Back in February of 2015, I pulled out of my driveway and onto my street. I hadn't gone four feet when the passenger side lower ball joint snapped. After thinking about it for awhile, it seemed that, considering my car's age and mileage, my best option was to just rebuild the front end of my car. Made no sense to replace just one ball joint just to potentially have to replace something else six months later. Replaced upper and lower control arms on both sides, stabilizer bar links, pitman arm, idler arm, etc., etc.
Back in June of this year, I go to grease the front end (something I have done on a yearly basis since rebuilding the front end) only to find that one of my stabilizer bar links was snapped in two. Replaced both bar links. Now, on Friday December 3rd, I was driving down the road and my driver’s side lower ball joint snapped. Boy, does that feel familiar.
This is the second suspension part that has failed since the front end rebuild back in 2015. All the parts that were used in the rebuild were made by MOOG, a division of Federal Mogul and all were purchased from RockAuto. The rebuild was done at 158731 miles. Current mileage is approximately 231,000. Approximately 72,269 miles on the MOOG parts.
As I am not a mechanic, when I finished the rebuild in 2015, I had a mechanic friend of mine check my work. He said it all looked good. Once I got his verification, I had the front end aligned. So, at least I know that I hadn’t botched the rebuild.
That was almost seven years ago. Now I am having part failures. I was under the impression that MOOG suspension parts were reliable products. Looks like I may have been mistaken. As it looks like I may have to do another rebuild, at least partially, can someone here PLEASE tell me who makes reliable suspension parts. For lower ball joints, I am currently looking into AC Delco part #45D2223 from RockAuto, or Auto Zone’s Valuecraft part #VFA2101. Don’t want to spend too much as the car is getting a little old.
I know that RockAuto has lower ball joints for as low as $5.99 each (SKP brand part #SK8685), but I just don’t trust a brand that I don’t know, especially one that cheap, for ball joints. I did use the SKP brand however for the stabilizer bar links, maybe that was a mistake.
I know that these parts weren’t meant to last forever and I don’t expect them to. However, the original parts were in there since the vehicle was new. Of course, I am just assuming this as I have no way to really know. But since I only drive about 10,000 miles a year, I would think that they might last a little longer than they have.
Just for reference, my car is a 1997 Ford Crown Victoria LX. My previous car was a 1993 Crown Victoria and I never had suspension parts issues with it. It had roughly 135,000 miles on it when I bought it and nearly 300,000 miles when I scrapped it. Roughly 165,000 miles with no suspension parts issues. Are MOOG parts just not reliable any more or are my expectations just unrealistic?
Maybe I should just bite the bullet on this one and redo the entire front end with Motorcraft parts?
Any suggestions, ideas, or opinions are appreciated.