SPC UCA failed today

blayjin

New member
I frequent the board a lot but never did any posting. Today on my way to work my driver side UCA spine came detached from the control arm. Waiting for a tow now. Thought I would share. Does this happen quite often?
 

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There have been several members who had welds fail on the actual arms. I've seen posts where the ball joints wore out quickly, but not actually failed. Sorry man, that sucks. Glad you and truck are ok.


Looks like a ball joint failure, not a failure of the actual arm.
 
There have been several members who had welds fail on the actual arms. I've seen posts where the ball joints wore out quickly, but not actually failed. Sorry man, that sucks. Glad you and truck are ok.

Thanks. Hope the damage isn't extensive. I'll find out soon enough.
 
I frequent the board a lot but never did any posting. Today on my way to work my driver side UCA spine came detached from the control arm. Waiting for a tow now. Thought I would share. Does this happen quite often?

That ball joint looks pretty dry! Better off doing all of them, not just one side.
 
This is 2 in one day !!! I saw a post on FB today of someone else that had the weld break on one of his LR UCA's . I've heard and seen so many of these occasions happening with these UCA's over the years. Crazy
 
theres $250 eBay no name uniballs that last longer than SPC ball joints

Their just as bad! My buddies failed just a few months after he put them on and he only wheeled them once.

It's one thing to run a cheaper shock options cause if they fail it's not the end of the world but if your UCA's fail's it can be very dangerous especially if your on the highway or running at a higher speed!
 
Their just as bad! My buddies failed just a few months after he put them on and he only wheeled them once.

It's one thing to run a cheaper shock options cause if they fail it's not the end of the world but if your UCA's fail's it can be very dangerous especially if your on the highway or running at a higher speed!

your buddy wasnt the guy that installed them upside down was he?
theres a few people on this forum and a few on tacoma world who have wheeled the eBay ones hard and had no issues
 
I love my SPC UCAs. Sure, my ball joints failed after 10months of use but they sent me free replacements within 3 days. I didn't think they were cheap arms. I picked it because of the adjustability despite the balljoint design.
The Uniballs on my Total Chaos were tougher by design but got squeaky after a year, failed after 2 years and had to buy replacements.
(you guys have me worried now, I hope I dont eat my own words in the near future)
 
I love my SPC UCAs. Sure, my ball joints failed after 10months of use but they sent me free replacements within 3 days. I didn't think they were cheap arms. I picked it because of the adjustability despite the balljoint design.

The Uniballs on my Total Chaos were tougher by design but got squeaky after a year, failed after 2 years and had to buy replacements.

(you guys have me worried now, I hope I dont eat my own words in the near future)


Uniballs with normal use last a year maybe two. Mine have been on for 2 years not a peep and I've wheeled it hard and in sand. I grease them once a month and clean them every time I wash the vehicle.

To like SPC because they've given you a brand new ball joint after theirs could have very well killed someone or you when it prematurely sheered in two....bless your heart.
 
your buddy wasnt the guy that installed them upside down was he?
theres a few people on this forum and a few on tacoma world who have wheeled the eBay ones hard and had no issues

I don't think so but i'm not 100% sure. I just remember starting to see a similar pattern of issues with the ebay ones as i did with these and i don't think they've been around very long.

There are just certain things you can't cheap out about or your going to pay for it in the long run and probably end up spending more money then you would have if the quality product was purchased to begin with! Unfortunately i know this from experience. As they say Do it right or do it twice.
 
Uniballs with normal use last a year maybe two. Mine have been on for 2 years not a peep and I've wheeled it hard and in sand. I grease them once a month and clean them every time I wash the vehicle.

To like SPC because they've given you a brand new ball joint after theirs could have very well killed someone or you when it prematurely sheered in two....bless your heart.

I have a few associates that despise SPC, a few that feel the same about Uniballs, a few that won't buy....You get the idea.

Nobody likes parts that fail but that's the world we live in. Parts fail regardless of the mfg, whether Toyota or aftermarket. It's always important to remember that people don't post when things are fine.

I just ordered new SPC ball joints and Toyota LBJ's. I'm not going to rip Toyota because mine have gone bad any more than I'll rip SPC for theirs.
 
I have a few associates that despise SPC, a few that feel the same about Uniballs, a few that won't buy....You get the idea.

Nobody likes parts that fail but that's the world we live in. Parts fail regardless of the mfg, whether Toyota or aftermarket. It's always important to remember that people don't post when things are fine.

I just ordered new SPC ball joints and Toyota LBJ's. I'm not going to rip Toyota because mine have gone bad any more than I'll rip SPC for theirs.


There's a difference between Toyota OEM quality than SPC pop metal quality. If my Toyota ball joint sheered in half within very low miles like most SPC do then you'd have an argument.

I understand most people buy them because of price, with SPC you 100% get the cheap price quality.
 
That ball joint looks pretty dry! Better off doing all of them, not just one side.

I ended up getting both done for now. I'll switch them out once I weight out the pros and cons for available alternatives. It happened after I got off the highway and crossed some train tracks. Nose dived without any indication of something being wrong.
 
Uniballs with normal use last a year maybe two. Mine have been on for 2 years not a peep and I've wheeled it hard and in sand. I grease them once a month and clean them every time I wash the vehicle.

To like SPC because they've given you a brand new ball joint after theirs could have very well killed someone or you when it prematurely sheered in two....bless your heart.

You misunderstood my point, SPC backed up their product no questions asked. By the design, I was comparing balljoints VS uni's.
When I asked a TC rep when my uniballs were starting to make a noise, all I got was "they are race parts and will make a noise". Any products will eventually fail, its just a matter of when. Heck I've seen oem toyota balls break off in low km trucks, Ive seen some that should break but doesn't.
You must be joking if you expect 1-2 year lifespan on uniballs with "normal" use. We get all sorts of conditions up here and I know folks with 3+ years without any issues.

I dont mean this to throw off topic but this works for my needs, just like how the uniballs worked for my needs before. Either one will work better than the factory arms with a lift.
 
to stay off track but still somehow get back on track here, i think the issue that people have with SPC is not because their ball joints fail, all ball joints fail at some point and need to be replaced, but rather the issue is with the speed at which they fail and the frequency. I've never heard a bad thing about customer service when it comes to replacing failed parts on their UCA's, which indicates to me that they deal with these problems often
 

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