UPDATE* Ironman 4x4 UCA Problem FIXED

To start: my Tundra isn't my daily but I am going on a road trip in 10 days up to Washington. I drive it once every two weeks, about 10-30 miles maybe. This will come into context later. I bought my truck at 8X,000 miles, 6 years ago and just cross the 130k mark.

In 2022 I bought the entire 4x4 suspension kit for my 2011 Tunda. 2024 rolls around and my UCAs are making a ton of noise. Turns out, my UCAs were part of a recall. I have the original UCAs replaced with the set that Ironman4x4 set me, and these ones have grease zerk on top of the ball joint.

Offroad Warehouse replaces them, I send the bill to Ironman4x4 and all is good. In the meantime, another pair of Ironman4x4 UCAs showed up that I DIDN'T ask for. I'm not going to complain but I store them away just in case the replacements take a shit in a couple of years.

Context part: fast forward 6 months and 11,338 miles (I drove up and down to Washington State during that time), the UCAs start making noise again and a lot of it. I called Ironman4x4 and they said Iroanman will pay for the replacement part (which I already have) but not the labor.

I'm going on a road trip back up to Washington state in 10 days and now I'm in a bind.

Bottom line: Ironman told me they should cover the labor if the ball joint is confirmed bad. But I’m stuck wondering—why would I want to replace a faulty part, that was originally a replacement for another faulty part, with the same part again and risk this happening all over?

If it fails again, will Ironman cover another replacement? Probably not. ORW is going to call me tomorrow to confirm if the ball-joint is bad or not.

My questions:
1. Assuming Ironman does cover labor and parts this time around, what UCAs do you all recommend that come with a comparable warranty? (Ironman’s is 4 years/100k miles.)
2. Has anyone else experienced this type of issue?

I have a video of the UCA squeaking, but YouTube is taking it's sweet time uploading. The pictures are 100% unrelated, just wanted to share some dope picts from my last trip.

 

Is this a greasable ball joint? Maybe it’s not getting enough lubrication if it keeps failing.

 

There's a grease zerk on top of the ball joint, but it has had enough grease.

 

I’ve gotten brand new parts with grease zerks that won’t take grease well, so they don’t get enough lube. They wear out fast. Had to back the zerk out a 1/4 turn to get it to take grease better.

 

The zerks take the grease just fine, I can see the boots fill up. Obviously, they aren't super filled but filled enough.

 

Offroad Warehouse inspected my UCAs and said everything was fine. The noise was coming from somewhere else that was close to the UCAs and they fixed it.