whoever did this is lucky...

....that there wasn't a failure...

late model Charger R/T, came in with complaint of noise when turning steering wheel. Only happened in cold weather according to owner, verbal description indicated hydraulic problem. suggested changing fluid and seeing what happened from there as fluid looked opaque and odd. Owner was going to take car to another shop as previous shop had supposedly already performed P/S flush. Car made noise while backing out of bay, definitely suspension not hydraulic. Reracked car, stethoscope located noise to upper ball joint on driver's side. still tight but very noisy, but only with weight on suspension. But there was no nut on ball joint... was really confused... then I figured it out.

The original nut on that ball joint stud was a flanged, self locking nut. At some point in the past someone had installed some larger-diameter (e.g. "donk") wheels/tires on the car, found the tire tread hit the upper ball joint nut, so installer ground the nut and shaft down until there was sufficient tire clearance. Which left only the flange of the original nut behind, maybe 3/16" thick...! I doubt that is recommended thread engagement for a 12mm stud. Then later on original style wheels/tires were installed leaving behind no evidence... save for the ground down ball joint nuts.

Customer declined repair :/

Every time I think "nobody could be that stupid" I'm apparently proven wrong.

nate