CONTROL ARM factory vs aftermarket

[justanothermp5]

oh ok, cuz my ball joint are lookin and sounding pretty rough
the boot is cracking on my right side and is ripped on my drivers...not sure how long its been like this but thats not good lol

 

[TheMAN]

And when you get that new control arm with the new bushings on, and two weeks later a rock flies up a cuts your new dust boot, you drive around for a few weeks without noticing, and then you figure out that all your grease has leaked out and road crap has f-ed up the ball joint.

So you call up Mazda and they won't warranty the part because it was not a manufacturing defect, so then I guess you're just sh*t outta luck for $250, because Mazda didn't make the ball joints replaceable.

I apologize that it sounds like I'm attacking your responses, because I respect you and the great deal of knowledge that you have on all that is Mazda. I just have no sympathy for Mazda in this regard - and I stand by my opinion that their design of non-serviceable ball joints is greed and laziness, and nothing else.

Now what would really be something is if some aftermarket parts company wanted to invest the time and effort to develop a control arm with replaceable ball joints. They'd make a killing

if there was a rock that hit exactly that spot to **** up the dust boots, it'll probably break other s*** on the car which you might have to worry about more

don't be a n00b, everyone knows the boots are replaceable!

 

[slavrenz]

if there was a rock that hit exactly that spot to **** up the dust boots, it'll probably break other s*** on the car which you might have to worry about more

don't be a n00b, everyone knows the boots are replaceable!

If you catch the problem right away - but if you drive around for a few weeks your ball joint's gonna be shot.

 

[imola.zhp]

The ball joints on my BMW are the same way, but aluminum and a little more expensive...

=S

Still haven't tackled this yet, but will be doing so shortly.