Ball joint quality?

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I've taken to using the Dana/Spicer stuff, which is very heavy duty.

The problem is that it is hard to find unless you know where to look. It is sold at NAPA as their premium (and expensive) line, and at RockAuto under the Raybestos brand, which is affordable.

Edit - I see Kaboomba already posted this. At any rate, he's right!
 
Let us know how they do. They have to be better than the worn out ones..............For a while anyway.
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Years ago I bought a complete front end rebuild kit from JCWhitney for a car I had. Both lower ball joints pulled out of the sockets within 6 months. The 1st I thought was a fluke. It broke at the Mall.

The 2nd broke just a few weeks later @ about 40 mph.
 
No one around here has TRW's in stock. I simply can not afford $225.00 for a set of Moog ball joints. I figure these OEM brand ones should last at least for 75,000 to 100,000 miles. They look to be of good quality. If they were such total garbage, AAP wouldn't be able to sell them. I really don't think AAP would want to ruin their name and reputation by selling inferior parts, nor would they want to take on the legal issues that would come from selling faulty suspension parts. And by the way, the $54.00 ball joints on the Autozone web site have exactly the same part number and look exactly the same as the $38.00 ones I bought yesterday. The Napa brake rotors I bought the other day looked exactly like the same rotors I had to get from AAP when I found problems with one of the Napa rotors. The only difference was the label on the box. One said Napa and one said Advance Auto Parts. And both boxes said "Made in China". I'll try these OEM brand ball joints out and if they do turn out to be junk then I'll exhange them for TRW's. They do carry a one year warranty.
 
I must interject, the brand you are likely getting is "OE", no "M".

I do have faith in our legions of trial lawyers, keeping unsafe stuff off the shelves with fear of lawsuits. So I figure your issue will just be quick wear. My "OE" LCA/ball joint lasted 35k miles, FWIW. Then started doing a weird thing when I was turning right strongly, changing my angle even sharper. Tugging, prying inspection uncovered nothing but replacement fixed the issue.
 
Well if they last 35K then that's 3 years for the amount of driving I do. I will have gotten my money's worth out of them, and I may not even be driving this same truck by then anyway. Right now this is the best I can do.
 
I used to be in the "TRW or Moog" camp. I've had enough issues with TRW to simply just say "Moog" now.

If you can't spare the extra cash, go with TRW. Personally, I would find a way to get the cash for a Moog part, but that's just me.

Stay away from Chinese manufacturers. Unless of course, you enjoy doing ball joints once a year. I take it the Chinese ones come with a lifetime warranty too? Good, you'll use it again and again.
 
Did you check out the price of your ball joints at Rock Auto Parts ? Sometimes they have good prices on their stuff and a lot of it is brand name parts .
 
Originally Posted By: 97f150
TRW or Moog. The chinese cant even make childrens toys correctly, I for one will not trust them to keep my steering in tact and wheels on my car. Gamble with safety for the sake of a few $$ if you want to, not this cowboy.


+1
 
When I started driving back when I was 15, my Dad told me something that I still remember to this day.

He said "Only two things really matter... You have to be able to steer it and stop it".
 
I am almost sorry I started this post. However, I am convinced that everybody who is advising against using these OE brand Chinese ball joints can't be wrong. I keep hearing too many bad things about them to feel good about using them. So, I'll take them back to AAP, return them and pay the difference for a set of TRW's. I didn't get to the job this weekend like I had planned anyway, some other things came up around the house. So if AAP doesn't have TRW's in stock I will have time for them to order them in for me. $40.00 more is not that much of a difference for peace of mind. Anybody know if TRW's are made in the USA?
 
IIRC my TRW LCA from a few years back had a nifty
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flag wrapped around it.

In your app I was suprised by the price difference, usually the "OE" brand stuff is 1/2 the price or less than TRW.

Incidentally AA brick & mortar stores are real good about price matching, even against internet competition. I had them make my $34 rotors $23 like their own website sold them for. So print out a rockauto page on the TRW part when you go in.
 
