About four months ago I replaced my passenger side ball joint. I tried to find a Moog, but no one had them in stock, so I went with the Duralast from Autozone. I'm not a big fan of Autozone. I've had problems with them giving me wrong parts in the past for my SVT and other cars, but it was the only one I could find in stock and I needed it. Fast forward four months later to last Friday. I'm on my way home from a week in the White Mountains ,cruising with the flow of traffic a 60mph on a two way mountain rd (RT16 for those who know)with my Wife and the dog in the car, when my steering wheel gives a quick shimmy and BAM! My right front tire kicks out. I slide about 500 yds down the road ,in to the break down lane, while bouncing of the guardrail a couple of times. So my tire and rim are toast, front quarter of my car is smashed to hell, lip is ripped off, CV axle is destroyed and a few other things are lost in the carnage. So what was the cause of this? The Duralast ball joint, but not really the ball joint it's self.While waiting for the tow truck, I looked at the ball joint and other than some road rash it didn't seem damaged, so I checked the spindle. It also was intact. I couldn't figure out why it came out. So after looking a little closer I stuck my finger in the hole where the ball joint sits in the spindle and I find the problem. I can't feel the pinch bolt. The pinch bolt that was provided with the Duralast ball joint did not flare out and therefore did not hold the ball joint in. After having it towed to a local shop the Mechanic verified my suspicion. We got an OEM bolt from the local Ford dealer and in a side-by-side comparisons the OEM bolt has a larger circumference. I contacted my insurance company about the situation told them basically everything I said here and they are going after Duralast for the damage. I will never buy so much as a sponge from Autozone ever again.

Glad you and your family are ok! Another bad part from Autozone!

Holy unmatched part Batman!!!

I was a little scared of the smaller camber adjustment bolt when I installed mine in the rear of the wagon, but those were rated at 12.9, so I figured it would be ok.

I'll keep that in mind since my driver's side ball joint seems iffy at the moment. I know I've discovered some parts differences between the Zone and Moog parts that go on my wife's old van. The Sway bar end links from the Zone were too short, and the bushings were too small. I paid twice as much for the Moog part- but it worked correctly.

I typically go to O'Reilley's now, but I do price compare parts when I can to reduce the price of the O'Reilley's part. I do the same thing for motor parts, but shamefully the best place I've found for getting my motor parts is nearly 45 mins away.

Thanks. It was a scary ride, but no one was hurt. I should have known better than to put an autozone part on my car.

I have no problem with getting some parts at autozone. You can get good pads and rotors there, just don't get the low end stuff. Their batteries are pretty good. They're typically the cheapest when it comes to fluids, cleaners, etc... But NEVER buy front end or steering parts from them. They are junk! I'm surprised your ball joint lasted four months honestly. Even after one year of duty I've seen tie rods come out of their socket. That's bad.

Well you have convinced me to stay with OEM parts from the dealer.

Well you have convinced me to stay with OEM parts from the dealer.

Thats a safe way to go, but Moog make very good after market ball joints, tie rod ends, and so on. My driver side ball joint was replaced with a Moog as were my tie rod ends and they're solid as can be.

.. But NEVER buy front end or steering parts from them. They are junk!

Thanks for telling me now. LOL

The company I work has a discount with a local parts distributor. And I have the owner's advantage with Ford, so that gets me 5% any parts or services.

Duralast is junkie crap. Never, ever buy that garbage. Autozone is only good for cleaning products, oil, etc, things that are the same at any store. The best parts come from Napa and Carquest, with O'Reilly being not too far behind. Advance and Autozone sell junk.

Dang man, I hate to hear this and I am glad that you and the wife are OK. I have had this happen waaaaaaaaay back in 1998 on a '91 Escort GT that I had. I came out of my dirt road and shifted into second and BAM! The wheel went ape shit and a sliding I went with no control over where the car was headed. Luckily I had only made it to about 25 or 30 mph and I got it stopped pretty fast. My problem was that the ball joint stud broke. I learned a valueable lesson that day, NEVER drive with your thumbs in the wheel! [eek]

Duralast is junkie crap. Never, ever buy that garbage. Autozone is only good for cleaning products, oil, etc, things that are the same at any store. The best parts come from Napa and Carquest, with O'Reilly being not too far behind. Advance and Autozone sell junk.

I couldn't have said this any better myself. NAPA and Carquest have some of the best parts on the planet. I personally think that Carquest has better bearings than the dealer, and that's any make. O' Really's (I call them that to poke fun at a friend that works there [:D]) are quickly becoming my number two. I have yet to get a part from them that I thought was made inferior.

NEVER buy front end or steering parts from them. They are junk!

Well I got one for ya. My old 5 spd Aerostar received a new rack/tie rods from the Zone. 4 weeks later I was reversing out of a parking spot and landed the passenger wheel directly on a concrete pole (one of the short ones painted yellow so you can't miss it) bending the heck out of the inner tie rod. I went home that night, removed the old rack, took it back in, and exchanged it (they didn't even look) for a new one. Then, like 5 years later, I went back in and got another new rack and tie rods for my work van- also an Aerostar- under the same lifetime warranty.

hehehe- working the system dude. Not nearly as well as my friend who runs a graphic arts business and has bought only one laptop in 10 years- yay Applecare. This dude always has the latest stuff- for free- because he abuses the ones he has so much.

Some of you guys tickle me.... I wont buy from X vendor but I will from Y vendor..... even though the chances are its from the same manufacturer.

First you should NEVER replace parts without doing a side by side compairison.... if that was done then you wouldnt have "smashed the pumpkin"

i been finding that the dealer prices for parts aren't that far out off range from the auto parts stores and you could try for a suppliers discount if you work for a manufacturer for the big three.Sometimes all you have to do is say you do like if theres a plant around you that drop the name of it all they can say is no.uaually 20% discount

Some of you guys tickle me.... I wont buy from X vendor but I will from Y vendor..... even though the chances are its from the same manufacturer.

First you should NEVER replace parts without doing a side by side compairison.... if that was done then you wouldnt have "smashed the pumpkin"

I buy parts for 5 different vehicles, and was buying for 6 up to recently. When you're buying for Japanese, American, cars, motorcycles, lawn mowers, old, new...you quickly learn who is talking smack and who's the real deal. Carquest definitely is not selling the same stuff as Autozone and Advance. Same with NAPA. And the reason O'Reilly is so cool, IMO, is because they carry motorcycle oil filters and hard to find parts for lawn mowers and all kinds of stuff. Carquest is for gearheads that like to make their own stuff. They literally have everything. I bought my floor jack from Carquest and nobody could come even close in quality or price, not even Sears. The NAPAs around me are small so I rarely shop at them because they have to order from a warehouse, but I know that they are good from past experience. Hell, Carquest has Akebono ceramic brake pads as a house brand. Trust me, Advance and Autozone can't begin to compete with that. There's a big difference IMO. It's not just hype and preference for me.

To beat a dead horse, an example of Duracrap. Last time I bought that junk was a distributor cap about 5 years ago. If you pulled the wire of the cap, it would pull the metal piece that the rotor sends spark to, right out of the cap as if it wasn't attached. That's a problem. The wires are junk; never seat right. It's all junk IMO. I wouldn't put that stuff on an enemy's car out of respect for the car.

Finally, Autozone and Advance sell a lot of junk from China and other backwards third-world countries. The other three usually focus on American parts, but you'll find Chinese stuff everywhere of course. The country of origin is important to me.