Upper ball joint failure

Bakerkj · **Posted:** Fri Apr 14, 2006 11:13 am

The dealer is blaming a dead upper ball joint on my lift. Will the lift cause a ball joint to go bad?

Jeepjeepster · **Posted:** Fri Apr 14, 2006 11:32 am

Yes it can. What lift do you have?

Bakerkj · **Posted:** Fri Apr 14, 2006 12:58 pm

I have a frankinlift. In the last three months. I have torn a cv boot, busted a ball joint and blown the front diff.

Neal · **Posted:** Fri Apr 14, 2006 1:18 pm

ya think the driver may have something to do with some of this????????

Jeepjeepster · **Posted:** Fri Apr 14, 2006 1:50 pm

Bakerkj wrote:

I have a frankinlift. In the last three months. I have torn a cv boot, busted a ball joint and blown the front diff.

Wow! That is crazy! Ive never seen someone have so much trouble? The only thing I would put towards the driver is the blown front diff. I do not think anything he could of done would of tore a cv boot. The ball joint could of been front jumping the jeep alot? I would get a pair of jeepin Als arms to fix that. I dont what would of turn the boot, maybe you have to much lift? Did you get the HD front coils or something and not get the arb bumper?

Bakerkj · **Posted:** Fri Apr 14, 2006 2:28 pm

Neal wrote:

ya think the driver may have something to do with some of this????????

if you consider lifting and wheeling a liberty Driver error, than you could be correct.

If the warranty doen't cover it I'll be giving jeepin al a call.

JJsTJ · **Posted:** Fri Apr 14, 2006 2:39 pm

Were you the guy that has gotten Air jumping his KJ or was that someone else? What caused your CV boot to tear? IIRC I thought I read about someone catching a stick in theirs. You? If not, Nevermind. If so, Hmmmmm....
I had both upper ball joints need replacing at 9k miles w/ a Daystar lift. It, like the LBJ's, is a poor design. If they had only included servicable ball joints in the design I bet they would last the life of the vehicle if serviced regularly. Go for Al's uppers and Moog lowers and grease the hell out of them regularly and they should last a Long time.

pixeldzn · **Posted:** Fri Apr 14, 2006 2:58 pm

Even if you don't get a set of Al's Upper Arms, I'd go ahead and get the Moog ball joints anyhow.

From Al's website:

These A-Arms and ball joints solve the problem of original equipment (OE) A-arm contact the front spring and the premature failure of the OE ball joint. In addition, the redesigned arms solve the adverse angle that the OE arm places the OE ball joint in after the Liberty is lifted.

Bakerkj · **Posted:** Fri Apr 14, 2006 3:03 pm

JJsKJ wrote:

Were you the guy that has gotten Air jumping his KJ or was that someone else? What caused your CV boot to tear? IIRC I thought I read about someone catching a stick in theirs. You? If not, Nevermind. If so, Hmmmmm....
I had both upper ball joints need replacing at 9k miles w/ a Daystar lift. It, like the LBJ's, is a poor design. If they had only included servicable ball joints in the design I bet they would last the life of the vehicle if serviced regularly. Go for Al's uppers and Moog lowers and grease the hell out of them regularly and they should last a Long time.

Jumping sounds like fun but it wasn't me. The boot tore while I driving on the road. The dealer said the angle was causing the boot to rub on itself and split.
If I had torn it on a stick or had done something stupid to cause failure I wouldn't be so annoyed by all this. I expect to do repairs, but I would like to have a cool story to go along with it. Not, "I was driving in the mall parking lot and I noticed a clunk sound when I hit the speed bump".

Bakerkj · **Posted:** Fri Apr 14, 2006 3:08 pm

pixeldzn wrote:

Even if you don't get a set of Al's Upper Arms, I'd go ahead and get the Moog ball joints anyhow.

From Al's website:

These A-Arms and ball joints solve the problem of original equipment (OE) A-arm contact the front spring and the premature failure of the OE ball joint. In addition, the redesigned arms solve the adverse angle that the OE arm places the OE ball joint in after the Liberty is lifted.

