stevietuck
Posted a lot
Never argue with idiots,they drag you down to their level then beat you with their expertise!
Posts: 1,350
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Has anyone else had problems with sub standard replacement ball joints? I've had my mondeo tdci daily for about three years, first mot i did on it i replaced both front wish bones both sourced from an ebay shop. The next year one of the new wish bones had a split rubber so i drilled out the rivets and bolted on a new ball joint sourced from my local motor factors. For its latest mot (Oct last year) both ball joints had worn out so i drilled out the other side then bolted on two new ball joints sourced from ebay again. So the Saturday before last i decided to have a look over the front end as i was starting to here knocks (again!!) and i was going away for the weekend the following weekend. Imagine my surprise to find two knackered bottom ball joints! So lets count them shall we? three bottom ball joints on one side and two on the other in less than three years! Now if your thinking, yeah but what kind of mileage are you doing well let me tell you, less than 6000 a year and no i don't take it off roading and i drive like a granddad!!! Anyway sod this thinks me it must be cheap e bay parts so 2x delphi bottom ball joints later ( so that's 4 on one side 3 on the other) and I'm driving from the north of Scotland down to Doncaster to visit family, the new ball joints have now been on the car 6 days and iv had the tracking set and what's that knocking noise i can hear from the front end??? Next day i jack the car up outside my sisters house give the front wheels a good wiggle and can anyone guess what i found? yes you guessed it 2x knackered bottom ball joints!!! Called the on-line motor factors id bought the delphi joints from and told them what had happened and the girl said so do you think they are faulty? yes i do , oh ok il send you out two more. Now don't get me wrong, I'm glad they are replacing them free of charge but I'm not convinced that the new ones will last any longer than a week! Anyone else had this kind of problem? cheers steve.
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taurus
Posted a lot
Posts: 1,084
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I've seen plenty of cheap pattern parts which are made of second rate chocolate, which is why I never buy off ebay sites. But Delphi is usually OK. So long as they were actually Delphi components in the box?
Other than that - unless there's something wrong with the geometry which is causing the BJs to fail - but the tracking check should have spotted that if it was the case.
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stevietuck
Posted a lot
Never argue with idiots,they drag you down to their level then beat you with their expertise!
Posts: 1,350
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The delphi joints came in boxes that looked real, they even had holograms on them but how can you tell if they are real lol!
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B.J. Problems?Deleted
@Deleted
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The delphi joints came in boxes that looked real, they even had holograms on them but how can you tell if they are real lol! Send them back to Deplhi, there might be a fault they are not aware of or their supplier may be using cheap material.
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steveg
Posted a lot
Posts: 1,586
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A lot of aftermarket companies get parts from lots of suppliers, some are probably better then others. . I think I would be tempted to get genuine ones but wonder if you could get the same parts direct from whoever supplies Ford at a more reasonable price.
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I had 2 delphi track control arms for my sierra and the bushes didn't last 500 miles, so I polybushed them, the ball joints have been good though and still are 2 years later
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stevietuck
Posted a lot
Never argue with idiots,they drag you down to their level then beat you with their expertise!
Posts: 1,350
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I think i might contact delphi once the new joints have arrived and iv fitted them.Iv chucked the old boxes away so need the new boxes to put the knackered joints in to send them to delphi if they want to see them. Thanks for the replies guys, I think from now on I'm only going to buy from local suppliers it works out cheaper in the end!
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bortaf
Posted a lot
Posts: 4,549
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Had loads of problems with these (and Mk5/6 escort Mk4/5 fiesta/focus ect) first line ones are the same, lucky to get a year out of them, OE is the best option i've found but so many peeps wont pay the cost even if in the long run it's cheaper, although TBH it's usually the bushes that go (rip) in no time rather than the joints but i havn't used delphi before.
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R.I.P photobucket
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taurus
Posted a lot
Posts: 1,084
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Delphi parts are often used as OEM so they are usually OK. At our local factors I often buy their stuff and never had an issue yet. But it is not unknown for spurious parts to find their way into genuine boxes.
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stevietuck
Posted a lot
Never argue with idiots,they drag you down to their level then beat you with their expertise!
Posts: 1,350
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To be honest i bought the delphi ones because they were delphi thinking they would be good. Its only now they have turned to cheese thats its got me thinking , are they fake? Like i said the boxes looked real and had holograms but i didnt really look that close, cant wait for the replacements to arrive now so i can have a good look!
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ChasR
RR Helper
motivation
Posts: 10,241
Club RR Member Number: 170
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B.J. Problems?ChasR
@chasr
Club Retro Rides Member 170
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IME go genuine or for the best 'OE' solution if that is not available. Cost however is an issue.
