So this happened...what would you do?

[sportyota]

[2008 sport V6 127,xxx miles 3” Toytec lift with SPC UCA]

So I was just about to park and heard a pop and noticed the steering wheel started turning to the left by itself. Come to find out, the ball joint had popped off...

Now my question, would you order an SPC ball joint replacement? Or go with another brand and replace the whole UCA with new ball joints? Option 1 would be cost efficient but really don’t want this ever happening again




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[07V8]

EXACTLY why I didn’t put SPC junk on my truck.

Rip them off and get Total Chaos or other reputable brands. You could have had your family in the truck going 80mph when that happened

 

[sportyota]

EXACTLY why I didn’t put SPC shit on my truck.

Rip them off and get Total Chaos or other reputable brands. You could have had your family in the truck going 80mph when that happened

I’m just glad I was close to home when this happened. But I hear ya, I took a chance with them when I bought the lift but leaning towards going with a different brand.


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[2016 4Runner SR5]

Agreed. SPC has had so many issues with their arms, very in safe arms IMO. Structural failure, ball joint failure, thanks but no thanks. I would NEVER put an SPC product on my truck. So many other arms out there that are significantly better. ICON, Dirt King, Camburg, JBA, TC, Dobinson, just to name a few

 

[2016 4Runner SR5]

To add to this, I'd be on the phone with SPC after emailing them these pictures. See what they have to say and offer. I hope you took a look at the other side also. Likely it's not far behind this one and getting ready to fail. This is life or death here, what if this happened going down the highway?

 

[sportyota]

Agreed. SPC has had so many issues with their arms, very in safe arms IMO. Structural failure, ball joint failure, thanks but no thanks. I would NEVER put an SPC product on my truck. So many other arms out there that are significantly better. ICON, Dirt King, Camburg, JBA, TC, Dobinson, just to name a few

Of the brands you listed, which would you recommend? I live in eastern Montana now and don’t do too much off-roading but trying to do some here and there


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[sportyota]

To add to this, I'd be on the phone with SPC after emailing them these pictures. See what they have to say and offer. I hope you took a look at the other side also. Likely it's not far behind this one and getting ready to fail. This is life or death here, what if this happened going down the highway?

That’s not a bad idea. I will take more pics after soccer practice


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[Anonymous4Runner]

To add to this, I'd be on the phone with SPC after emailing them these pictures. See what they have to say and offer. I hope you took a look at the other side also. Likely it's not far behind this one and getting ready to fail. This is life or death here, what if this happened going down the highway?

Just like you said...life or death here. Why would he give them a second chance pending their offer to make up for this terrible experience the customer went through due to their products being faulty? The only thing I'd want from the company is my money back and look elsewhere for a quality brand by doing research. Don't be afraid to spend a 'lil more money than you'd like to, especially when it comes to safety of occupants in the vehicle including yourself. Feel free to go cheap when it comes to cosmetic-related mods where it has zero impact on overall performance of the 4Runner

 

[2016 4Runner SR5]

Of the brands you listed, which would you recommend? I live in eastern Montana now and don’t do too much off-roading but trying to do some here and there


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Personally I don't like uniball arms and stick to ball joint arms. With that said, Camburg and Dobinson make nice ball joint arms. JBA does as well but there are a few things about them I don't care for. What kinda pushed me away from them is their extreme lack of customer service. I emailed them with a simple question about color options and it took 2 weeks to reply. They come in red and fully assembled or raw steel completely disassembled, same price either way which bothered me a little bit but by no means the end of the world and would not stop me from buying them. Emailed again with a couple other questions about the bolts used to hold the ball joint on and I was ignored. Very bad for business, I'll be shopping elsewhere. The Dirt King arms seem to have good reviews but they don't look as well made as some others. I'm very tossed up between the Camburg arms and Dobinson arms.

 

[2016 4Runner SR5]

Just like you said...life or death here. Why would he give them a second chance pending their offer to make up for this terrible experience the customer went through due to their products being faulty? The only thing I'd want from the company is my money back and look elsewhere for a quality brand by doing research. Don't be afraid to spend a 'lil more money than you'd like to, especially when it comes to safety of occupants in the vehicle including yourself. Feel free to go cheap when it comes to cosmetic-related mods where it has zero impact on overall performance of the 4Runner

Kinda what I was getting at. I'd be looking for a full refund on the arms since new ball joints would be useless to me. I don't trust them to begin with but if I was the OP, I would never trust them again even with new ball joints. Fact is, their quality is poor and that has always been the case.

 

[2016 4Runner SR5]

So out of curiosity, how many miles roughly are on the arms? How long have they been under the truck?

 

[sportyota]

Personally I don't like uniball arms and stick to ball joint arms. With that said, Camburg and Dobinson make nice ball joint arms. JBA does as well but there are a few things about them I don't care for. What kinda pushed me away from them is their extreme lack of customer service. I emailed them with a simple question about color options and it took 2 weeks to reply. They come in red and fully assembled or raw steel completely disassembled, same price either way which bothered me a little bit but by no means the end of the world and would not stop me from buying them. Emailed again with a couple other questions about the bolts used to hold the ball joint on and I was ignored. Very bad for business, I'll be shopping elsewhere. The Dirt King arms seem to have good reviews but they don't look as well made as some others. I'm very tossed up between the Camburg arms and Dobinson arms.

Good deal! Yea you guys all have very valid points about the safety. I will do some research with the brands listed. Thank you!


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[sportyota]

So out of curiosity, how many miles roughly are on the arms? How long have they been under the truck?

That’s a good question...ummm I wanna say about 50-60k


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[2016 4Runner SR5]

That’s a good question...ummm I wanna say about 50-60k


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Have you been greasing and maintaining them? Truth is, even if you haven't, this is a 150K-200K miles failure not a 50k-60K failure. Look at all the ball joints on the road that don't have zerks but still last 150K-200K miles on the factory installed grease.

 

[Colorado_T4R]

That’s a good question...ummm I wanna say about 50-60k


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I'm legitimately scared. Installed them around 5k ago.

 

[sportyota]

Have you been greasing and maintaining them? Truth is, even if you haven't, this is a 150K-200K miles failure not a 50k-60K failure. Look at all the ball joints on the road that don't have zerks but still last 150K-200K miles on the factory installed grease.

No I haven’t. Since most of the driving has been on the street, I didn’t even think about greasing them but lesson learned


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[2018SilverRunner]

Well after reading this thread, I think I made up my mind to not get these control arms. Camburg here we come.

 

[2016 4Runner SR5]

No I haven’t. Since most of the driving has been on the street, I didn’t even think about greasing them but lesson learned


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They should be greased every 10K miles or so BUT even with that said, this is an unacceptable failure at 50-60k If you haven't greased these, you likely haven't greased anything else. Better get under there and poke around. Not sure what fittings you have but you should at least have fittings on the front and rear drive shaft u joints and slip yoke. U joints get grease until the old stuff is pushed out of all 4 caps on each one and clean grease starts showing. That'll ensure all the old crap is clear and they're full of fresh clean grease. Slip yoke is 5-6 pumps and you're good.

 

[2016 4Runner SR5]

Well after reading this thread, I think I made up my mind to not get these control arms. Camburg here we come.

Good call. So many threads and posts about these arms failing. No idea why anyone buys them anymore. It's like buying the cheap arms on ebay that guys have had fail in a week, some last years. Just not worth the risk.

 

[bombventure]

I’ve heard bad things about SPC, but now I know, I’ll never buy their products. Especially when I have my 4 year old daughter with me 99% of the time.

Glad to hear no one was hurt though!


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