Napa Master Ride ball joints?

[Jimmy9190]

I need new upper and lower ball joints for the Dodge Dakota in my signature. I am not having much luck finding ball joints. We have the regular parts stores here, AAP, Auto Zone and Napa. There is an O'Reilly about 10 miles from here too. At all of the parts stores it is either super expensive Moog ball joints at about $90.00 each or it is the "lower line" such as Drive Works and Master Pro for about $50.00 for both upper and lower ball joints together. None of the stores have any type of middle grade price parts, it is all either super expensive or dirt cheap.

The Master Ride ball joints look to me to be the best out of all the lesser expensive ones. My local Napa stocks their Napa Chassis better quality parts but they have to be special ordered. I have heard Napa Chassis is really rebranded Raybestos Pro Grade but do not know if that is really true. Even Rock Auto does not list the Raybestos ball joints for my truck any more.

So does anyone know anything about the Napa Master Ride, are they any good and if not do you have a source where I could order a good ball joint at a middle grade price? I don't mind paying a little more for quality but $160.00 per pair for Moog at Advance is too much. I have also heard and read Moog is not so good any more, made in China with questionable quality now. Is there any ball joint that is made in the USA available anywhere?

If the Napa Master Ride is OK I will just buy those and support my local Napa store. They have some good people working there, older parts guys and it is the only parts store in town that does not blast obnoxious teeny bopper music so loud that you can't even hear yourself think. I try not to be judgmental of anyone but the local parts stores are becoming way too annoying.

Any help is appreciated. Thanks.

 

[exranger06]

Napa Master Ride is supposedly reboxed Moog. Napa Chassis parts are made by Dana/Spicer. I haven't been too blown away by the Master Ride quality. The Napa Chassis stuff is way better and worth the extra money. I just rebuilt my Bronco's whole front suspension and steering linkage using all Napa Chassis stuff.

 

[NHGUY]

Master Ride chassis is NAPAs economy line.Just like Tru Stop brakes and Regal Ride shocks.

 

[Jimzz]

I used the Raybestos Service grade ball joints on my 2007 Dakota. They are the same service grade sold at Napa and also ACDelco Advantage. They are made by BAW out of Taiwan.

One of the better Asian ball joints out there. Just make sure to use a good chassis grease like Schaeffer 238, JetLube 202, or CRC Moly-Graph.

 

[gpguy]

I put Napa Master Ride lower balljoints in my 1989 Grande Marquis and they were ok. If I remember right they were 1/2 the price of moogs. You could tell why when you looked at both side by side. It was a second vehicle though and probably only had 15000 km on them when I parked it. I am religious with the grease gun and they were still tight at that time.


I was told that pretty much all the "white box" offshore parts are pretty much the same. They are all made to the same low spec and and in the same "white box" with just different names stenciled on.

 

[AandPDan]

Check Amazon. They were 1/2 what Advance and Autozone wanted for the same parts. I just did the upper ball joints in my Dakota last week, $40 per side for Moog and free shipping. Rockauto was about the same.

 

[Olas]

Are poly mounts available? If not, would you consider rose joints?

 

[Jarlaxle]

Rock Auto lists Moog for $45 each.

 

[Kool1]

In my CRV I had Moog ball joints which went about 50,000 miles until one developed looseness. I then installed XRF ball joints (made in Taiwan) only to develop memory steer for the first 5,000 miles. After 5,000 miles I started having a light squeak from the drivers ball joint when the vehicle was first moved each morning. I now have Beck/Arnley ball joints made in Turkey. So far, so good. The Beck/Arnley ball joints have only been on for about 3,000 miles but there is no memory steer, no looseness and no unusual noises. I wish I could buy OEM Honda ball joints but they don't make replacements for my CRV without purchasing the complete knuckle assembly.

 

[Bluestream]

Rockauto and delivered to your door...

 

[Merkava_4]

Moog Problem Solver is the way to go. Excellent suspension parts.

 

[The Critic]

Moog upper/lower joints are $45/ea from RockAuto.
Raybestos/Spicer are $55/ea from RockAuto.

