Autozone control arms failing after 1 day!

[Js17hilton]

I really need help. Im getting really frustrated with this!

About a month ago I decided to replace all of the front end components on my trailblazer (06 LT, non ext). Tierod ends (inner and outer) all ball joints, shocks, and breaks all at once.
I bought all Deeza joints, and tiered ends along with bilstien stocks. I couldn't get the lower ball joints to press out of the stock arms, and I needed the vehicle to be done that day. I ended up calling auto zone and they happened to have 2 loaded control arms so i just went that route.

Got it all back together, and aligned... all was good for maybe a week. It started driving a little bit sloppy so I inspected it, and found a bad lower, passenger ball joint.
Ended up swapping it out at auto zone, got the next one on and all was tight... for about a week. So I swapped it about again and just like before got it all back together and tightened up and everything was perfectly tight.

I checked it after 1 day of driving and ALREADY there is play in the lower. Im 100% sure the looseness is in the lower ball joint. Ive also inspected the taper in the steering knuckle to make sure it is not worn. This is not the problem, the taper is in good shape, and locks up tight on ball joint.

The guy at auto zone tells me i MUST have something else going on because this "just doesn't happen".



Has anyone else had this problem? Is there anything that could cause this? Ive went over EVERYTHING in the front of this truck. Everything else seems to be fine.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

 

[NJTB]

It seems you've taken all the right steps in the diagnosis. I like the fact you checked the taper for the stud, no one does that unless it has very visible wear.
From what you've written, it seems to me to be poor quality parts. I can't think of anything that would wear a ball joint in days unless there was something radically wrong, either visible or noises while driving. Even then, they should last for longer than that.
FWIW, I'm suspicious of aftermarket parts from China, where I suspect the control arms came from.
My best guess would be to go for GM parts, and do it again.
Please let us know what happens.

 

[Hypnotoad]

Autozone parts are crap in my opinion. I had a duracrap tierod break and leave my wife stranded in the middle of a busy Walmart parking lot. It was only a few months old. I've never had good luck with their brake parts either.

 

[Js17hilton]

Thanks,

Ive got some high quality balljoints I'm going to have pressed into the stock control arms (along with new bushings). Im going to take it to a well known front end shop around here and tell him exactly what is going on for when he aligns it again.

I'm thinking it has to be parts.

I will have an update later this week.

 

[HARDTRAILZ]

Man that sucks