ball joints - which kind?

[Spinkx79]

Im gonna buy some lower ball joints today since this weekend is gonna rain, was just wondering which kind people preferred:

Mazda - $60 per
Partsource - $65 per (TSW or TRW)
Napa - $66 per (Dana lifetime)
Carquest - $39 (Import 1 yr)
Partsman - $118 (Moog lifetime)

I know with some things OEM is better, but where do ball joints stand?

Thanks

[im2bad4ya]

Hey Spinkx, I just had my lower ball joints replaced (Look at this forum: http://www.mx-3.com/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=50200 ) I went with Moog, off of RockAuto.com, it came out to $80 including S&H.

[Yoda]

You have to remember that each company usually has at least 3 levels of quality of parts the 1 line parts are usually about the same of better qualilty as the OEM parts. 2nd line parts are designed to be cheaper and near OEM quality and may be sold under a house brand name. The one to watch out for is what is refered to that the "white box" parts these are parts that failed the manufactures QC but are still serviceable but sold in generic packaging or in house brand packaging. For us in Canada the most well know 3 line brand is Motomaster.

I recently bought 1 line Moog balljoints for my cars for CN$ 29 including taxes but this was the price the wholesales pays for the parts + enough to cover their overhead