Ball Joints

[carkhz316]

Hey, where do you guys go for lower control arm ball joints, or tie rod ends. Would you go with any ebay specials. Otherwise, rockauto.com has their el-cheapos for like 10 to 20 bucks. Suggestions welcomed.

[Hairdo12]

everyone will say moog ball joints, but I say the $30 duralast from autozone are perfect. Lifetime warranty and working great for me.

[cutty]

I got a moog one from rockauto for like $50 shipped

[rockfangd]

i think i got mine from ebay like 5 years ago lol. still tight, surprisingly because i live in utica lol (seriously it is bad)

[Andrew]

IIRC the cheapos on rockauto are spicer, and they are just fine.

[White93z34]

everyone will say moog ball joints, but I say the $30 duralast from autozone are perfect. Lifetime warranty and working great for me.

 

they are GREAT unless you like replacing them every 2 years or less. I have them presently, am on my second set. the first ones failed to the point of being dangerously unsafe. never again. next time around i'm going to get either; moog, spicer, or TRW based on which I can find for the best pricce.

[BXX]

Grease them and you wont have an issue.. 90% of AutoZones chassis parts aside from full control arms and stab links are left over Dana/Spicer parts, and believe it or not, TRW and Moog!!!

 

AZ Duralast and Valucraft are no different. Same part. Trust me.

[old442man]

I put cheap ones in the first time around, I went with Moog the second time, like someone else said as long as you can grease them they should be fine. Especially with all of the salt and sand that we have up here.

[BXX]

Yes... But remember something else. Ws are prolly the worst vehicles when it comes to ball joint and tie rod failure.. This is of course, excluding trucks and vans..

 

These cars just chew through ball joints and tie rods no matter what brand you have. But proper greasing everytime an oil change is done will make them live quite a bit longer

[carkhz316]

Sweet. Thanks for the info and suggestions guys!

[5speedz34]

Make sure you get a good brand name part. Moog is a good one and make sure you grease it with some quality grease every oil change.

[GutlessSupreme]

Stay away from ebay stuff, most of them don't even have a name on them and it's a bunch of Chinese crap. I think GM ones from gmpartsdirect.com run about the same price as Moog ones.

[Brian P]

Yes... But remember something else. Ws are prolly the worst vehicles when it comes to ball joint and tie rod failure.. This is of course, excluding trucks and vans..

 

These cars just chew through ball joints and tie rods no matter what brand you have.

 

How do you come to that conclusion?

[BXX]

Yes... But remember something else. Ws are prolly the worst vehicles when it comes to ball joint and tie rod failure.. This is of course, excluding trucks and vans..

 

These cars just chew through ball joints and tie rods no matter what brand you have.

 

How do you come to that conclusion?

 

 

experience

[Crazy K]

AZ Duralast and Valucraft are no different. Same part. Trust me.

INCORRECT. I compared them several years ago. they are of a different design, and the design quality reflects the price. (unless they have changed now)

 

good parts can last the life of a car if you keep them lubricated properly. that said. Moog and TRW are my only way to go, now.

[BXX]

AZ Duralast and Valucraft are no different. Same part. Trust me.

INCORRECT. I compared them several years ago. they are of a different design, and the design quality reflects the price. (unless they have changed now)

 

good parts can last the life of a car if you keep them lubricated properly. that said. Moog and TRW are my only way to go, now.

 

Well, I worked for them starting about 3 years ago. And 95% of the time, they are the same product, in the same white box, but with different lables. Its quite common to find one that is a Valucraft with the Duralast label over the Valucraft one

 

I paid $80 for both balljoint, both inner, and both outer tie rods in Valucraft. They will last as long as any other one.. Why, because they get good grease every oil change

[Brian P]

Yes... But remember something else. Ws are prolly the worst vehicles when it comes to ball joint and tie rod failure.. This is of course, excluding trucks and vans..

 

These cars just chew through ball joints and tie rods no matter what brand you have.

 

How do you come to that conclusion?

