Moog K series lower ball joints

I went through my service record for my 2004 DC and it looks like the original LBJ were replaced under recall at 60,000 miles. The truck is currently sitting at 280,000 miles so I think I might replace the lower ball joints as a precautionary measure. They currently have no play or make any noises.

I’ve come across moog lowers ball joints and from the pictures it appears to be rebranded 555 made in Japan ones.

Anybody use these recently?

 

OEM only unless you want to die.

 

^ What this dude said. OEM only.

 

Go OEM

 

I think I have some Moogs on mine. I haven't died. Yet......

 

I know I have moogs on mine and haven't died yet.

 

How long and how many miles do you guys have on the moogs?

 

555 are good.

 

Maybe 25,000 and 1.5-2 years

 

I've got 20+ thousand miles on mine and around 4 years.

 

I like my Moog lower balls because I can grease them. Cannot grease OEM. I'm still not dead.

 

I'm sticking with OEM. They were not that expensive for my truck and worth it to not have to worry.

 

I'm not worried, but I would use Toyota OEM for anything that you can. They're good parts. Most of mine have lasted 200k miles or more. Stands to reason the new OEM part would perform similarly.

 

I've got 2 years and 20K miles on TRW LBJs. They are sealed and look like OEM to me. I check them periodically and they look good.

 

So it looks like these Moog BJ's are $50 on Rock Auto and the OEM BJ's are $117 from McGeorge. That's a big difference and I can see why you'd want to try them. The LBJ's for my 02 were cheaper at around $90/each.

 

Here in Canada, moog from Amazon is $76CAD and oem are $320CAD from my local dealer.

 

That's about 4X the cost. Buy 4 Moogs instead of 1 OE. You'll be set for life.

 

Wow eh?

In that case, give them a shot and maybe just plan on replacing them in a few years.

 

Big price difference sounds like. Maybe plan to replace 'em under shorter intervals if that's the route you go? All the LBJ failures I've seen look like they end up costing more than an OEM LBJ from the start.

 

Yeah, cheapest place I’ve found so far in Canada shipped to me is about $230 so about 3x the price of moogs

 

I used moogs for my first gen for over 100k miles

at 50k miles on them as preventative maintenance i swapped them out/warrantied them with a second replacement set at no cost at the parts store

there were no concerning issues i just replaced them while working on other front end items

They’re easy to do

I had no issues with Moogs

 

The 555 are better than a lot of aftermarkets. But I had 555 on my 01 Tacoma (same setup as the tundra) and 3 sets of them, they were all bad at 20-30k.. oem went 200k before I replaced them.. oem is built better for sure.



now that being said, if your not lifted, the moogs likely would survive. Lifted applications are where aftermarket joints have issues

 

Parts are definitely more expensive in Canada.
I bought OEM from toyotapartsdirect, they were around $175 each, plus I got all new bolts which ran another $20 or something. It was a bit hard to swallow, but they’re done and I shouldn’t have to give it another thought for a long time.

 

I ran 555 (branded as Raybestos) and was lifted for about 5 years. When I replaced them they didn't show any significant wear.

Last time around I went OEM Toyota. The reason was I knew what to expect from Toyota. In my experience most of the aftermarket companies from various mail orders are not really manufacturing parts, they outsource/package/sell parts. This means that a Raybestos might be a 555 part, or could be some junk. Same goes for Beck Arnley, Dorman, and maybe every other brand you find online.

If I knew for certain I could get the Sankei 555 part at half the price of Toyota, I wouldn't hesitate to buy that again. I don't like to play Russian Roulette with car parts though, I hate returning stuff. I look at it as I pay a bit more and am sure of the parts I got, and I don't pay for installation so I'm still ahead.

 

I also went moog because I plan to replace mine sooner than most would anyway. I might replace the ball joints every 2 years, uniballs every 1-2, and heims every 1-3.
If you won't touch them for 5 years then maybe oem makes sense. Sometimes it makes sense to spend the money and sometimes it's just for shiz and gigs.