control arm and ball joint - which brand to buy?

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I need to replace the control arm bushings on my 02 Echo. a common problem. while I know that you can actually replace the bushings - most people just replace the entire control arm and ball joint. so... which brand is best? Dorman, Beck Arnley, Deeza, Mevotech, Raybestos, Moog, AC Delco. I'm inclined to choose Beck Arnley; based on reputation. oddly enough, only the Moog's have a lifetime warranty. Oh, so do the duralast (which are actually Dorman, for 3X the price)
 
Id shop by where it was made. I prefer Made in USA, Mexico,Canads,Japan,Germay or Sweeden over China.

I realize that China does produce some good stuff but I guess its engraved in my head to make a Chinese made suspension part a last resort
 
Moog was the one to get, back in the day, but then, so was Fram
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Originally Posted By: LScowboy
Moog was the one to get, back in the day, but then, so was Fram
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LS is right. Moog hasn't impressed me lately with anything and I've gotten some terrible end links and ball joints from them in the past few years. The last time I bought a Moog part over a house brand was when the Moog offered a grease fitting while the house brand didn't, ironically, in most cases the house brand had a lifetime warranty while Moog offered 1 year. Research your specific application and decide what's best for you. YMMV.
 
I'm starting to feel like a Raybestos fan boy, but I haven't had any problems with their pro grade (or higher) chassis and break parts.
 
Is the ball joint part of the control arm or is it bolted/riveted/pressed in? If you can change the ball joint, I would stick with rebuilding your factory arms, who knows what kind of soup can steel he replacements will be made from.

I would go with Dorman, they're a good company and the stuff is priced right. I had a problem with some of their lug nuts once, a new box of them was overnighted, with another overnight label to ship the defective ones back. That's service and quality control right there.

I had bad luck with a set of moog control arm bushings, they failed in 2 years, the factory ones took 14.
 
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I have Moog ball joints that have some miles on them (maybe 40,000 miles). One side has some looseness and the other side has a boot that has become inverted slightly and is developing surface cracks. I bought some XRF ball joints after reading many reviews but have not installed them yet. They are made in Taiwan but the reveiws seem to blow away Moog.

http://www.xrfchassis.com/parts-balljoints.htm
 
Out of this list i would rate the parts like this based on my own experience buying parts sometimes many times a week.

Top tier. Use either one with 100% confidence.
Deeza. I like these parts more every time i use them.
Raybestos Pro. (only pro) Good quality.

Middle.
Bek&Arnley. A repackager. Many times it can be an nice OEM part, other times iffy. 50/50.
Moog. Racing to the bottom fast. I don't buy them anymore.

Bottom.
Dorman
Mevotech Absolute rubbish control arms, whatever you buy don't buy these.

AC Delco poses a bit of a dilemma to put in a category. Still owned by GM they are distributing many OEM parts for GM with a different part# with a shorter warranty and lower price.
For imports and non GM i am guessing they are a repackager, probably decent stuff though.
Better than Moog in every part i have seen.
 
Considering time and labor replacing the entire control arm assembly is always the best way to go. Bushing today, ball joint tomorrow, you know how it goes.

It's hard to find an exact OE replacement brand. Everyone on your list is a repackager. NAPA has an OE import parts line (Altrom) and you should give them a try. I have both German and Japanese Cars and have been able to source all the OE brands I needed through them. Auto Zone and places like that always make me feel like someone is going to ask me if I want fries with my order.
Is there a GM crossover for the Echo? If so AC Delco might be the exception.
 
Forget rebuilding them, takes too much time. I have to disagree with others who are against MOOG, I have sold sooo many and had very few problems. Just about the worse problem I had with MOOG was a right hand thread tie rod end boxed as a left hand thread. Federal Mogul has offices in St Louis and I had calls the next day and returned the ball joint. We used to carry house brand, TRW and MOOG (TRW also made by Federal Mogul). My advice is that Dorman and Mevotech are ok on passenger cars. When you step up to SUVs, Vans and Trucks especially $ wheel drive, use the top of the line. I had my own experience recently, while driving with a friend in their F150 (4 wheel drive) the front passenger side lower ball joint snapped, just after we left the highway. A local shop had replaced it with a cheap Chinese part. Replacing that part, on the side of the road, in 105 heat was not fun. The Moog part listed exactly the problem in the paper work, and the Moog part designed to fix the known problem.
 
Moog gets my vote. I know the quality has been dropping, but they still offer the best overall.

I was just looking at the Deeza website. Are all their products made in Turkey??
 
Originally Posted By: Gabe

I was just looking at the Deeza website. Are all their products made in Turkey??


Yes, the vast majority of their parts are made in Turkey. They source some parts from other suppliers, but they claim those parts come from Europe, not China.

I recently bought some Deeza parts and was quite impressed with the quality. More pics/info in this thread:
http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=2925508


IMG_1394-800_zpsdc5be54c.jpg


IMG_1393-800_zps165f454f.jpg
 
I would use Raybestos pro, since that is what has given me the best results.

I heard a mention of NAPA Altron. Be careful about that. I once had to install some control arms from that line and they were called "Ultra-8" They were absolutely the most pathetic replacement control arms I had ever seen.
 
Originally Posted By: Gabe
Moog gets my vote. I know the quality has been dropping, but they still offer the best overall.

I was just looking at the Deeza website. Are all their products made in Turkey??


Most of their stuff is made in Western Turkey some is made elsewhere in Europe. You wont believe how good they are till you try them, then compare them to Moog.

In over 40 year doing this i only had one car held up more than a day doing ball joints.
It was because of the junk Moog boots, they are so bad Moogs own machines doesn't get some of on right, they use an molded in steel ring (not split) that is almost 1mm smaller than the joint itself, try stretching a metal ring 1mm without breaking it or cutting into the boot.

Moogs answer.. Yeah we have had some trouble with these and are working on a solution, we will send you a couple.
Great but how do i get them on? Answer.. Yeah use some WD40 and use a ball joint press to press the boot on.
This was a huge PITA. I got a Raybestos Pro, installed it and got the customer out then dealt with this POS later.

Their Zerk fitting just plain suck, they use a 1/4-28 (try finding that at AZ, AA or local hardware store, special order from Fastenal) thread and never include a 90° when required.
The zerk holes are finished tapped by the zerk and being as cheap as they are it ends up stripping the zerk threads.

A guy posted pics of a Moog tie rod drilled and tapped totally off center. Rough castings, bad boots, bad zerks are all par for the course with new Moog.
their quality isn't "dropping" it went there a while ago, its gone. Moog is far from the best overall in fact they are one of the worst.
 
I am struggling with the same problem as well. Car is 2000 MPV minivan in need of a pair control arms. Raybestos pro grad are no longer available anymore. On rockauto.com, they have pretty much every brand listed, Dorman, Mevotech, MAS, Moog, and ACDelco. Moog is RK series, they don't have the better K series for this car. it's about $80. The ACDelco is about $120. Deeza does not make the arms for the MPV. I studied the pictures on rockauto, Moog seems to have a better welding job, even than ACDelco. but I don't know how accurate these pictures are. I emailed rockauto, but they don't have info on the difference between Moog and ACDelco.

Mazda MPV 2000 to 2006 all use the same arm, if you have replaced yours, please could you share your experience and what brand you used? Thanks.
 
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