I have a 2013 4dr Rubicon that I lifted with a Rubicon express 2.5 lift at about 40k miles and then put 33" tires on at about 50k miles. I am first owner.
I have really not driven it off road much like I planned. I dont drive it much at all, Im usually driving my old Willys army jeep if Im not in the company truck.
Any way, Im now at 85k miles and the shop I have perform my oil and service on the modern cars showed me my ball joints are getting loose. Im really surprised that they are that loose already at only 85k but a friend told me nah, the lift and tires on the stock ones is expected, they are junk is what he said, dont use OEMS he says....
So I looked around at aftermarket and I dont know what to get.
Knurled or not knurled
Zert fitting equipped for greasing or not?
What brand should I consider for quality and price?

Im going to get them and have the shop install them.

 

You don’t need knurled joints, I would definitely get greasable joints as well. As far as brand, I can’t say much but I’ll give you my experience. I had teraflex hd joints and they were garbage. I upgraded to rare parts recently but they seem stout and spread the load on the top a bit. I would recommend gussets on your c’s if you get the rare parts joints though.

 

Agree with everything @Sv_dude said. I have the Rare Parts also and they have been good so far. Also gusseted the "c's" too before having them installed.


This is as cheap as I have seen them but unfortunately they are out of stock at OK4WD-> https://ok4wd.com/rare-parts-rp12573...ep-wrangler-jk

 

I picked up a set randomly from amazon almost a year ago, was the only place i could find them.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

What other brands besides "Rare Parts can you recommend?

 

@resharp001 uses dynatrac joints. He has had mixed results with them but those seem to get good reviews online.

my opinion is that all the ~$300(ish) joints are a wash and unreliable. If you want good joints that will last, it’s gonna cost you a little bit.

 

Here is the issue -


It's not so much that they "loosen up", it's that one of those caps cracks and at that point it's sayonara. Agree, you don't need knurled. Rare Parts is best you're going to do. Anything else is going to be a crap shoot. With 33s you might get by just fine, maybe not. All the mid-tier offerings are going to have mixed experiences from different members. If you can do the work yourself then maybe take your chances on a mid-tier brand. If you have to pay to have it done, I'd no doubt just put in RP's and not think about it again.

 

Here is the real issue with DT in my humble opinion. People buy into the rebuildable bullshit. The fact they didn't last me more than 40k miles the first time is kinda neither here nor there when it comes down to me really telling folks to stay away from them. There's a lot of x-factors in my build, use, wheel backspace at the time....things that many others might not deal with, but the fact that the rebuild of those was comical AND pricey, just does not makes sense. The upfront cost, the cost of the rebuild kits, and the hassle of rebuild was all just dumb. There is no doubt that if I had to do it all over again I would have gone with Rare Parts. In all the years I've been hanging around, I can't say I recall anyone saying anything negative about RP. That sure doesn't mean much, but I've seen negative comments about every other single brand out there......outside of those ball joint deletes that I just haven't looked at close enough since I have no need for them at the time. I would much rather just press out/in the old and new joints than to rebuild those DTs again. It was no easier at all, in fact I wasted a lot more time.

I kinda look at it like this.....outside of the front track bar, balls joints on these JKs are the biggest issue when it comes to front end problems. Do it the best you can, have some peace of mind, and move forward. For a lot of folks, paying labor for install on top of cost of parts is salt in the wound when they have to be warranted on a failure cuz guess who is again paying the labor? If you can do the job yourself then the gamble is really just more of a hassle of doing the job again with replacement parts.

 

I installed the Teraflex HD ball joints with no problems over 40K although I know I’m not wheeling it extreme like resharp001. I will take the advice and go with the Rare Parts the next time I need to replace which I know will probably be coming soon. Thankfully I have not had any problems with mine and they really are not that hard to replace provided your Jeep isn’t all rusty/corroded. Recommend do it yourself and save that labor cost!

 

I had been looking at Quadratec at what is offered there and a friend suggested I go with the Synergy brand. What do you guys think of those?

I looked up Rare parts, dman, its a rare wallet that can afford those. 600 bucks yikes.

I have a lifetime warranty on jeep that I purchased on it new. It covers the engine, drivetrain and electronics. Ya think the ball joints would be covered under that and maybe I should take my jeep in to the dealer and show them?