Why should you support vendors that do not provide competitive pricing? Just order from RockAuto.

 

[Jimmy9190]

Thanks for all the info. I need to sleep on it I guess. I would rather buy local in case I need to do a warranty exchange. This is confusing since a lot of ball joints all have the same Moog part number. If I do go with Moog it is cheaper to just buy online from AAP and do two separate transactions with a $30.00 off $75.00 discount code on each to offset the shipping charges. Thanks again for your help.

 

[buck91]

Its been a while since I replaced ball joints... Last time you could still get TRW with lifetime warranty at local places.

Sorry, I'm no help apparently.

 

[Jimmy9190]

When I replaced my OEM ball joints back in January of 2010 I bought TRW lower ball joints at AAP. I did not use any discount codes, paid $52.99 each, with a lifetime warranty. Advance does not sell TRW ball joints nowadays but I still have the receipt. It is faded but still fairly legible so I called the local AAP and the guy said they will give me full credit for the price of the TRW towards a new Moog Problem Solver lower ball joint. Oddly enough, the TRW now has a price of $62.00 in the AAP computer system which the AAP guy said they can allow the higher credit even though I only paid $52.99 on my original purchase. I can't ask for better customer service than that. A new lower Moog ball joint costs $82.00 at AAP but I will only have to pay the $20.00 difference for the better Moog part. None of the AAP stores here in my town have the lower ball joint in stock but the guy I talked to tonight did order one for me. Friday I will follow up with him and be sure they received it and Saturday morning I can remove the lower ball joint and run it up to the local AAP for exchange plus paying the $20.00 price difference.

When I did the ball joints back in 2010 I used Duralast uppers. I had read online that TRW made the Duralast parts for Autozone and also read that the uppers were not supposed to take the same amount of abuse as the lowers so I tried to save money by using the Duralast parts. Lesson learned. Autozone does not sell a bolt-in upper ball joint for my truck now, and even if they did I would not use another Duralast ball joint. So I just now bought a new Moog Problem Solver upper ball joint on the AAP web site with the WD46 $30.00 off $75.00 discount code so it cost me $52.00. I will pick up the upper one tomorrow after work at the AAP 20 miles from here near where I work. A total of $72.00 for two brand new Moog ball joints without waiting for shipping is a great deal. I think it is definitely worth the $22.00 difference between the lower line Master Ride/Master Pro parts and the Moog Problem Solvers. Hopefully everything will go as planned with the warranty exchange and paying the difference for Moog. Either way I have a good project lined up for Saturday.

Thanks everyone for your help on this.

 

[artificialist]

I have installed NAPA Master Ride suspension parts on numerous cars, and there were no early failures.

That in mind, I would still buy brand name suspension parts, just so I could do the job once and not have to think about it again for several years.

Rockauto is good, but when I did some repairs to mom's 2005 Jeep Grand Cherokee, everything was cheaper at Partsgeek.

 

[Jimmy9190]

I guess nothing ever really goes the way you plan. The store manager at the AAP where I planned to do the warranty exchange was much less than helpful when I wanted to just buy the Moog ball joint then come back later for a refund on the old TRW. Doing it that way would have made it a lot easier for me, I would not have had to stop in the middle of the job to go to AAP and it would have freed up my wife so she would not have had to stay home so I could use her car. The store manager would not give me a straight answer when I asked about that, kept saying "we will see what we can do, you may get a store credit" and really gave the impression he had no idea of the store policies concerning warranty exchanges. I returned the upper ball joint I ordered and told the store manager that I would not be needing the lower ball joint they ordered.

Last Saturday I went to NAPA and bought the Master Ride parts on sale, $42.00 for both ball joints together and a much more normal and pleasant experience in the store. I have yet to install the ball joints though, I had other things come up last weekend and may not have time to get to it today either. If I can not get it done tomorrow I am sure I can find time over the long Thanksgiving weekend. The Master Ride parts do look to be a good quality part and I really don't expect any trouble with them.