SPC UCA Bad ball joints after 20k

Hey Guys - I just put some new wheels on and when the tire guy was in there he said your ball joints are bad. I looked at him like "ya right" since they only have 20k miles and he showed me the play, the driver is shot and the passenger is 50% shot. Has anybody else run into this? I'd buy new ones but I sure as hell am not dealing with this every 20k!

CMill

 

Same problem. I’m in the mud daily with work. 15-20k miles on ball joints and about 20-25k miles on those bushings. Gonna replace next time and sell. Not the best of design. Junk

 

The axis bushings have lasted me ~70k miles so far (got the arms used)
Otherwise about the same 20k or so for me for the balljoints. Couple sets I got 7k out of, but there were multiple hard trips back to back to back so its expected.

 

Thanks for the replies, I'm going to call SPC today and ask them what the deal is but I'm thinking I'm going to throw the stockers on and see if they can align to those and if not will get something else. This really is frustrating as I did my research before buying these and everyone said these were a great product.

 

Ive had mine on for more than 50k and wheeled my truck hard and had 0 BJ issues? Are y'all greasing them with the correct grease or at all??



https://www.spcalignment.com/subjectFAQ/SPC Approved Grease.pdf

 

I greased them at 10k and was going to do it again at 20k, are you greasing them more than that?

 

I just installed a set of SPCs yesterday. The install instructions say to grease them every oil change which I would assume is more like every 5k based on factory intervals.

https://www.spcalignment.com/instructions/25470-INS_WEB.pdf

 

Maintenance:
Lubrication Interval - SPC
recommends adding 5 to
10 pumps of grease to ball
joint at each oil change, or
after operating vehicle in
wet or dusty conditions

So you should be fine. I grease mine at every 5k though.

 

Ya that's what I read and do my oil changes every 10k as Toyota does, I'll see what SPC says.

 

I grease them every oil change or every time i go off road. I change my oil every 3k. But my truck also isnt my DD so it takes longer intervals to get to 3k than most.

 

With SPC and any greasable component, I recomend at the very least at every oil change (5kmiles) or any time before and after off road, especially after offroad. More often if the environment is harsh. SPC requires moly grease, either black or Grey and could deny warranty if the find a different grease was used. Next set of SPC ball joints, make sure you keep up with the grease and make sure it's moly.

 

Yep, I give mine a couple pumps once a week.

 

So I do use moly and do grease every oil change but my oil change is 10k as I already said, SPC doesn't detail miles or conditions for service which creates gray areas. I really don't care about a warranty but do care about a quality product, for me greasing avery 5k and after every off road seems like a poor product, hell the stockers don't need that! Anyway I'm still going to call them and get the details.

 

Stock is a sealed BJ with way less range of movement than SPC. Performance parts take more maintenance than OEM stuff. Just how it is. I always hear things are junk with little to no evidence that they were maintained properly. If its that big of an inconvenience for you to stick a grease gun on there and pump the handle 5 times everyone so often then you might be better off with OEM or sealed Upper.

 

Who said it was an inconvenience? I'm maintainting them them as the directions said and they're shot at 20k miles, I'm not sure why I would need evidence of that. I'm simply trying to figure out if I stay with SPC, for me 20k per set of ball joints isn't something I'm going to do but I would like to hear what SPC has to say. But thanks for your negative reply basically saying I'm a lying and don't know how to maintain my stuff that's really helpful.

 

Mine gets a couple pumps of grease DAILY, as it is in the mud and sand and water DAILY! I’ve talked with the people at SPC, sent old ball joints back, and the same thing is said, foreign materials found. I told them how I use my truck daily and they suggested I go to a sealed ball joint as theirs is not intended for this environment without lots of maintenance. Basically they said I would need to take them apart after every encounter with mud and water, pull the boots off, clean the joint thoroughly and put back together. After every encounter with water, mud, sand or foreign materials. I get it, but they aren’t as durable as they are described for someone who really us a there truck daily OffRoad. Great concept, but too many places on this setup to fail under these conditions. I’m going back with sealed joints for longevity for my setup.

 

Thanks for the reply thats exactly the info I was looking for, I'm still going to call them to see what they say but thats kinda what I thought the answer would be with only 20k miles. What sealed UCA are you looking at?

 

By saying it was a porr product because you have to grease them regularly implies that that would be a deal breaker for you. If some this a poor product to you because you have to grease it regularly then i would deduce from that it would not be something you would want to do often which hence inconveniences you. Im simply trying to explain why these may have failed earlier than they are designed too. I wasn't necessarily referring to only your post but every time i see a post saying something is junk there's no way to know they were maintained correctly. Like @jdm72670 said. You probably would want to grease them more often than you are. Pumping grease in pushes out the contaminants that cause the BJ to fail. Im just skeptical because i push my truck harder than 90% of ppl on this forum and have never experienced an issue with these BJ. Could there be some yes. Could it happen over and over again. Not likely unless something else was causing it. Id send them to SPC and see what they say caused the failure. I suggested that you switch Control arms since these where not working out for you.

 

The Camburgs on my FJ & 4Runner use standard, greasable moog joints and hold up fine. I am not sure that they offer these anymore though. I do NOT do any hardcore off-roading, just the mild trail to our cabin on weekends. I have the SPC's on my Tacoma. Only like 5K on them. I hope they hold-up.

 

So spoke to SPC and they said I must have gotten a bad batch and even at 10k service interval they shouldn't have failed at 20k miles. He said when they mention oil change interval they mean 5k service and they warranty the arms for life and the bushings and Ball joints to 3 years. So I'm going to get another set of ball joints and give them another try.