Ball Joints - Mevotech

Is anyone here familiar with or do they have experience with these ball joints made by the Canadian firm Mevotech. The TTX appears to be their top of the line ball joint and the product information reads well so I thought it would be useful to post this information here because I'm currently purchasing parts to rebuild the front end of our son's 2016 SR5.

https://www.mevotech.com/parts-resu...oyota&model=Tacoma&submodel=SR5&drivetype=4WD

Let me know what you think of these or alternatives I should consider. I plan to life the truck 2"-3" by next June so I need to make sure I get excellent ball joints.

 

I would avoid them. I ran them on my truck and they lasted less than 90 days before the boots cleanly detached from the top of the shell causing me to have to replace them again.

Long story short, surprisingly my local toyota dealer had a hookup for OEM ball joints which are "555 Senkei" instead of only the whole arm. 80$ a ball joint and we're back to good.

I also installed them on a Ram 1500 and F150. The Ram ball joint wouldn't seat the stud into the knuckle enough to allow the boot to contact it and actually seal the joint. Around 2 more rounds of that including myself and the service advisor separately verifying the part number to be correct we gave up, warrantied them and went OEM. The F150, the boots split after 2 months and upon inspection you could see on the remaining section of boot that it was dry rot in the creases. So not cut.

I would recommend OEM or atleast not the TTX line. Preferably at the least get a ball joint where the boot is retained via a mechanical method such as a wire to the shell. Not just "pressed on" or glued on

 

Thanks @joba27n you have saved me no end of grief with your reply. OEM made sense but I could not locate them on any of the wholesale Toyota parts websites so I may call direct to see what I can learn about them or the '555 Sankei.'

I guess I should add that I mentioned the TTX because it should be their top ball joint in view of the cost. The 'Supreme' should be a step down from the TTX.

Edit - I see no indication that the Gen3 ball joints are available from Toyota in any form other than w/the control arms.

 

I have called a couple of Toyota dealers to see if the Gen3 OEM ball joints are available for purchase w/o the control arm but had to leave messages. I di make progress in finding sources for the '555 Sankei' upper & lower ball joints on ebay. Here are the url's for 'Japan Import Parts' for my SR5 on ebay. Both are ~$60/each:

Upper
https://www.ebay.com/itm/1259726728...2uYpXVUPT33xYU5xOvWSDetik=|tkp:Bk9SR-6X34PCZA

Lower
https://www.ebay.com/itm/1255828808...8062306471&itmmeta=01J883S3DZYK4E7989KBVEP5F9

 

Is this the way to go? I'm just looking into either replacing the ball joint or getting the whole LCA... Would rather save money and change the ball joint...

 

@Afilao - Yes, replace the ball joints alone is your control arms are fine. Check the mileage on your bushing too. You can rent a good ball joint press that features the correct size adapter from Advance Auto and perhaps NAPA. The other stores lack the right ball joint press kit. Buy one if you intend to keep your Tacoma a long time.

 

Ya TTX is supposed to be their top of the line and combined with mevotech being "Canadian" and them being the factory joints for GM when I was there, I figured they'd be solid. I've never seen a Greasable GM ball joint fail that was greased regularly with a decent grease. The fancy heavy duty knurling on the outside of the joint didn't even leave a scratch in the control arm bore of my truck. Just completely mushroomed flattened (which I guess is the best case scenario as I feared they would punch out the bores and not be able to accept other ball joint securely).

That is also correct. Technically Toyota only sells the whole control arm and not just the ball. My local dealer technically sold it to me as a aftermarket part and told me that they only used them for out of warranty repairs. If Toyota didn't supply it, a part can't be used to replace another under warranty at the dealership. Altrom was the supplier on the box I believe and they said apparently Napa also sold them. This was Noral Toyota in Fort McMurray if that helps.

 

This was the box they came in with the part number for a 3rd gen if that helps

 

@joba27n - Thanks for the box label info. It should help me confirm my order.

 

Sankai 555 are NOT OEM parts...simply a japanese aftermarket company. They are nowhere near the quality level of OE toyota parts.

 

Mevotech is not OE on anything...they're made in China on a dedicated line in a factory that produces all measures of garbage for the aftermarket (I was the product manager for an aftermarket chassis parts supplier for a while...we bought some of our economy line from this factory)

 

Can the OEM be purchased?

 

Might come with the whole control arm, but yes..should be available at the dealer.

 

Just a thought I myself will have to look into sooner or later. What are the long arm travel fabricators using as ball joints? First thought is they may have addressed this issue ad nauseam. Don’t know if they use the same dimensions.

 

I concluded this after finding another thread discussing the Sankei ball joints. Not the best news so I'll need to evaluate aftermarket suspension manufacturer control arms to learn what they choose. It appears identifying a good ball joint is going to take effort.

Edit - I should have written...'I suspected this...'

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/2965876427...djhmDEgvGzLy0EJVk8yekT1gWA==|tkp:BFBM9uf0_8Nk

 

Just put these mevotech ttx on my 2019 trd offroad a week ago and I recommend not putting anymore then two to three pumps of grease and they should hold up...I swelled the boot up with grease to about what the factory balljoints I took looked like and the boots leaked alot of grease oit of bottom and the grease nipple but didn't compromise the boot

 

@Revelations - Thanks. I ordered a set.

 

It takes no effort at all, buy OEM.

 

They're using whatever. An OEM ball joint should last 150K miles minimum with relatively normal usage.....you can't expect but a fraction of that service life out of anything aftermarket.