Sealed for life suspention components November 05, 2004, 11:46:20 PM Remember back in the late eighties when ford advertised "sealed for life" suspention components (specifically tie rod ends and ball joints). By now everyone knows that the grease inside get contanimated or leaks and the parts start to creek and wear out. I have a set of never used "sealed" ball joints. What would happen if I drilled and tapped a hole, in the base, and installed grease fitting. Has anone ever tried that? Quote Selected
Re: Sealed for life suspention components Reply #1 – November 05, 2004, 11:57:56 PM A while ago I was thinking of doing the same thing you intend to do but I replaced the hole control arm Quote Selected
Re: Sealed for life suspention components Reply #2 – November 06, 2004, 01:36:41 AM I'll let you know how it goes. With customer vehicals I have always replaced the control arms because the socket in the ball joint was always worn badly from lack of lubriaction. I was looking at a sealed ball joint next to an aftermarket one and they looked identical (besides the grease fitting). Quote Selected
Re: Sealed for life suspention components Reply #3 – November 06, 2004, 03:06:25 AM just make sure when you drill and tap them you dont get metal shaveings inside, but a buddy of mine did it to his stang and its held up a couple years now Quote Selected
Re: Sealed for life suspention components Reply #4 – November 10, 2004, 09:42:45 PM thats wierd,, now that you guys mention it,, my old original ball joints and tie rod ends had a "dummy bolt" in the already threaded hole. One inner tie rod end was the onlyl aftermarket replacement.ever seen that ? Quote Selected
Re: Sealed for life suspention components Reply #5 – November 10, 2004, 09:59:56 PM Those sealed for life ball joints are far more durable than the greasable type (though most people will disagree for some reason). My '88 T-Bird still has all of its original suspension components (it's 16 years old). My '87 had them until I replaced the noisey ball joints (they were 14 years old at the time). My '88 Cougar had all original parts and it was 11 years old when I wrecked it. Even my 85 T-bird, at 270,000 miles, had its original ball joints (though the tie rid ends were replaced). The best, though, was my Nissan truck, which still had its original ball joints and tie rod ends at over 500,000 MILES!!!!! This I know for 100% sure because between me and my father we owned that sucker since new(of course, the clutch in that thing lasted for over 270k miles and even then was only replaced because the tranny was out anyway). Sealed-for-life suspension components get a bum rap. When one wears out, even if it has a million miles on it, the owner looks at it and says "this wouldn't have worn out if I could have greased it", forgetting that it has already lasted longer than a greasable one would have. They are far more durable and trouble-free than non-sealed parts. The sealed components are usually just that: sealed. This means they keep the grease in and the water and dirt out. The rubber boots are usually held on with some sort of positive lock or press fit. The greasable ones, on the other hand, usually just have their rubber boots sitting on there, and when you grease them you end up forcing a bunch of water out. There is a reason why the lifetime warranty aftermarket parts are usually sealed while the "white box" parts are greasable. Sealed is just plain better. Quote Selected
Re: Sealed for life suspention components Reply #6 – November 10, 2004, 11:07:44 PM The "sealed for life" tie rods let loose on my old '84 in 1990. I think only 6 years out of a major suspension component is pretty laughable, especially after all my pampered driving (i.e. not driving like an idiot). Could later sealed tie rods have been manufactured better? Possibly. Could I have just had a bum set? Could be. But as long as I'm alive, none of my cars will have sealed-for-life components again. Losing control of a car just once because of them has taught me a lesson. Grease fittings are cheap, easy to install and I KNOW when they get greased (every oil change). Quote Selected