 

 

experience

 

There are many other cars infinitely worse than the W-line. Off the top of my head, the Chrysler LH cars and GM's J and N-body. Nissan's are in that category too (Altimas, Sentras) In fact, of all the W's ever in my household, only one needed front balljoints. Ever. Tie rods would occasionally be replaced due to torn boots but that's it. Far from the "worst".

 

 

[BXX]

The Chrysler LH doesnt really have much of any ball joint issues. They do have huge fuckin issues with the damn inner tie rod.. Hell, I have aligning those too. They suck and the adjusters seize.

 

Yes, others have issues, but typically like on tie rods, or only ball joints. The Ws being so damn front heavy with what causes the issues with the entire front end. Not just one thing

[Brian P]

I haven't seen any common w-body front-end failures come in when I worked at a shop for 4 years. Actually, the only thing I'd see are 2nd-gen's crappy front hubs fail, and 1st gen rear brakes and struts. That's really it. Everything else was sporadic.

[BXX]

I haven't seen any common w-body front-end failures come in when I worked at a shop for 4 years. Actually, the only thing I'd see are 2nd-gen's crappy front hubs fail, and 1st gen rear brakes and struts. That's really it. Everything else was sporadic.

 

We see alot of W front end issues... Hell, outta all like 6 Ws I have owned, all of them needed all new front end parts as well...

[Brian P]

I had a different experience. All my cars:

 

Mother's '95 CS- Sold at 133k- needed nothing

Sister's '93 CS- Sold at 140k- needed front balljoints, car was prev. registered in the city for 10 years

My '90 CS- Junked at 212k- needed 1 inner tie rod at ~170k, did outers at the same time for fun. All else good

My '89 CS- Junked at 170k- needed nothing

My '95 CS- On the road 182K- needs nothing

Sister's '02 GPSE- On the road 108k- needs nothing

 

We have yearly NYS inspections and my guys used to always check safety items thoroughly. Other W-cars scattered between friends would need different parts but would all be high in mileage, usually 150k on up. Things will wear by then but I don't consider that an issue. The majority of the front-end work I saw were in the Chrysler LH cars and minivans, Ford trucks & SUV's, etc

[slick]

My GP didn't need a damn thing suspension wise, minus rear shocks.

 

The Z34 needed ball joints and tie rods, but was also pretty well abused and driven hard on MI roads. I'm sure that has a lot to do with it.

[Crazy K]

You guys need to remember one thing. a Cleveland area car is a car condemned to reap the wrath of God.

 

many of the parts that would last the life of a car in other areas have a short term life in cleveland. rough roads and road salt beat mercilessly on cars in the area.

 

example?

at the j/y in cleveland... i needed some miscellaneous rear suspension parts. Most of the GEN 1 W-bodys had non OEM struts installed, and some had new mounts at the top. my estimate is about 2/3 had replacement struts, and about 1/3 or those with new strtuts had the mounts replaced at the same time.

 

in most yards you would struggle to find 1 in 10 GEN 1 cars with non OEM struts.

[BXX]

You guys need to remember one thing. a Cleveland area car is a car condemned to reap the wrath of God.

 

many of the parts that would last the life of a car in other areas have a short term life in cleveland. rough roads and road salt beat mercilessly on cars in the area.

 

example?

at the j/y in cleveland... i needed some miscellaneous rear suspension parts. Most of the GEN 1 W-bodys had non OEM struts installed, and some had new mounts at the top. my estimate is about 2/3 had replacement struts, and about 1/3 or those with new strtuts had the mounts replaced at the same time.

 

in most yards you would struggle to find 1 in 10 GEN 1 cars with non OEM struts.

 

Not really the roads muchacho... Mansfield is worse, and most in the JYs are blown out OE... People in the Cleveland area actually upkeep on their cars and tend to have more cash. This is really evident in the Brunswick area where I live now. Im just like 10 miles from Cleveland

[Brian P]

Yeah the thing is if there was EVER something to complain about on the 1st gen w's, it's the rear struts & mounts. Even gently driven cars you can estimate about a 80-100k service life. The junkyards I frequent in PA rarely will have w's with OEM rear struts.