Moog ball joint opinions?

04 tacoma finally hitting 180k miles I’m deciding to refreshen my front suspension , my lower ball joints are stock since my tacoma wasn’t included in the ball joint recall , my question is should I go with moog? Been doing my research and they seem to be made in Japan now , anyone have experience with these ? Someone with highway experience since my tacoma sees pavement 100% of the time , what do you guys recommend ? Oem seems way too expensive , I’ve digged through old threads but no one seems to respond lol

 

Most people including myself will tell you to stick with OEM. Your lower ball joints are a critical component that you do not want to have fail...things like door handles and headlights are okay to go aftermarket, things like lower ball joints I'd bite the bullet and go with OEM. Some will say Moog are fine though...at the end if the day it's really up to you

 

Most will say oem is the only option to go with, personal opinion, not so true. I know buddy's who wheel hard with their moog bj, no issue. Like me, I'm running 555 brand and wheel in some pretty nasty stuff, still no issue for 6 years now.

Now on the other hand, my uncle prefer oem product. He replaced his with toyota bj 2 years ago and in October of 2017, left him stranded on the side of the road being a mall crawler. I'd never seen tire so shiny and truck get wash as often as his. Heck, he waxes it monthly. Long story short, the service was done at the local toyota dealer using oem parts. Bad batch? Not torque? Over torque? Beats me. For what ever reason, it left him stranded and couple of thousand dollar later to fix it.

So yeah, get whatever bj you prefer or can afford. It's a tacoma and at the end of the day, still a tacoma, not a Ferrari. I'm sure 95% of tacoma owner are using aftermarket parts on their tacoma from pads/rotor, plugs/wires, water pump/timing belt, bearing/seal, coolant/oil, catalytic converter etc etc and so on. Get what you can afford, you'll be fine.

 

I've been running MOOG lowers for a little over a year with zero issues. Boots still in good shape.

 

Moog 555 with greasable zirks on my 2000. Grease them every oil change and have no problems 20k latter. Also.they are life guarantee .The truck has 300k and I have no plans on selling it .

 

lol it's only a matter of time on here until someone brings this up again...

No matter what you choose, oem vs. 555 / moog, people will disagree with you. Here's some concrete info.

Choose as you will!

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/ball-joints.266989/page-3

 

I went with a made in Japan moog 555 my last go round. I put them on at 232k and now at ~239k. I checked them all this past weekend when I was doing some upper ball joint maintenance and they were still tight. I've had no issues with them and I like the greasable zerks.

 

The OEM balljoints aren't the best engineered parts of our first gen Tacoma's - there is definitely room to re-engineer and improve them. However, none of the "direct-replacement" aftermarket manufacturers have done that re-engineering; they've all done "knock-offs." (some better than others, hence the quotes).

So, even though the OEM ones are more expensive, they are worth that extra cost if you are at all stressing them (which may be due to one of several factors - larger tires, off-road travel, etc.)

 

If money is a factor get what fits your budget. Create a spreadsheet with parts bought and replaced (brand, price, date replaced, you or mechanic replaced). Keeping track helps narrow down what has held on longer and can possibly give you an idea of who you can trust.

 

Worth mentioning that the OEM ones are very well priced and often have free shipping from Camelback Toyota and Conicelli Toyota.

 

After really inspecting a set of 555's compared to OEM, I wish I had not bought them. Was fooled by the claim of OEM.

They're not. Actually my originals were brand new looking at 175K miles but the boots rotted off and I decided to just change the BJ's rather than try to source boots and because I thought it was 'time'. The OEM's were still like new as far as operation once I pulled them and inspected.

The rubber on the 555's are already stressing and I really haven't put ANY miles on them, just parked on hot concrete all summers.

Yes, it does boil down to how bad you need them now and what you can afford now. Just giving my take.

And I'm not one to push for OEM everything.

BTW, these were bought from a wheeling site and ordered, not parts store off the shelf. I thought I was getting a good set.

 

So after some research I decided to go oem , the price was reasonable off toyota dealers off eBay couple bucks more than moog , I’ll probably go with moog for my uppers , my tacoma is a my commuter so no off road wheeling ever

 

For a 1st gen I'd use OEM, since that's an affordable and convenient option. It stinks that Toyota doesn't sell just ball joints for my truck.

 

Oh wow, that sucks

 

Plus an additional discount from @gunny1005

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/gunny-is-back.476544/

 

Is gunny a vendor for camelback Toyota ?

 

Yeah