Lower Control Arms & Ball Joints

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DesertWanderer

(@desertwanderer)

Honorable Member

Hello. I am a diehard OEM only person but I am now rethinking that. I need to replace the ball joints on my 2005 Spyder. It looks like I have to replace the lower control arm to do this since my lower control arms are OEM. OEM lower control arms are $265 for each side. I will pay that if it is the best way to go but now I am wondering.

It appears if I go aftermarket with lower control arms, the ball joints can be replaced. I need advice. Please tell me if aftermarket is stupid here. What brand would you buy? I see Moog (Beck Arnley) and a lot I do not recognize. I am going back with Superpro bushings as well.

This Spyder is at 70,000 miles. I did struts last week and that really helped. What else should I do?

Help! And thanks as always!

2007 S2000 (New Formula Red)
2005 Spyders (Two in Paradise Blue Metallic, One Super White)
2004 Tundra SR5 Double Cab (White with 2UZ-FE Engine)
2003 Tundra SR5 Access Cab (Silver Stepside with 2UZ-FE Engine)
2003 Sequoia SR5 (Black with 2UZ-FE Engine)
1970 Olds 442 W30 (Nugget Gold )

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Topic starter Posted : June 1, 2020 12:57 am

dev

(@dev)

Just a member.

I think you should be fine. Our ball joints last a very long time so much so I only heard of one person that had the OEM ball joint fail. On some other cars they fail sooner then others but Toyota cars in general are overbuilt when it comes to items like this across the board unless it is a known first issue of a new car. Unless the boot is ripped I wouldn't worry about it with that low of millage.

There have been reports of someone from the UK that had a ball joint fail when they replaced the arms with some unknown third party brand. I think the owner did so to address the rubber bushings that probably went bad in time due to age.

Two years ago I helped a local with replacing the arms with the generic ones which at the time thought they were up to spec but who knows.

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Posted : June 1, 2020 8:12 am