New ball joints bad out of the box

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Mar 15, 2013
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I bought new precision control arm/ball joint assemblies for the 01 Saturn sc1 I bought. Installed them which if anyone knows these cars the job can be a pain. Got all done and after driving the car less than 50 miles both ball joints have play. One has a lot and one has a little. I greased them when I installed them nuts are tight…. Just junk parts!! How aggravating. Anyone else have this experience with precision parts? Maybe I’ll have better luck with duralast parts 🤷‍♂️
 
I bought new precision control arm/ball joint assemblies for the 01 Saturn sc1 I bought. Installed them which if anyone knows these cars the job can be a pain. Got all done and after driving the car less than 50 miles both ball joints have play. One has a lot and one has a little. I greased them when I installed them nuts are tight…. Just junk parts!! How aggravating. Anyone else have this experience with precision parts? Maybe I’ll have better luck with duralast parts 🤷‍♂️
The passenger side ball joint on the Duralast control arms I installed was loose and rocking back and forth in the control arm, swapped it out with a new and no problems. Everybody makes bad parts every now and then, but to have both sides be bad I would not trust that brand again.
 
The ball joints are usually seated in a plastic socket which may be spring loaded in the joint to compensate for wear.
A common mistake is using an impact gun to install the self locking nuts. What can happen is the ball and stud spin so fast from the impact gun that the plastic socket actually melts. Happens a lot with sway bar end links.
Not saying that’s what you did, just throwing that out there.
 
What brand? On any job that takes a lot of labor, either oem GM if available, or AC Delco Professional.
Precision was the brand you cannot get oem for the car since the oem is defunct. 😔
 
The ball joints are usually seated in a plastic socket which may be spring loaded in the joint to compensate for wear.
A common mistake is using an impact gun to install the self locking nuts. What can happen is the ball and stud spin so fast from the impact gun that the plastic socket actually melts. Happens a lot with sway bar end links.
Not saying that’s what you did, just throwing that out there.
I installed it with a open end 18 mm wrench. Axle is in the way to put a socket or even a box end on it.
 
Its tough to keep these cars going now. I've owed several. My son has my 02 sc1 now. The is not a great supplier for things like suspenstion, engine mounts and strut mounts. I have some sachs strut mounts for his 02.

There are no oem and few good aftermarket sources for things like dog bone engine mounts and such.

I feel your pain.
 
Rock Auto has a bunch of them, including AC Delco Professional


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Its tough to keep these cars going now. I've owed several. My son has my 02 sc1 now. The is not a great supplier for things like suspenstion, engine mounts and strut mounts. I have some sachs strut mounts for his 02.

There are no oem and few good aftermarket sources for things like dog bone engine mounts and such.

I feel your pain.
Exactly right! I did have some poly bushings I pressed into the dog bone mounts so they should last a good long while!
 
I have used the a/c control arms, they work ok. One side came as a sealed unit, the other side had a grease nipple. Thats why i think they are reboxed like anything else.
 
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