Re: Sealed for life suspention components Reply #7 – November 10, 2004, 11:26:58 PM I read the story on coolcats about your sealed for life components, and I wouldn;t trust em. What I cannot figure out, in my case, the sealed component creeks like a SOB but has no play at all and this is the second set of ball joints in the car in 101XXXmiles. My other experiances with sealed for life components have been poor. I know fwd fords just ate through ball joints that were sealed coughcoughtempotopazcough. (replace ever 60000miles or switch to moog parts!!) And now newer fords have suspention components with grease fittings again.I think the theory behind them is good but I like knowing when they get greased because I grease them every 3000 miles. However most people probably don't even know what grease fittings are, and their cars probably benifit from sealed components requiring less maintence Quote Selected
Re: Sealed for life suspention components Reply #8 – November 11, 2004, 08:47:28 AM Quote from: merccougar50 However most people probably don't even know what grease fittings are, and their cars probably benifit from sealed components requiring less maintence And there lies the key. Most people have their oil changed at places like Jiffy lube and Wal-Mart, and the guys doing those oil changes are not mechanics. The oil changes ususally consist of dropping the old oil out, swapping the filter, and (hopefully) putting new oil in. The grease nipples are usually ignored. Then, in a year, the person gets their car safetied and finds out they have worn out suspension components. Wonder how that happened? With sealed components the front end is "Wal-Mart proof". Some of the vehicles I know of with the worst reputation for eating up suspension components (GM trucks, Dodge Dakota, Jeep Cherokee) had greasable components. Up here where we have mandatory annual inspections, those vehicles nearly always require front end components to pass inspection. Eric: Just work in a GM shop for a while. After replacing countless ball joints and tie rod ends in S10's and C/K trucks that were only a year or two old, and tie rod ends on countless C/H, N, and J cars that are only a year or two old, you won't think six years out of a ball joint is unacceptable. Our warranty heap (the parts we had to save in case GM wanted to look at them) was full of fairly new suspension components, and I'm sure it's not a GM exclusive thing. Don't forget, it's not just normal wear that destroys ball joints and tie rod ends. One big pothole or speed bump hit can ruin a ball joint, a simple curb clip can destroy a tie rod end. If you live in an area with horrible, pothole-pocked, frost-heaved roads (Halifax, Nova Scotia, for instance) your suspension will wear out faster because it's working harder. Even something as simple as an unbalanced tire can wear suspension parts out quickly as the spindle assembly constantly vibrates. Even if you have sealed components all is not lost if the ball joints get noisey (a fairly common problem on these cars after they've sat for a bit). The ball joints in my '88 Cougar were noisey when I bought it (after it sat on the lot for 8 months). I simply took a small pick, poked a tiny hole in the rubber boots on the ball joints, and injected some grease into the rubber boot with a needle-type grease gun. The noise went away and it lasted another two years (and passed safety inspection twice) before I wrecked the car. Quote Selected
Re: Sealed for life suspention components Reply #9 – November 11, 2004, 10:01:42 PM i agree with TC,, i should have used sealed for life,, i really abused my front end not on purpose but just by the fact of where i live and the miles i have. One outter tie rod end was bad,, the other kind of floppy while the ball joints still could have stayed put. oh well,, i just felt like replacing all of it so id did. Quote Selected
Re: Sealed for life suspention components Reply #10 – November 11, 2004, 11:49:37 PM For best aftermarket replacements I would have to suggest against Ford parts (I rarly do that) the recomend MOOG (lifetime warranty) suspention parts. They very rarly fail but do cost more. And yes you have to grease them :) Quote Selected
Re: Sealed for life suspention components Reply #11 – December 08, 2004, 05:02:40 PM Wow, amazing how quickly my opinion on this issue changed!! I went to get my PT Cruiser inspected today (commuter/kid car) and he failed it because an outer tie rod end was bad. I was like WTF! The car is 3 years old and has 66000 miles on it! I imediately went and bought a new one and replaced it - got my sticker - whew! The old unit is a piece of shiznit formed steel piece with a "sealed for life" joint on the end. Yeah, sealed for life my ass - the ed joint was as sloppy as I've ever seen one - good thing it didn't separate while I was cruising down the highway!So, just like that I have lost my faith in these "sealed for life" components. :flip: Quote Selected
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