Balljoonts keep failing

jayboy1015 · #1 03-01-2012, 10:46 AM

I have the duralast control arm (w/ ball joint) and lower ball joints. They seem to keep failing, but they are lifetime warranted, so I just bring them back and get more. But it's a pain in the a$$ and I'm getting sick of doing it already. Done it twice and about to be a third time in 60k miles or so. Does anyone else have this problem?

Any recommendations on better ball joints? I checked out the KYB outlet, they have good prices, but I've never heard of them. Do they stand by their product? Will it last longer than the duralast? I can't find their warrantee information on the site.

Any help?

Jayboy -Sent from my iPhone using FRF App

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And yes, balljoonts. Lol stupid fat figures on my iPhone. You all know I meant balljoints.

Jayboy -Sent from my iPhone using FRF App

RoberticusMaximus · #2 03-01-2012, 01:03 PM

would it void the warranty if you tapped them and put zerk grease fittings in them?

jayboy1015 · #3 03-01-2012, 01:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by robertmcclure

would it void the warranty if you tapped them and put zerk grease fittings in them?

What's funny is that the lower, and drivers side upper ball joints have grease fittings. The passenger side upper does not. Guess which one keeps failing.. Id assume altering it would void the warrantee.

Jayboy -Sent from my iPhone using FRF App

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In addition - even the ones with grease fittings dont last much longer. So I change them all out together.

Jayboy -Sent from my iPhone using FRF App

RoberticusMaximus · #4 03-01-2012, 02:24 PM

somebody found non-greasable upper control arms on partsgeek.com for less than $40 each. i'm waiting until he gives some feedback on them. i thnk it's silverick

jayboy1015 · #5 03-02-2012, 02:02 AM

Seems pretty silly to me to not be greasable, but hey it's not like I'm an engineer for an aircraft company

Jayboy -Sent from my iPhone using FRF App

SPless · #6 03-02-2012, 02:06 AM

Scrap the duracrap, and get moog balljoints. I have about 65k of beating the crap out of mine for over 4 years, and haven't had a single problem out of mine

jayboy1015 · #7 03-02-2012, 04:39 AM

Moog huh? Thanks for the tip. I'll check them out.

And yeah, duracrap is right!!!

Jayboy -Sent from my iPhone using FRF App

pooleo · #8 03-02-2012, 04:50 AM

you have your t-bars cranked? that can put extreme pressure on the BJ. And be honest, do you beat your truck? I have put duralast part in alot of my stuff, never had any issues.

jayboy1015 · #9 03-03-2012, 12:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pooleo

you have your t-bars cranked? that can put extreme pressure on the BJ. And be honest, do you beat your truck? I have put duralast part in alot of my stuff, never had any issues.

T-bar? Are you talking about the sway bar?

As far as beating it. I don't beat it at all. Occasionally I'll drive more aggressively to have fun in the snow, but nothing extreme.

Jayboy -Sent from my iPhone using FRF App

SPless · #10 03-03-2012, 01:36 AM

He's talking about the torsion bars, just asking if you cranked them up for a little lift. It will put the balljoint at a more extreme angle possibly causing premature failure.

I personally prefer MOOG. They are more expensive (nearly 50 a piece) but do come with the limited lifetime warranty, and are built better. I have seen cut-aways of MOOG, TRW, and offbrands, and the main difference noted are that TRW and some other brands use nylon pivot cups for the actual ball to pivot on whereas MOOG uses metal. So in theory, as long as you keep them greased, they won't wear out. But we all know how theory goes. I do know that on one of my ex-coworkers '97 F250 he went through two TRW's in a month but has about 20k miles on a moog

xpbprox · #11 03-03-2012, 01:40 AM

ROCKAUTO.com has awesome prices, I just got all new ball joints from them

jayboy1015 · #12 03-03-2012, 12:39 PM

Oh yeah (I'm a dummy)... And the answer is no I haven't cranked the torsion bars. I haven't touched it.

Is it possible that the torsion bar is worn and needs to be replaced? And because it's worn, the ball joints are failing???

Jayboy -Sent from my iPhone using FRF App

SPless · #13 03-04-2012, 01:04 AM

How many miles are on the truck? It is a possibility that they are worn which would cause "sag" but I'm not sure if they would sag enough to cause balljoint problems. A friend of mine had his maxed out (cranked all the way up) and he still got ~20k miles before he started having bj problems with some pretty hard thrasing of the truck thrown in there

jayboy1015 · #14 03-04-2012, 11:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SPless

How many miles are on the truck? It is a possibility that they are worn which would cause "sag" but I'm not sure if they would sag enough to cause balljoint problems. A friend of mine had his maxed out (cranked all the way up) and he still got ~20k miles before he started having bj problems with some pretty hard thrasing of the truck thrown in there

Like 170k on the truck. Maybe 15k on the ball joints.

Jayboy -Sent from my iPhone using FRF App

DiRT__ · #15 03-05-2012, 10:28 AM

Just replaced all of mine with MOOG. Got them at O'Reillys