OME coil overs destroying upper ball joints

I put on a set of OME front coil overs approximately two thousand miles ago. About 500 miles ago I replaced the upper and lower ball joints because the boots had split. I new the coil overs would be ruff on the uppers but i figured the boots split because they were already old. Well the new boots have split on the uppers already.

I am trying to decide whether to put the SPC upper control arms on or go back to stock ride height. I don’t drive this truck often but when I do I need it to be reliable. I don’t want to solve this problem with the upper control arms and then just have another problem arise costing me another $650.

Any advise would be greatly appreciated. It’s a 2002 tundra 2wd.

 

Gen 1 stock uca’s were more susceptible to this than gen 2. New uca’s will fix it and get your alignment better as well

 

How much lift are you running? I assume you've had alignments done? Something doesn't seem right to me to be honest. Just speaking from my own experience, I've run lifted applications of almost identical suspensions (3rd gen 4Runner's) on stock UCA's since 2000 and never had a single failure. Many of those years were on OME coils.

Did you replace with OEM ball joints? Got any pictures of the coilover installed?

 

So your just having an upper ball joint boot failure?

 

Yes I am only having ball joint boot failure but I would presume the ball joint itself wouldn’t last too much longer once dirt starts getting in there. The OME say they add approximately 2.5” but it seems more like three.

 

They were Moog ball joints.

 

I haven't lifted Toyotas yet but just from what I have been reading UCA's are the ok
only way to lift . I cannot advise on which brand or models but there is some great YouTube videos I gotta see if I can find it. These suckers were beautiful!

 

I've never

That's most likely your problem. Everyone says you have to go OEM on the ball joints. The other ones don't last.

 

Something is wrong.
My guess is you're lifted too high and maxing out the ball joint(s).
That's really the only reason why they would tear.
Swap the springs to the next number down.

I ran 2.5-3" of lift on my 99 Tacoma with stock UCA's and never had an issue with ball joint failure.

 

Bilstein 5100’s set to level my 05 DC caused my ball joints to fail three times. SPC’s fixed this and alignment is dead on. Worth the $$$$!

 

This is the upper ball joint when the truck is parked. Looks like it didn’t actually split but rather pulled the boot free. I think I am going to order the SPC UCA’s.

 

Looks like a low quality boot/ ball joint. The angle actually doesn't look bad.
I prefer OEM only for things like ball joints and tie rods.

 

Spindle looks too short IMO I think good UCA's be the best solution?