Ball Joints - school me / help choose.

[SC Maintenance]

Well my beloved Xterra - which resides away from home these days, has upper ball joints leaking grease. Both sides. I guess too many pot holes. Nissan doesn't sell just the joint - they sell the entire control arm only. I will likely go that route at some point once I get this car back, but in the meantime I only have short windows to work on it so taking the path of least resistance. It needs to last one semester. No salt here, so I am hopeful the joints will come out easily. I have a proper press.

So here are my options.

Watched a mevotech video talking about Sinter metal joints rather than neoprene. There greasable, which I am OK with. I installed greasable u-joints years ago. Should I go with those? Or the cheap TRW. In the old days would probably have chosen Moog but those seem to be out of vogue?

 

[2strokeNorthstar]

All those are pretty lousy unfortunately. Can you get the Sankei 555? Those or OEM are all I use on Japanese cars

 

[GSCJR]

If there's no free play in the ball joints I would wait.

 

[edyvw]

TRW is now part of ZF. I am not sure whether price resembles quality, but on the BMW M3, TRW is a supplier of control arms and I have TRW M3 wishbones on my 328 in the back. Though, they re far more expensive than that.
So, my gut feeling would be TRW. Maybe @Trav has opinion?

 

[Nukeman7]

So here are my options.

Watched a mevotech video talking about Sinter metal joints rather than neoprene. There greasable, which I am OK with. I installed greasable u-joints years ago. Should I go with those? Or the cheap TRW. In the old days would probably have chosen Moog but those seem to be out of vogue?

Can you link the Mevotech video? I'm confused as to why they would compare the sintered metal ball to a neoprene boot. Contrary to some opinions on BITOG, I have used the Moog ball joints on several Honda vehicles with very satisfactory results. Those Moog joints were made in Japan or the U.S.

However, for your 2008 XTERRA, I highly suggest the SANKEI 555 ball joints from PartsGeek.

SANKEI 555 Upper Ball Joint

In any event, don't buy the low quality Mevotech ball joints w/blue boots or poor Suspensia parts.

 

[SC Maintenance]

If there's no free play in the ball joints I would wait.

Thats my plan, but I want to have parts on hand, JIC.

 

[SC Maintenance]

All those are pretty lousy unfortunately. Can you get the Sankei 555? Those or OEM are all I use on Japanese cars

Sinter metal bearing - not the boot.

 

[Nukeman7]

Sinter metal bearing - not the boot.

That makes sense now. Moog's premium Problem Solver line also has the sintered metal internals instead of the nylon polymer bushings. The Mevotech TTX line with the green boots are OK, but their Supreme line with the blue boots won't last.

 

[alcyon]

I used MOOG and its ok. I would also consider TRW.

 

[CleverUserName]

I just bought the TTX lower ball joints and Tie rod ends for my GMC canyon. They look look nice and well made. Will be installed soon, I will find out how long they last.

 

[The Critic]

All those are pretty lousy unfortunately. Can you get the Sankei 555? Those or OEM are all I use on Japanese cars

This. I despise greaseable ball joints and consider them to be a solution to a problem that never existed on light-duty applications.

555 is aftermarket but ok. They have a part # for this application -- SB4981. About $36/ea.

 

[Snagglefoot]

I have 35,000 miles on Mevotech Supreme upper control arms on a Silverado. No issues. It has a pinhole leak on one boot but the truck is on gravel roads a lot. Greasable ball joints. My greasable GM ball joints on my Burb have 265,000 miles on them.

 

[dlundblad]

What year is your Xterra? How do you like it?

A 2010-2015 seems like a decent replacement to my Blazer. Similar in size and fuel economy. They sell as reasonable prices too.

 

[ka9mnx]

Most uppers are sold that way now. I use Moog problem solvers in everything. Did my Ranger a couple of years ago and it wasn't hard. I did need a ball joint presser as Ford's are a press fit.

 

[SC Maintenance]

What year is your Xterra? How do you like it?

A 2010-2015 seems like a decent replacement to my Blazer. Similar in size and fuel economy. They sell as reasonable prices too.

Best vehicle I have ever owned by a long shot. Now at 410,000 miles.

2005 to 2015 are almost the same, with a few nuances. 2011-2015 are generally considered the best as they have some bugs worked out. Same powertrain as Frontier until 2019 so parts availability is still good. If you want the whole run down by year PM me.

 

[Trav]

Out of that lot I would buy the TRW, it is a good price for that part, the downside is it is greasable, if you don't mind that its no problem. SANKEI 555 would be my choice overall if no OE is available.

 

[IveBeenRued]

I installed Mevotech Supreme upper and lower control arms on a 2013 Ford C-Max. Still going strong after 130K miles. Outlasted the junk Motorcraft parts which lasted 25K. I’ve also installed their TTX line of parts in my F-150 but only have a few thousand miles on them; they do seem like higher quality.

 

[dfarr67]

I'd keep looking around- RA isn't the only game. But of the brands listed I would order the TRW.

 

[Rand]

I have no helpful info that hasn't been posted but I did get a laugh out of dorman being a premium option over those.

AAP sells the sankei 555 for 39

 

[D60]

In any event, don't buy the low quality Mevotech ball joints w/blue boots or poor Suspensia parts.

I found this on an '04 Ranger the other day. The other side was a black boot. I told him I don't know what it is, but it's definitely aftermarket.

So many of these aftermarket booted products might have "ok" internals but apparently producing quality rubber, neoprene or plastic eludes us. It feels like building a decent house then deciding to go cheap with a straw roof.

In this case there was no play and we don't get salted roads. I told him he can certainly wait until it gets sloppy.