Ball Joint Problems?

JohnnyKing · March 8, 2017

Anyone else having issues with ball joints? I have a 3" Rough Country suspension lift and have replaced 3 lower ball joints. The company that put the lift on for me replaced the first 2 under warranty even tho they were GM parts. They assured me that they have done thousands of these and never had that problem. They even do lifts for the dealer before they are put on the lot. I only have 78,000 miles on my truck, no mud riding, no off roading, just everyday driving. Has anyone else had problems with lower ball joints going bad?

newdude · March 8, 2017

Is it a strut spacer lift/level style kit? Like this kit? http://www.roughcountry.com/gm-suspension-lift-kit-199c.html

Sounds like extreme ball joint angles to me. Being that its not a higher end kit (if that's the one), it doesn't have any sort of knuckle replacement or angle correcting from being at an excessive angle. A good lift kit will have diff drops, LCA relocation, etc. to put all of the angles back to their proper selves.

JohnnyKing · March 9, 2017

This is not the lift. I cant remember which one, but it came with control arms and upper ball joints. I have talked to 2 different people and asked if the angle was too much. They both said they think the angle is fine. Hopefully they will take care of the problem today for good.

Sierra706 · March 10, 2017

I have a 2inch level at the moment and my upper balljoints were shot after a few thousand miles.

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bgweed · March 13, 2017

I have a 2inch level at the moment and my upper balljoints were shot after a few thousand miles.

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Which level did you use?

Sierra706 · March 13, 2017

Which level did you use?

Lower spacer from RC

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bgweed · March 13, 2017

Lower spacer from RC

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Same here (soon to be replaced by something better). I've seen others report that they had much better longevity, but I'm not counting on it. Was hoping you had an upper spacer and that it made any sort of difference.

Sierra706 · March 14, 2017

Same here (soon to be replaced by something better). I've seen others report that they had much better longevity, but I'm not counting on it. Was hoping you had an upper spacer and that it made any sort of difference.

Makes no difference whether it's top or bottom spacer, unlike what every company tries to tell you.

I'm also upgrading soon. Just waiting on my order from MRT to come in

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dernh21 · March 15, 2017

I have a '14 GMC sierra 1500 and just installed a 2.5" RC level kit. When I took it to a local tire shop to have the allignment done they informed me that both upper and lower ball joints were bad and needed to be replaced in order to allign wheels. I only have 32k on the truck and the next day when I took the truck to the dealer they replaced the lower ball joints under warranty with that being the last day of my warranty. Re-installed kit and took back to local tire shop......still no good because of upper ball joints. Still going back and forth with dealer over further repair. Just don't want to have to take this kit off a 3rd time!

dernh21 · March 15, 2017

forgot to mention.....I only had the level kit on for 2 days and drove maybe 10 miles...Damage to ball joints were under stock setup

joe brockman · December 3, 2017

Had to replace Oem lower ball joints at 63k with no after market lifts or levels. I'm at just a bit over 78k and now the after market lowers need to be replaced again. WYD! Normal over the road driving. 0 off road, 0 curb checks alignments done regular intervals. Just decided to level front then took it for alignment and found this out.