does an unloaded balljoint need to be replaced?, want to disprove my friends pseudo logic Options

[enderswift]

hey everyone

heres the context,

I took apart my drivers side wheel to remove a dust ring that was making alot of noise. While i was taking things apart, i had to seperate the lower balljoint from the lower control arm in order to slide the cv from the hub. My buddy says that once a ball joint has been unloaded, like mine, it has to be replaced. I completely ignored this, put things together, and went about my life for a few weeks.... until my car started to make a sound every time i would accelerate a little more agressively. It almost sounds like somethings is loose... i cant explain it through a post so im not going to try. Has anyone ever heard of this whole balljoint thing??

[enderswift]

So i was feeling alot better the other day and decided to finally get things apart. as soon as i got the wheel off it was obvious, both the ball joint and tie rod end were leaking grease. when a week earlier they were both fine. how did this happen? i dont know. The passanger side is perfectly fine but the drivers side is leaking. So maybe taking things apart can do more harm than good sometimes...

Im guessing the balljoint and tie rod were really beat to hell from the couple times i wheel hopped accidentally and all the potholes that chicago is famous for. So taking things apart was probably the last straw. Both parts are still pretty tight so im guessing if i fix the tears and pack some more grease in there i should be good until i buy some replacements. Will it still make that annoying noise on acceleration? probably. but theres not much i can do about it now