do not buy upper control arms from advance

[lostforawhile]

do not buy upper control arms from advance,they say TRW on the box,but they are made by the three five company not TRW. they are garbage. I was on my way to work,and my right wheel started shaking and pulling so hard to the right that I almost couldn't keep it on the road. I made it to the plant and discovered my right side ball joint on my upper arm was shot. it's only two years old!!! I had to bring my car home on a flatbed,then I discovered the left one is shot too, bought and installed at the same time., I could see one maby going bad that quick as a fluke,but both of them failing at the same time? the main problem with them is the boot is so poorly designed it has a seam right where it flexes. so of course it splits wide open in a short time,and bye bye grease and ball joint. I paid over a hundred bucks apiece for these arms plus the bushings which can't be removed without destroying them. if there was an aftermarket boot available to replace the one on them they might be all right, but now i'm stuck with the same crap again under warranty. and the parts won't be in until friday.

[Strugglebucket]

hmm, i've got three five ball joints on my car but they came in a three five box. hope the same thing doesn't happen to me.

['89AccordLX(Rus)]

I've ran into a similar issue with an upper control arm purchased at Autozone. I replaced the boot with an OEM Honda part (with new circlip) and it has been doing just fine. Perhaps you could look into getting some high quality OEM boots for these before installing them? The OEM boots last a long time. BTW, I used a MOOG upper control arm on the front right side and the boot on that side is holding up pretty well. Another point in MOOG's favor for quality. Just my $.02

[carotman]

I always get my balljoints from Honda directly. I know they last for 10 years without a flaw.

I agree on the bushings tough, they suck

['89AccordLX(Rus)]

I actually managed to remove the bushings using the hooked end of a medium sized puller arm. These were new bushings that I pressed in without installing the dust seal first (doh). It took two people, but they came out.

[lostforawhile]

these had been in for a couple of years,so they wearn't worth the trouble to pull,they have agreed to pay me for the bushings though. that still doesn't compensate me for the time to pull the arms,take the arms apart and the trouble to have the car towed home and not being able to use it for days. I just expected these to be quality parts for the money. they are critical to the safety of the car.

[Kabuki]

Er... Lost, you just got a defective unit. Sankei/555 makes the original equipment ball joints for Honda. You know, the ones that were on your car for the first 15+ years of it's life? Yeah, those. Sorry, but nobody MAKES a better ball joint, save for possibly Moog, and they don't have many skus in Honda land.

[lostforawhile]

both of them failed,one was so bad I couldn't drive the car any more,then I discoved the other one was almost as bad. they were both installed at the same time,they were installed correctly,I am very picky about doing suspension work,torqued properly etc. when both ball joints get that bad that fast something is very wrong, the right side one had turned blue from heat damage. these are very critical parts if one of these fails completly,you WILL lose control of your car when the wheel decides to turn sideways. It's possble that these are OEM stampings from the arm with a rebuilt ball joint in it. or they are building them from original arms or using the original die to stamp them. I just can't see two Honda OEM ball joints failing that fast. they are made in Japan so maby another Japanese company is using original tooling to make them. the other problem is the boots are very poorly made thats one reason they failed. the design used in these boots stresses them right at the point they are vulcanized together of course they split in two. I have original boots that are twenty years old here and they aren't even dry rotted. yet both boots also split apart in two years? If I could have gotten my money back I would have gotten MOOG but all they can do is replace the parts. my new bottom ball joints are MOOG and you can see the quality in them. the boots are made of a new type of material that doesn't crack. on thois note does anybody know if the 90 accord ball joints are the same diameter as ours? if they are I can get energy suspension ball joint boots for them.

[88Accord-DX]

Damn, that's gotta blow.. Need to get you car lowered with some Prelude arms & removable upper ball joints. (moog)

You must have some serious potholes & bad roads out there in nowhere land to tear up ball joints that quick.

[lostforawhile]

leave it to them again,they were suppposed to order two sets of upper control arm bushings,the receipt said one set,I showed it to the woman there,she swears they ordered two sets,guess what,I get there today, they only ordered one set. they say it'll take days to get another set. advance can kiss my ass. I've had it with them.