I have previously been caught out by going for 'OE' stuff (including brands like Lemforder & Boge) where the genuine stuff has outlived them threefold. I could quote examples but this thread would soon become a snorefest.
All I shall say is that between 5 Mondeo Mk3s I have seen them cover just shy of 900k under my ownership (in terms of the miles we put on) and with them sharing 1.4 million miles between them. Bar one almost all of them were on original lower arms ; the bushes were possibly a little soft on some (although the bushes in the 400k arms were firmer than a lower arm a friend bought for his Mk3!) but IME far better than pattern stuff would have been within a year's use and they still passed an MOT without an advisory (which was done twice a year due to their use). I did use cheap and pricey bits on some (sometimes both on the same car) to come to the above conclusion.
That and my father (who worked in the vision industry with people like TRW and Lemforder) had something interesting to say about the manufacturer 'grading' techniques.
People will disagree with the above and say I enjoy throwing cash away but it is my experience and view. With the mileage I was covering I soon became sick of doing the same job twice despite the expense ; The cars I were driving were covering between 50-90k a year.
Please in the future don't have "BJ" in the thread title. You'll give people the wrong idea!
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Last Edit: Jun 3, 2015 23:29:04 GMT by ChasR
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stevietuck
Posted a lot
Never argue with idiots,they drag you down to their level then beat you with their expertise!
Posts: 1,350
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Ha ha! i did that thinking more people would read it!
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ChasR
RR Helper
motivation
Posts: 10,241
Club RR Member Number: 170
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B.J. Problems?ChasR
@chasr
Club Retro Rides Member 170
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Close but no cigar . I worked for the enemy ; Private Hire! I only drove 3 of the Mondeos (a family member was in the game before I was) for the job but dealt with and worked on 5 of them (1 was my sister's car ; she used to travely from Warwick to London everyday for work). To summarise: 2001 2.0 Ghia X went from 77k to 380k - I was given the car - I should not have scrapped it (the diff went in it) 2003 2.0 Ghia X (sister's car) - 100-210k 2004 2.5 Ghia X V6 Auto - 114k-281k - That car was a pain from start to finish! 2005 3.0 Ghia X V6 111k-265k - A great car but most fixings were seized on the damn thing! This got written off by a careless driver 2007 1.8 LX - 133k-300k (and rising) - This has been a great car albeit a slow one! The '01, '04, '05 & '07 all did driving work, but I only all but one (the '01 ; I was a chef back then!).
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Last Edit: Jun 4, 2015 18:54:33 GMT by ChasR
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Hi, it was the two MOT,s a year that gave it away. Most of that mileage was done at full working temperature, It's the cold starts and short journeys that kill engines. Personally I don't think you can beat a Ford for racking up high mileages with ease.
Colin
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stevietuck
Posted a lot
Never argue with idiots,they drag you down to their level then beat you with their expertise!
Posts: 1,350
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Well today is friday and i really hope these new joints arrive today, i'v been using the car to do local trips to shop and the like and it now feels really bad so its off the road now till i get this sorted!
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Balljoints on mine lasted six months, rubber had cracked all the way round. They were about £6 each.
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stevietuck
Posted a lot
Never argue with idiots,they drag you down to their level then beat you with their expertise!
Posts: 1,350
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Well I have a confession to make, when i said that the two delphi joints i put on the car last week were both knackered, I had actually only checked one side and had then walked away in disgust when i found the drivers side was rattling about so assumed they were both fakes. So today the new, new joints arrived so i got stuck in to the drivers side, had the old joint out in about 20 mins and the new one in and put back together in no time. put the wheel back on gave it a wiggle and the dam thing was rattling about still! Right they must be fakes I'm saying to myself just as i notice the pinch bolt that holds the joint in wasnt pulled all the way through the knuckle so the joint was able to rattle about! oh curse word! What seems to have happened is that the thread on the pinch bolt was full of crud so when i had tightened it had got tight, but it wasnt pinching the ball joint tight enough, so in with a new pinch bolt tightened up properly and I'm feeling both very happy and very silly! More good news, when i went round the the other side and there was no play in that joint at all, so car fixed and i now have two spare ball joints in my shed as there was nothing wrong with the originals!!
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ChasR
RR Helper
motivation
Posts: 10,241
Club RR Member Number: 170
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B.J. Problems?ChasR
@chasr
Club Retro Rides Member 170
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Whilst many do not do this (including me previously) it is meant to be good practice to change the balljoint bolts and nuts once they have been disturbed.
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stevietuck
Posted a lot
Never argue with idiots,they drag you down to their level then beat you with their expertise!
Posts: 1,350
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Chas i think your right mate, it may even say as much in the haynes, but we all tend to pick and chose which bits of info to take any notice of
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