Rock Auto does not list a TRW ball joint for my truck, but they do show the Moog parts for about $58.00 each. If AAP will match the price on Moogs, fine. Otherwise I'll just get a set of TRW's. Thanks for the help.
 
Originally Posted By: Jimmy9190
I am almost sorry I started this post. However, I am convinced that everybody who is advising against using these OE brand Chinese ball joints can't be wrong. I keep hearing too many bad things about them to feel good about using them. So, I'll take them back to AAP, return them and pay the difference for a set of TRW's. I didn't get to the job this weekend like I had planned anyway, some other things came up around the house. So if AAP doesn't have TRW's in stock I will have time for them to order them in for me. $40.00 more is not that much of a difference for peace of mind. Anybody know if TRW's are made in the USA?


USA is a good place to get reliable parts, but its not even about the country of origin.

The brand OE is known for garbage products, I have broken many of their products before. Just go witha good reliable brand regardless of what country it was made in. As long as it is reliable and quality.

EDIT: With the exception of mexico and china of course.
 
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your original parts lasted a good long time, why not replace them with the identical factory part sourced from your local dodge dealers parts counter???? Seems like a no-brainer and takes the guessing out of the equation, no? Whats a few extra dollars spent upfront on a known quality part if history has proven to you that they last a long, long life??????
 
Originally Posted By: qship1996
your original parts lasted a good long time, why not replace them with the identical factory part sourced from your local dodge dealers parts counter???? Seems like a no-brainer and takes the guessing out of the equation, no? Whats a few extra dollars spent upfront on a known quality part if history has proven to you that they last a long, long life??????


Most of the time, the Moog parts are better than the manufacturer ones. And sometimes, the part you get from the dealer parts counter IS a Moog part with an OEM part # on it.
 
I just put a set of Moog upper and lower ball-joints on my F150 last week. I am impressed with them, which 9 times out of 10 I can't say for an aftermarket part.

The Moog upper control arm and ball joint was actually quite a bit larger than the factory piece, which surprised me. Grease fittings on everything is nice too.
 
Originally Posted By: Ben99GT
I just put a set of Moog upper and lower ball-joints on my F150 last week. I am impressed with them, which 9 times out of 10 I can't say for an aftermarket part.

The Moog upper control arm and ball joint was actually quite a bit larger than the factory piece, which surprised me. Grease fittings on everything is nice too.


Yup, I have a Moog upper control arm/ball joint assembly on the passenger side of the Expy and it is definitely bigger than the OEM Ford one that is on the drivers side.
 
Originally Posted By: qship1996
your original parts lasted a good long time, why not replace them with the identical factory part sourced from your local dodge dealers parts counter???? Seems like a no-brainer and takes the guessing out of the equation, no? Whats a few extra dollars spent upfront on a known quality part if history has proven to you that they last a long, long life??????


Because you can't buy ball joints from Dodge. The lower ball joints are riveted in place on the lower control arm. Same for the upper ball joint. Dodge only sells the entire LCA as an assembly. Aftermarket LCA's run about $250.00 per side, I would hate to see what they cost at the dealer. But I can drill out the rivets and install aftermarket ball joints with nuts and bolts. The aftermarket ball joints also include a grease fitting, 4 nuts and 4 bolts, plus a new castellated nut and cotter pin for the threaded end of the ball joint.
 
BITOGer solidarity moment!!!

BITOGer's don't let BITOGer's install bargain-price Chinese [censored] in critical areas of their vehicles!

I'm glad you chose the MOOG or TRW.

I once installed a Chinese-made front wheel bearing, carefully making sure I did enverything right, only to have the thing grind itself into chunky peanut-butter 20K later. I still have it in a box, and I show it to friends just to show them that there are a few things that really ARE worth paying extra for.

K

P.S. All the best on your balljoint replacement project!
 
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