MOOG lower ball joint failure

[daniel.drives]

It's disappointing to write this, but I figure this should be known:

Back in March 2021, I replaced every replaceable part in my front suspension with new Moog components (LCA, UCA, wheel bearing, inner and outer tie rods, swaybar endlinks). 8 months and 8000 miles later, the passenger lower ball joint stud sheared at the end of the taper and sent my Marauder into a tire wall. I'm alright, and the car is fixable, but it's still disappointing to have that happen from a brand who's entire marketing campaign is their motorsports pedigree. $1500 at a ford dealer later, and my car should be back to all motorcraft parts by the end of the week.

Worth noting, my car weighed 4300 lbs with me and fuel that day at the track, I was running the gt500/c5 big brake kit, and Falken Azenis RT660 tires. The first session of the day, I ran on Yokohama advan apex to get a feel for the track and the lines, the second session I switched to the RT660s and the car felt the best it ever has. Unbreakable steering grip, 20 minutes of hard braking with no fade, and the 700 lb/in springs helped with that tracks bumpy surfaces, the car felt incredible and the only cars getting away from me were a C6 vette and a new camaro ZL1. With double the horsepower, 2/3 the weight, and a chassis that's 20 years newer, no complaints there. Went out for the third session of the day and 2/3 through the first lap, not even pushing at 100%, the balljoint let go and I bounced to a stop along 40 feet of tire wall.

Time to go snag some panels off a black p71 at my local yard, we should be back to 100% by the next track day in 2 weeks. Here's hoping.

I'll update when I hear back from Moog customer service. Nothing yet, but I've avoided mentioning the expensive L word.

[massacre]

Moog quality used to be good, they have definitely gone down recently. Sorry to hear you crashed glad you are ok

[blazen71]

A friend replaced his Suburban front end with Moog less than a year ago and multiple joints have already failed.

[Joe Walsh]

:hmmm:

Interesting to read this....

I bought MOOG Control arms with ball joints for my '99 Ranger a few years ago, and they wore out in no time!

I didn't care too much because I sold the Ranger 'as is' and forgot about it.

The reason that I bought MOOG parts was because I always considered MOOG to be high quality parts.

I guess that now MOOG stuff is poorly made junk from China....like 95% of all products sold in America!

SMH

[blazen71]

The failure might be tied to the "Gusher" bearing versions. My buddy did a bunch of research and that's what he found.

[daniel.drives]

I'll have to look into the gusher thing. These were sealed units, no place for a greasert. Postmortem inspection shows the grease in the ball to be in great condition, and the ball still felt tight before the crash. The stud sheared right above the taper. I'll upload some pictures once I take the time to get it on my bench under a magnifying glass. Given where it broke, I'm starting to really like the Chevy balljoint design with a taper all the way through the spindle mating surface, seems to eliminate the stress concentration corner where mine let go.

3 business days and 2 customer service inquiries later, no response from Moog/Federal Mogul/DRIV parts or whoever actually owns them these days. Disappointing but not surprising.

I've since spent $1500 at a ford dealer for all motorcraft everything (2x UCA, 2x inner and outer tie rod, 2x wheel bearing/hub assembly, 2x swaybar endlink) and they told me that the motorcraft LCA is obsolete, so I went with Delphi from Rockauto. Here's hoping I guess.

I also picked up spindles from a low mile 2006 lincoln town car at a junkyard, I'm thinking I'll do the rebuild around those. Interestingly, the 03 marauder spindles have a double taper that requires a conical spacer under the nut, these newer ones only have the taper on the balljoint side and a flat where the nut goes. They also have a relief so you can (I think) install the lower balljoint without having to remove the wheel bearing. Learned that one the hard way in the parking lot at the track.

[crouse]

This is concerning to me as I also replaced the upper & lower control arms and outer tie rod ends on my Marauder this summer with all Moog parts. I run Auto Cross events running the Falken Azenis RT615K+ tires on GT500 wheels, 18x9.5. What size wheels/tires are you running? Do I buy Motorcraft parts and swap them out to avoid a failure?

[mustangeddie]

Sadly moog has gone the way of most US manufacturers & is now having stuff made in China. Worked at a shop in the late 90's where the owner swore by moog & he could tell just by looking at the box whether it was made here or in China. I guess now it all must be made in China.

[Comin' in Hot]

The Moog lower control arms available now are all the R series or RK series… basically reboxed junk…. If you could find the CK series, those are the good ones, but I haven’t seen them available anywhere for a while now.

[crouse]

Mine were the RK Series.

[Prospect62]

Sadly moog has gone the way of most US manufacturers & is now having stuff made in China.

This.

Not really sure who to turn to anymore for parts like this, except Motorcraft and then you're paying the shot and then some.