I am going to buy a set of whiteline ball end joints, basically just the upper and lower ball end joints for the front wheels, when I was talking to the sales guy to see if they have any in stock he mentioned they only last for 2 years, I see on youtube that there is a way to drill and tap grease nipples into ball joint and pump grease in them to make them last longer, has anyone ever done this and does it work? Ball joints usually have grease trapped in the boot that lasts to the end of the joint anyway

Edit: it was a shop that sells them, not whiteline themselves, and I think he meant under hard Evo type conditions they will need replacing not fail

 

Most import cars don't have fittings in the ball joint housings. You can certainly dill and tap in a fitting.

Sales guy at Whiteline?? Hmmm I wish Whiteline would make that info known when you buy their crap. Would have saved me about 7k in damage. I'll be looking for a different aftermarket set ASAP. Not going through that again.

 

If the arent torn then you dont need to add grease. Ball joints are tough and will last longer then 2 years. They usually dont just fail. Takes impact to curbs and shiyet

 

My whiteline roll center kit has been on the car for 2.5 yrs now. No signs of issues with the joints. I did have to change the boots once though.

 

Back when cars were rear drive and had drag link front steering I'd hit all the grease fittings every 3k miles without fail. No street driven car got better maintenance and still parts would begin to show play and need replacement. Constant greasing is not the answer. Better parts is the answer.

 

Strange. my WL kit failed on me after probably a year. First a tie rod crapped out on me and then the BJ and then the other side. I will say however, I called WL when my tie rod went bad attempting to just buy one tie rod and they warrantied the thing. And to my surprise when I received the package in the mail, I received the entire kit.

I swapped the tie rod on and actually just recently finally replaced the other parts as my ball joints had been clunking for almost a year now and I never got around to doing it. I was forced to replace it when I failed inspection. The inspection place was pretty pissed at me when they told me about it and I said "yeah I know the BJ is bad, as is the tie rod"

Of course they wanted the work but I said I'll bring it back in the morning for a retest.

Anyway, not here to bash the WL product as I do like it and WL is a great company. But I was surprised that it didnt last very long. This is what mine looked like when I swapped it. The grease was essentially dirt, lol!

 

^ How did all that dirt and grime get inside the ball joint boot? Glad nothing bad happened as a result.

I've been on the whiteline RCA's for many years now with no issues except the boots becoming dry. When you replace the boots, they come with fresh grease to place inside.

-pal215

 

Yeah they had some play in them and I was busy so I kept putting it off, lol

So, it was a dirt like substance but I think it was actually just the dried up grease. There were no rips in the boot or any real way for the dirt to get up in there. The boots certainly do dry up too as you mentioned.

Maybe it might be wise to pop off the boot routinely repack them and put on a new boot? I don't know why mine failed on me so quickly but my car is also daily driven in the rain snow etc so who knows.

 

I think that is a product of the environment your car sees, and it would appear the boot is not sealing well in wet/snow conditions. I would be re-greasing that joint every now and then...