, i'm sure boots often used to have such a band fitted.

Doesn't seem that long ago when various ball joints had grease nipples, if owners could be arsed to grease them every year they'd see the entire life of the vehicle out, indeed i've seen various youtube videos of diy'ers drilling an tapping in grease nipples so they could extend the service life of such parts, anyone else remember grease nipples regularly found on handbrake cables too.

[thebraketester]

Where are the metal retaining bands? There should be no grease externally on those boots.