Have to get both replaced, but I'm going to do one this week and the other in a couple of weeks after pay day. Both have a lot of play in them so which should I do first? If they go out on me while driving, it could prove to be a very bad thing but what usually goes out on cars easier or quicker...ball joints or bearings?

 

In my experience a ball joint failure is more sudden and more catastrophic, not that a wheel bearing failure is pleasant. Usually the wheel bearing will make progressively more noise before failing, to the point that it's no surprise. When the ball joint goes it just goes and you have a jacked up fender and often times much more damage due to the tire flipping sideways and putting a lot of stress on things. That's assuming that you aren't going fast enough to wreck catastrophically.