Failed SPC Ball Joint WWYD

I take immaculate care of my truck typically. Anything that I know needs fixed I fix and anything I think is due for maintenance, I maintain and if there is a missing part I add it. That said I think I got lucky today. I was backing out of my garage today and this happened. I’ve had this truck for 1.5 years and the upper control arms are one of the few things I haven’t replaced. The previous owner put these

$696 SPC 25470 SPC Specialty Products TACOMA UCA's (PAIR) 25470

SPC 25470 controls arms and ball joints on between 2 and 3 years ago. If these were greasable I would have greased them. Even though I’m not the orginal purchaser of these do you think I have a case for free replacements? I imagine things could have gone worse if this happened on the highway rather than my driveway.

 

Sucks yes.... but no noises before failure?

I've had 2 but recalls in past years not toyota of course all made noises which I noticed before failure

 

When I had my frame replaced last September I had asked Toyota to replace any ball joints and Ujoints that needed replaced. The frame installation automatically included the lower ball joints but the only other thing they ended up replacing was the very rear Ujoint plus they did an alignment so after that I never even second guessed them even though I should have. Thanks for recommendations. Going to use this as an opportunity to replace anything in the steering and front suspension that hasn’t been replaced to my knowledge.

 

I would like to know as well. I had some older ones in my truck, and I just swapped them for the new style greaseable joints. My old ojoints had a small amount of vertical play, but I never felt anything.

 

Lucky that didn't pop out at speed on the freeway. Looks like the ball just pulled out of the socket, it also looks to be dry as hell.

 

I warrantied mine. Luckily it was only popping. You need a receipt and they are strict about being in warranty. With that said, it's only $100 for a new set of greasable ball joints from SPC. Just buy em if you dont have a receipt or are out of the warranty period.

 

Mine where popping and loose when I ran the old ones. I'm very surprised you didn't hear or feel it. Alignment would have been impossible.

Like stated buy some of the newer designed ball joints and check them periodically for movement.

 

Well,
It's a grim reminder that regular inspection is important. One nice thing about greaseable parts is that every so often you are right there looking at them. You can grab them and give them a wiggle. All this non servicable stuff just encourages you to forget about it,...till this happens.

 

Well deserved or not, SPC is sending me a replacement kit and I am thankful for that. I will get those replaced and while everything is apart I will do sway bar links and outer tie rods.

 

Great news. SPC generally has very good customer service. They didn't owe you a replacement under their warranty, but it is really nice to see them step up, because they did have a bad batch of joints at one time.

 

gdamn... those were HORRIBLY mis maintained ball joints. Looks like they were simply never greased.... no wonder why they failed.

 

Send those guys some beer!

And glad to hear everything worked out

 

Non-greaseable joints. His new ones are greaseable

 

I have "non greaseable" ones and they show no signs of wear or oxidation like that. I take the boots off every 2 years and pack em with grease, they move around smooth as butter.

I am fairly certain Even in their instructions of the "non grease able" (aka just dont have a zerk fitting) joints they say to clean and pack them with grease every so often.

Either way glad SPC did ya a solid.

 

In my opinion it is not reasonable to ask people to disassemble their front end to grease it. SPC had the same BS with their bushings. Rather than fix it, they said to take it apart every so often and grease it. That is right up there with having to unbolt the motor mounts and lift the engine to change spark plugs (Pontiac Fiero). I call bullshit on all of that nonsense. I had several discussions with them about that, and ended up re-engineering mine to never need greasing. I shared that design with them, but they never replied. Now they have re-designed the bushings I am told, with a greaseable feature. I have not seen them, but glad to hear it..

 

I'll just second the fact that I've had amazing customer service with SPC.

 

Good plan. To their credit, bushings and ball joints are very reasonably priced. So if you're not running SPC now, what are you running?

 

good to know!