1st Gen R53 Cooper S Can a ball joint break without other part failure?

Ok, here's the question. A friend of mine with an 03 cooper s had her steering rack and PS pump replaced a couple of weeks ago, and 4 days later someone hit her on the drivers side as they were turning right from the left hand lane. She was on their left. Car was repaired, but now that it's at the alignment shop who did her steering work, they say the passenger ball joint is bad and can't align it.

Insurance company says the accident was on the other side, and they won't cover it. And that in 15 years the adjuster has never seen this. Especially since nothing else on that side is broken. He contends its just age and wear.

I contend that she was likely pushed into the curb and the ball joint, being the weakest point in the system broke. A lot like if your shoulder (which is a ball joint) can pop of of its socket without breaking your collar bone or arm bone, seems that your ball joint can fail without a control arm failure.

Regardless, the shop says that he could align it 4 days prior to the accident, no problem. And the car only has 300 more miles on it since then, 50 of which were between the accident and the shop.

So, what say you? Thanks

 

inner




and yes, she is fighting them. They've been challenging the entire time.