Anyone experience premature wear on SPC ball joints?

I was changing a cv axle today and noticed passenger SPC ball joint (grease fitting so new updated) had a lot of play in it. So I decided to check driver side and it had about the same slop in it. There not fixing to fall off, but with less than 20,000 miles on them and less than a year old, I would have expected them to last way longer than this. I’m really concerned with purchasing a replacement pair of ball joints from them, or ditching SPC altogether and going a different route with another brand. Is my setup too stiff with 700 lb springs, bilstein 6100’s with a 3/8 top plate. Lots of weight on the front with winch and bumper. Anyway, I thought these were supposed to Have a reputation as the toughest and longest lasting. Before you ask, they get greased every time I fill up the tank, so lack of grease is not the problem, now too much may be, but I’ve never heard of too much grease. The cups were in tact, full of grease. Just wandering if anyone else had problems with this product SPC ball joints? I’m going to contact their customer service in the morning to see what they think.

 

their customer support is pretty good so I'd give that a shot first. If you have receipt where you bought them they might give you new ball joints if that's the problem. I had issues with the long-through-arm bolt bushings but thought it was ball joints. Called them up and spoke to one of their tech's and he was pretty informative and helpful.

 

I have 35,000 off-road miles on my SPCs with way more abuse and weight so seems a bit odd.

But replacing ball joints are kind of the point. They are cheap.

 

SPC will warranty it 100%

I've only seen a few fail and they take care of it pretty quickly.

They aren't the strongest of aftermarket brands, but they offer much better geometry which translates to reduced wear on the joint. They are my first choice still.

 

Are you checking using the methods described by SPC?
FAQ #12
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sou...EQFnoECB4QAQ&usg=AOvVaw2SXSxJGHd02WnvT5UHyVlq

 

I have run SPC control arms since 2010 on Tacomas. I have found them to never last more than about 40,000km (or 24,855 miles merican0. Replacing another set right now actually, again right at the 40,000km mark due to radial movement on one side. Proper greasing, installed according to specs etc. Personally I have never bothered with SPC warranty, i just buy new ones right away and replace. Usually one wears out first and you can keep the other good one as a temporary spare. I have had drivers and passenger sides wear out first equally. I'm at least on the 5th set since 2010. The new updated ones don't seem to last any longer than the original ones with the older design. My 2 cents, way she goes.

 

Friend went through 2 sets. Both lasted 8k miles each

 

My saga of SPC arms has been an interesting one.

I got some half tube half forged SPC arms with the specride bushings and non greaseable ball joints, had them on for 50k miles, no issues other than bushings needing to be lubed every 20k or so - no biggie.

At 100k miles i got some xAxis upgrade joints to replace the specride bushings... 5k miles into use those xAxis joints started to clunk BAD, this was a known bad batch. Problem was and i quote "you will likely destroy the UCA getting the xAxis joints out if we send you replacement ones" - SPC.

SO after much back n forth and i believe a 70$ upgrade cost I got fancy full forged arms with greaseable ball joints direcly from them brand new. AWESOME.... im maybe 20k miles later and the upper ball joint on my driver side has a good chunk of slop in it. Been meaning to contact them for a warranty replacement.

I love the arms, the adjustability they provide but man, I really wish someone made an arm with some increased caster for ~ a 2in lift with a standard off the shelf replaceable ball joint WITH OEM STYLE BONDED RUBBER BUSHINGS. @81Trekker made custom ones