Since I have to replace the a arm anyway, I will get AL's and also replace the lowers with moogs, since it it is just a matter of time before they go out anyway.

KJ-BOL · **Posted:** Fri Apr 14, 2006 3:12 pm

Quote:

I expect to do repairs, but I would like to have a cool story to go along with it. Not, "I was driving in the mall parking lot and I noticed a clunk sound when I hit the speed bump

Ok... next time we go to badlands let's do pink & rock garden..... :twisted:

wait..... you will definetly need somebody to tag along with you..... my KJ is not ready for it yet..... couple more years when I do get all the toys I want and i know for a fact that I will keep the KJ for my offroading trips i'll come with -
maybe time now to start saving for Al's parts and prevent those problems

KJ04 · **Posted:** Fri Apr 14, 2006 6:43 pm

Bakerkj,
at least your dealer replaced your housing. My dealer turned me down on the housing but repaced the lower and upper ball joints, no questions asked. So I think you fared better than I did.

Bakerkj · **Posted:** Fri Apr 14, 2006 9:39 pm

They told me they wouldn't cover it under warranty, But I told them that was not acceptable, so the service guy is making some calls to the warranty department to try and get it ok'd.

If that doesn't work, I am going to the manager and I'm going to lay it down :twisted:

I have 4 local dealers and whoever takes care of this problem will be getting my future business. I'll let you know how it goes.

Jeepjeepster · **Posted:** Fri Apr 14, 2006 10:28 pm

Bakerkj wrote:

They told me they wouldn't cover it under warranty, But I told them that was not acceptable, so the service guy is making some calls to the warranty department to try and get it ok'd.

If that doesn't work, I am going to the manager and I'm going to lay it down :twisted:

I have 4 local dealers and whoever takes care of this problem will be getting my future business. I'll let you know how it goes.

Gosh, I wish I had 4 dealers that were close to me. One is 30min away, the next is 1 1/2 hours, then 2 hours.

Bakerkj · **Posted:** Sat Apr 15, 2006 12:09 pm

[quote=

Gosh, I wish I had 4 dealers that were close to me. One is 30min away, the next is 1 1/2 hours, then 2 hours.[/quote]

The sad part is, If I drive an hour I can find 7 or 8 dealers but I have to drive 3.5 hours to wheel!

Bakerkj · **Posted:** Fri Apr 21, 2006 12:11 pm

Here is the update. It has been a week and the dealer i purchased my liberty from still won't tell me if they will cover the repair under warrant. They keep telling me they have to check with someone else.

i called another dealership. I told the service guy my dealer was blaming the damage on the lift and the guy laughed and said bring it in we will take a look at it.

I dropped off my jeep yesterday and the repair will be covered under warranty. I have to drive an hour to get there, but I will gladly do it for thier customer service!

When and if my old dealer calls me back I'll let him know they lost my referrals and my future business for a lousy few hundred dollar repair! Dump business decision. Liberty auto city YOU ARE FIRED!

Guest · **Posted:** Fri Apr 21, 2006 12:41 pm

Bakerkj wrote:

Here is the update. It has been a week and the dealer i purchased my liberty from still won't tell me if they will cover the repair under warrant. They keep telling me they have to check with someone else.

i called another dealership. I told the service guy my dealer was blaming the damage on the lift and the guy laughed and said bring it in we will take a look at it.

I dropped off my jeep yesterday and the repair will be covered under warranty. I have to drive an hour to get there, but I will gladly do it for thier customer service!

When and if my old dealer calls me back I'll let him know they L.O.S.T. my referrals and my future business for a lousy few hundred dollar repair! Dump business decision. Liberty auto city YOU ARE FIRED!

Time to get Betty out for a little landscape mod at Liberty Auto City :twisted:

Isn't it just stupid as h#ll that we all have to go from dealer to dealer to dealer to get different problems fixed under warranty?

Upper ball joint failure

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