Hello while driving down the highway, the upper ball joint in the drivers side front broke and caused damage to the axle, tire, and wheel. this caused issues with control of vehicle and could have cause a much greater accident than what occurred. i was able to avoid a major accident, partially due to the low speed at the time, however had this occurred while i was on the interstate or on a crowded highway, this could have had exponentially worse outcomes. i have been told by numerous mechanics that the ball joints are an issue for ford explorers and this isn't my first issue with them myself. i also had issues with my 2004 explorer. this was not an original part to the vehicle and was checked less than a week before it broke and passed inspection. please look into ball joint issues for ford explorers and keep something like this from happening again. a picture of the vehicle is below. please contact me for more information if needed. http://oi59.tinypic.com/t658xd.jpg. *tr