Moog Problem Solver lower ball joint - personal experience

[silver91]

Around the third week of February this year, I replaced the UCA's, lower ball joints, outer tie rod ends, sway bar end links, along with new Monroe struts on all four corners, & finished it off with a fresh front end alignment. Unfortunately by the end of March the 91 accord sedan had developed a severe squeak out of the driver side front. I progressed to reading post here in various attempts to alleviate the noise, which resulted in changing the inner bushings on the sway bar & the strut rod bushings contained in the front sub, still no luck. This last weekend I finally got around to changing the lower control arms, though they didn't really strike me as being bad. The bushings contained in the original LCA's didn't show any signs of cracking so I deemed them good at the time, back in February. This last weekend I broke out the tools once again & began the change over of the LCA’s. As I was finishing up the driver side & as I went to reinstall the lower knuckle/ lo ball joint back into the new lower control arm, I needed to push on the stud of the lo ball joint for it to go into the LCA - As I pushed on the stud I got sick & learned that the ball joint that had just been replaced in late Feb had already gone bad – A new moog problem solver ball joint – frustrating! In my younger years I worked in a Car Quest store for ten years, - then, as today Moog has always been virtually been the industry standard for front end components – I wont go as far as bad mouthing Moog & I’d still like to think that perhaps I got the one ball joint that didn’t get grease – but it does go to show that products are still man made & even though a person may feel that something may not need to be looked at because it has just been changed recently – well it pays to look at everything – I feel lucky – I was driving around on this bad ball joint for the better part of five months. Just passing along what I learned. Hope I haven’t bored you.

[Bad_dude]

Moog is good but like any brand, not every thing is good. Stick with OEM ball joints.
Did the boot break or the ball joint just went bad? If the boot didn't break then it's defective. Take it back for another brand.

[silver91]

The boot was in good shape - so I'd agree that it was defective. Unusual for the Moog brand. Yes - I've got OEM Honda on the way. Ironically, I still had the two old ones in a box along the wall, so I grabbed them & moved the studs, they both felt good & if I had new a boot I possibly would have put one of those back in, but I decided to be patient & order the new Honda pieces.

[Bad_dude]

When I bought the car over 4 years ago. The alignment guy never said any thing about all of my upper control arm boots and tie rod arm boots were all torn. I can still grease coming out of them. So I bought some OEM boots and circlips. Put those on with red grease. Still good 4 years later. I live in SoCal so we don't get the rust issue as bad. But all the joints were still smooth and tight.

[Cb_JoeyG]

Moogs problem solver line is improved designs of factory components. They are surerior to the oem pieces and 9 times out of 10 a factory piece will be moog depending on the car manufacturer lol

[Leung]

I must have gotten a bad Honda LBJ because i can't get the nut off now to replace the driver side wheel bearing and hub. The castle nut just spins with the stud that it mounts to, the nut is towards the end where the hole is for cotter pin. I replaced it two years ago but i only drove a couple of miles on it, that's all before i garaged the car.

[silver91]

I must have gotten a bad Honda LBJ because i can't get the nut off now to replace the driver side wheel bearing and hub. The castle nut just spins with the stud that it mounts to, the nut is towards the end where the hole is for cotter pin. I replaced it two years ago but i only drove a couple of miles on it, that's all before i garaged the car.

Can you possibly grab above the nut - (between the nut & the bottom of the ball joint itself) with vise grips tight enough so they wont spin on the stud & then remove the nut the remainder of the way. May have to get rid of whats left of the boot. Just a thought.

[Leung]

Can you possibly grab above the nut - (between the nut & the bottom of the ball joint itself) with vise grips tight enough so they wont spin on the stud & then remove the nut the remainder of the way. May have to get rid of whats left of the boot. Just a thought.

theres is nothing wrong with the boot itself, it still looks brand new like the day it was installed. I was thinking of just busting it and replacing it now to avoid any future headaches.

[xkjnboix]

Moog are lifetime gurantee from AZ so if it fails bring it back for another one. Honda doesnt offer that kind of deal

[bobbycos]

Moog are lifetime gurantee from AZ so if it fails bring it back for another one. Honda doesnt offer that kind of deal

make sure you have all reciepts

[Losiracer2]

I must have gotten a bad Honda LBJ because i can't get the nut off now to replace the driver side wheel bearing and hub. The castle nut just spins with the stud that it mounts to, the nut is towards the end where the hole is for cotter pin. I replaced it two years ago but i only drove a couple of miles on it, that's all before i garaged the car.

You need to add weight to it. Let the car down from the jack with the wheels and tires, and then remove the nut. It'll for sure come off after doing this.

Around the third week of February this year, I replaced the UCA's, lower ball joints, outer tie rod ends, sway bar end links, along with new Monroe struts on all four corners, & finished it off with a fresh front end alignment. Unfortunately by the end of March the 91 accord sedan had developed a severe squeak out of the driver side front. I progressed to reading post here in various attempts to alleviate the noise, which resulted in changing the inner bushings on the sway bar & the strut rod bushings contained in the front sub, still no luck. This last weekend I finally got around to changing the lower control arms, though they didn't really strike me as being bad. The bushings contained in the original LCA's didn't show any signs of cracking so I deemed them good at the time, back in February. This last weekend I broke out the tools once again & began the change over of the LCA’s. As I was finishing up the driver side & as I went to reinstall the lower knuckle/ lo ball joint back into the new lower control arm, I needed to push on the stud of the lo ball joint for it to go into the LCA - As I pushed on the stud I got sick & learned that the ball joint that had just been replaced in late Feb had already gone bad – A new moog problem solver ball joint – frustrating! In my younger years I worked in a Car Quest store for ten years, - then, as today Moog has always been virtually been the industry standard for front end components – I wont go as far as bad mouthing Moog & I’d still like to think that perhaps I got the one ball joint that didn’t get grease – but it does go to show that products are still man made & even though a person may feel that something may not need to be looked at because it has just been changed recently – well it pays to look at everything – I feel lucky – I was driving around on this bad ball joint for the better part of five months. Just passing along what I learned. Hope I haven’t bored you.

the shock noise is due to the upper shock mount bushings being hard as a rock. There are two per shock on the shock mount that isolate it from the body. Don't bother buying a Moog strut mount kit, it'll run you about 30 bucks each and will come with unnecessary parts you don't need to replace, such as the metal shock mount. All you need to do is replace the rubber bushings, they're about 2 dollars a piece from Honda. You'll need 4 total, 2 for each shock. That will take care of the noise for sure, I had the same problem with my car creaking over bumps.