Apparently Moog outer tie rods are trash....

[07TrailyLS]

So as of two or 3 months ago I overhauled nearly my whole front suspension . since then I've put nearly 5k or so miles. Here in northwest Ohio it's all highway driving. Ive had belltech drop struts installed for 2 years so I left the strut tower assemblies alone for this overhaul. I replaced both lca and brackets with acdelcos. Endinks with Moog. Outer tie rods with Moog. Checked under the truck today and my driver side lower ball joint has slight stress cracks in it. Looks like very cheap epdm. Not what I expected from a top of the line oem replacement part. Next I checked the outer TREs. Driver side was fine. Passenger side on the other hand nearly has the whole boot ripped through and through. Pathetic. Hopefully rockauto/Moog are quick with the "limited lifetime warranty" swaps. So this is basically just a heads up to everyone that expensive parts mean nothing these days. Thanks

 

[Tiggerr]

Hope that's an anomaly...
I have Delco Professional LCA,
Moog endlinks, UBJ and tie rods sitting on the shelf ready to go in my Rainier... if I can ever get time to do it lol...
Hate having to do things twice...

 

[Mooseman]

Personally, I'm not a fan of Moog. They're no better than most parts makers out there and sometimes inferior. I know the boots on their end links are just loose cups over the joints rather than a positive seal. I've had better luck with my local parts store house branded steering/suspension parts (made by MAS). If I want the really good stuff, I go with ACDelco usually from Amazon because buying them locally is ludicrous expensive. I have also been pleasantly surprised at times at the dealer on some things.

And lifetime warranty is just something all manufacturers throw out there to attract people when they know that the majority will not return them because they lost the receipt or don't care, don't remember.

 

[07TrailyLS]

I also noticed that about the endinks moose. Disappointed in the quality for sure. The funny thing is rock auto organizes the Moog parts in the best of the best economy category and puts the actual Delco brands in the daily driver category. Still can't wrap my head around that.

 

[Sparky]

Only issue I had with my Moog TRE was the inner TRE seized up to it which wasn't the fault of the Moog part. They still replaced it anyway despite it not being the Moog failure and I sent it back with a hunk of the threaded shaft of hte inner TRE still jammed in it.

I'm still of the opinion of the piles of crap out there Moog is the least crappy. I've just never had much luck with a lot of other stuff I've tried.

 

[Chickenhawk]

A lot of suspension pieces are made by the same two or three companies, and rebranded. There may be slight differences in the internal pieces they use to meet certain price points, and in stamping and labeling, but they are essentially the same.

This is why you get exactly the same sway bar bushings, whether made by AC Delco, Moog or NAPA.

The companies that make these parts usually make two distinct levels of quality. Many years ago, AC Delco realized they were losing parts sales to these cheaper brands, and when they moved most of their manufacturing to third-world countries and subcontracted all their parts manufacturing, they created two quality lines and named them AC Delco Advantage as the price-point parts, and AC Delco Professional as the higher quality parts. Today, AC Delco is just a name and makes virtually nothing themselves. So when someone says their Moog, AC Delco, Autozone or NAPA parts wore prematurely, it is hard to define unless one knows which of the two lines that part came from.

In all the years we have owned two Trailblazers, we have had most luck with NAPA high end, Moog premium or AC Delco Professional.

The only parts that have failed prematurely were brake rotors (that were a failed experiment in trying out slotted rotors, even though I knew they contribute nothing to performance.) They rusted under the braking surface, and actually delaminated, leaving huge chunks of rotor disc not making contact with the pads.

 

[07TrailyLS]

Good read. Thanks for the info
@Chickenhawk

 

[HARDTRAILZ]

I lump Moog right in with the other CCC

 

[Chickenhawk]

Sadly, nearly everything is made in China today.

The bigger question is, is the part made in a quality-controlled factory to the strict specs laid done by the client, or are they knocked off in factories that reverse-engineer the name brand products. (This means they buy a part, measure it, and make their knock-offs to roughly the same specs, give or take a few hundredths here and there.)

The other question is, if made to specs of the client, are they made to the specs of the "economy" line that will maybe get you through the next year, or the "premium" line that should last nearly the same as the original parts.

The other issue is that OEM is NOT the same as the original factory parts. Almost everything on the aftermarket is made in China, even the so-called OEM parts. But they are not the same parts that came from the factory.

When I look at the WalMart generation and today's consumer searching for the lowest possible price without recognizing anymore what quality looks like (or costs) I sometimes think World War Three is already over.

We lost, by the way.