Had to change the front wheel bearing on the Corolla. So I decided to get the Moog knuckle assembly (Made in China, sigh) instead of messing around with getting just the wheel bearing and have to find a shop to press in/out. While I was in there, I figured I’ll replace the ball joint too since it’s been on the car since it rolled out at NUMMI 180k miles ago.
I did some reading through forums and general consensus was that Delphi ball joints held up well and are made in Turkey vs. buying a made in China Moog ball joint. But RA being RA was shipping both of these from different warehouses. I wasn’t thrilled with the shipping costs but whatever.
Took a half day at work and torn into the car. Rust and salt over the years did a number on the castle nuts. It was a bear to get the tie rod nut off but the one that holds the old ball joint to the knuckle is ON. I mean I doused that sucker in PB blaster for 3 hours and probably hit it with an impact for a total of about 30 mins across the 3 hours. Didn’t budge a bit. Reason why I was trying to salvage that castle nut was because the one that came with the new Delphi has a GIANT washer pre cast into the castle nut. So it won’t clear the knuckle by a big margin. Like how does a tier 1 bench mark an OE product and then screw up the easiest part of it by adding an unnecessary modification??? I’ve done plenty of competitive benchmarking and never have I had engineers go around and add features/material in close space areas.
I used the super wonderful RA return system which in the last decade + I’ve used them - they have been good about giving me a partial refund for small stuff like this. I punched in my $6 partial refund request and viola, RA says return the part to get my refund. With their warehousing allocations, increased shipping costs and asinine return system - I think I’m just going to use Amazon for small stuff and curtail my RA spending to just the big and/or critical stuff. They certainly seem to have regressed in my books since 2012 when I first started using them.
I’m beat - all that effort was for nothing. Sorry I ranted, I was hoping the simple task would truly be simple for once. But whatever, hopefully the part is ready for pick up tomorrow and I’ll be able to get her back on the road.
Outside of my rant, for anyone with a Gen9 Corolla/Gen 1 Matrix/Gen 1 Vibe - get the complete Moog knuckle assembly and just get the Moog ball joint. Photos online show the Moog ball joint having the same castle nut as Toyota without the integrated giant washer. Makes for an easy job at minimal extra spend over a bearing press in/out job.
I did some reading through forums and general consensus was that Delphi ball joints held up well and are made in Turkey vs. buying a made in China Moog ball joint. But RA being RA was shipping both of these from different warehouses. I wasn’t thrilled with the shipping costs but whatever.
Took a half day at work and torn into the car. Rust and salt over the years did a number on the castle nuts. It was a bear to get the tie rod nut off but the one that holds the old ball joint to the knuckle is ON. I mean I doused that sucker in PB blaster for 3 hours and probably hit it with an impact for a total of about 30 mins across the 3 hours. Didn’t budge a bit. Reason why I was trying to salvage that castle nut was because the one that came with the new Delphi has a GIANT washer pre cast into the castle nut. So it won’t clear the knuckle by a big margin. Like how does a tier 1 bench mark an OE product and then screw up the easiest part of it by adding an unnecessary modification??? I’ve done plenty of competitive benchmarking and never have I had engineers go around and add features/material in close space areas.
I used the super wonderful RA return system which in the last decade + I’ve used them - they have been good about giving me a partial refund for small stuff like this. I punched in my $6 partial refund request and viola, RA says return the part to get my refund. With their warehousing allocations, increased shipping costs and asinine return system - I think I’m just going to use Amazon for small stuff and curtail my RA spending to just the big and/or critical stuff. They certainly seem to have regressed in my books since 2012 when I first started using them.
I’m beat - all that effort was for nothing. Sorry I ranted, I was hoping the simple task would truly be simple for once. But whatever, hopefully the part is ready for pick up tomorrow and I’ll be able to get her back on the road.
Outside of my rant, for anyone with a Gen9 Corolla/Gen 1 Matrix/Gen 1 Vibe - get the complete Moog knuckle assembly and just get the Moog ball joint. Photos online show the Moog ball joint having the same castle nut as Toyota without the integrated giant washer. Makes for an easy job at minimal extra spend over a bearing press in/out job.
