Aftermarket ball joint quality and early boot failure

Post by **firstv70volvo** » 19 May 2021, 12:34

After only 31K miles I had to replace the ball joints for my car due to torn boots on both sides. This is my 3rd set of ball joints since owning the car (212K miles) and this time I purchased OE Lemforder brand ball joints. Last time I really struggled pounding the Mevotech brand ball joints into the steering knuckle. I measured the diameter of both ball joints and the Mevotech ball joints were 0.016 inch greater in diameter and why they were so difficult to fit in the knuckle. The Lemforder ball joints fit so much better.
Also, the two mounting bolts that came with the Mevotech ball joints were too long, they bottomed out in the steering knuckle mounting holes so couldn't use the new bolts.
I’ve had problems with other aftermarket ball joint brands and early boot failure so I took a closer why this was happening. Aside from the quality of the boot itself it looks like clips used to hold and seal the top and bottom of the boot hold the seals tight enough so the boot can’t slip as it rotates so it twists the boot with every turn of the wheels. It seems it would ideal if one or both the spring clips held tight enough to seal out dust and water but also allow the seal to slip in place instead of twisting the boot. Or, if the boots were tough enough to stand up to constant twisting without tearing prematurely.

Post by **oragex** » 19 May 2021, 13:58

Well seen. I would also suggest keeping an eye on Lemforder as well, there are currently several changes in quality for the bigger brands and actually even for the genuine parts. For example, Lemforder is selling a horrible strut mount bearing and also I've fitted genuine control arm bushings that started to fail in less than 10,000 miles

Post by **Blacklab467** » 19 May 2021, 14:27

After only 31K miles I had to replace the ball joints for my car due to torn boots on both sides. This is my 3rd set of ball joints since owning the car (212K miles) and this time I purchased OE Lemforder brand ball joints.

Why do you keep beating yourself up ( and your wallet) with aftermarket junk? Buy yourself some Volvo brand ball joints and be done with it. And going forward, buy Volvo brand parts whenever possible. I've been down this road before on many parts, stop trying to figure who the OEM supplier for Volvo ( insert part description here) is this month. You'll thank me for this advise later.

Post by **firstv70volvo** » 19 May 2021, 15:35

Blacklab467 wrote: 19 May 2021, 14:27
Why do you keep beating yourself up ( and your wallet) with aftermarket junk? Buy yourself some Volvo brand ball joints and be done with it. And going forward, buy Volvo brand parts whenever possible. I've been down this road before on many parts, stop trying to figure who the OEM supplier for Volvo ( insert part description here) is this month. You'll thank me for this advise later.

That's a good question but in my defense the original balls joints had boot failures on both sides and were very badly worn(dangerous lane change movement during braking) at 85K miles so I wasn't all that impressed with the original OEM parts and thought I'd try somethin else. I've also read from others the ball joints just don't seem to last very long on these cars. The boots tearing early doesn't help service life no matter what the brand and why I took a closer look at why the boots fail early. These last ball joints, Mevotech brand, I installed were supposedly heavy duty parts yet they had torn boots on both sides at 31K miles, they were the worse case of all the aftermarket parts I've tried, really poor quality. I'm with you on this one from now on, Volvo brand parts going forward.

Post by **kcodyjr** » 19 May 2021, 21:51

oragex wrote: 19 May 2021, 13:58 I've fitted genuine control arm bushings that started to fail in less than 10,000 miles

Oh crap. I just installed a pair of Lemforder control arms. Fingers crossed I'm not doing it again next year...

Post by **kcodyjr** » 19 May 2021, 21:54

Blacklab467 wrote: 19 May 2021, 14:27 Why do you keep beating yourself up ( and your wallet) with aftermarket junk? Buy yourself some Volvo brand ball joints and be done with it. And going forward, buy Volvo brand parts whenever possible. I've been down this road before on many parts, stop trying to figure who the OEM supplier for Volvo ( insert part description here) is this month. You'll thank me for this advise later.

This. If there's anything Volvo has been consistent about, across decades and across subsystems, it's the allergic reaction to aftermarket parts.

That being said, I don't share Blacklab467's pessimism about buying OE. I've found that FCP Euro is pretty good about keeping track of what's what... but look out for "OE" versus "OEM." The two-character acronym means that part was original to your car, but comes without the blue box. The three-character acronym merely means that company made *something* for your car when it was new.