19 Ram 1500 ball joint failure

[Malodave]

Years ago, I had a Lower Ball Joint separate on my VW Baja Bug. I was able to
drive it home (2Miles) it would make a right turn fine, but to turn left, it was
like a Supertanker's turn rate. Went to a parts place, they were sold out. Went
to another place they wanted $32 each. I have bought them before and this is
a $9 Part. I asked the Counter Guy "If this was a Sunday Afternoon need it price?"

I ordered the four set of ball joints out of CA for $49 total WITH 2 day Shipping.
Replaced the and all was great again in this world.

Malodave

 

[Jzales84]

Years ago, I had a Lower Ball Joint separate on my VW Baja Bug. I was able to
drive it home (2Miles) it would make a right turn fine, but to turn left, it was
like a Supertanker's turn rate. Went to a parts place, they were sold out. Went
to another place they wanted $32 each. I have bought them before and this is
a $9 Part. I asked the Counter Guy "If this was a Sunday Afternoon need it price?"

I ordered the four set of ball joints out of CA for $49 total WITH 2 day Shipping.
Replaced the and all was great again in this world.

Malodave

Thats not bad at all. The balljoints on these trucks are not serviceable and the whole control arm has to be replaced. It would be close to $1,000 just in parts to replace what was damaged.

 

[cj7]

Finally got a call from the dealer today. Truck is fixed mechanically but they still have not made a decision on what to do with the wheel and would like me to return the rental. I do not feel safe driving on this wheel that had the full the weight of the truck on the face of it. Is there a way to talk to someone about this other than the dealer?

Make sure they replaced the severly stretched brake line - that’s a tragedy waiting to happen...

 

[Eighty]

Years ago, I had a Lower Ball Joint separate on my VW Baja Bug. I was able to
drive it home (2Miles) it would make a right turn fine, but to turn left, it was
like a Supertanker's turn rate. Went to a parts place, they were sold out. Went
to another place they wanted $32 each. I have bought them before and this is
a $9 Part. I asked the Counter Guy "If this was a Sunday Afternoon need it price?"

I ordered the four set of ball joints out of CA for $49 total WITH 2 day Shipping.
Replaced the and all was great again in this world.

Malodave

What year VW was it? Long time ago, I turned my ‘71 Superbeetle into one (I know, not the best model to choose, but it’s what I had)

 

[Malodave]

What year VW was it? Long time ago, I turned my ‘71 Superbeetle into one (I know, not the best model to choose, but it’s what I had)

It was a '70 Bug with 14" of ground clearance. 31" x 11.50" rear tires. A built 2024cc
engine. Body lift, Suspension lift, etc.

Malodave

 

[BowDown]

Finally got a call from the dealer today. Truck is fixed mechanically but they still have not made a decision on what to do with the wheel and would like me to return the rental. I do not feel safe driving on this wheel that had the full the weight of the truck on the face of it. Is there a way to talk to someone about this other than the dealer?

There's no safety issue with the wheel, it should however be replaced because a failed part caused damage to it albeit cosmetic but that's not relevant. The wheel should have been replaced

 

[Jzales84]

There's no safety issue with the wheel, it should however be replaced because a failed part caused damage to it albeit cosmetic but that's not relevant. The wheel should have been replaced

I did make a call to Ram corporate and they handled it within a hour and covered the wheel. The dealer I think was just giving me a load of bs.

 

[cj7]

I did make a call to Ram corporate and they handled it within a hour and covered the wheel. The dealer I think was just giving me a load of bs.

Who at Corporate did you contact?

 

[Jzales84]

Who at Corporate did you contact?

No one specific, I just called the Ram customer service 1800 number and they reached out to the dealer on my behalf and got it done.

 

[rossn2]

My truck is 100% stock. Kind of scary, just glad it happened when it did and not at a higher speed. I could definitely see a modified suspension causing them to pop out like that.

Highly suggest you get Motor Vehicle Department for your state to send an Inspector out to review your truck. This may be an issue and Ram needs to do a recall to inspect 2019 trucks.

 

[Keffdawg]

While turning left out of my work parking lot today my passenger front wheel and hub assembly basically fell off my truck. Truck is a 2019 Laramie with air suspension and 30k. Has anyone seen this before? Truck is at dealership now but they haven't had a chance to look at it yet.

2019 Ram Rebel with 47,000mi, passenger side upper ball joint had a catastrophic failure while driving. Tire ended up into the fender well, taking out upper control arm, snapping lower ball joint, separating CV axle, bending inner tie rod, and bending strut. Over $2,000 (parts) in repairs. What I fixed on passenger side I did on driver’s side.

2 Rough Country Forged Upper Control Arms
2 Rough Country 2” Struts
2 Rough Country Rear Shocks
2 OEM Lower Control Arms
2 OEM Outer Tie Rod Ends
1 OEM Inner Tie Rod
1 OEM Axle

Control arms were touching inside of tires after install. So I got it towed to dealer for alignment and to check all torque specs on new components. Currently waiting on a phone call to determine if the alignment solved the upper control arm/tire issue.

Waiting for parts on the week before Christmas was awful.

 

[msnyder1112]

2019 Ram Rebel with 47,000mi, passenger side upper ball joint had a catastrophic failure while driving. Tire ended up into the fender well, taking out upper control arm, snapping lower ball joint, separating CV axle, bending inner tie rod, and bending strut. Over $2,000 (parts) in repairs. What I fixed on passenger side I did on driver’s side.

2 Rough Country Forged Upper Control Arms
2 Rough Country 2” Struts
2 Rough Country Rear Shocks
2 OEM Lower Control Arms
2 OEM Outer Tie Rod Ends
1 OEM Inner Tie Rod
1 OEM Axle

Control arms were touching inside of tires after install. So I got it towed to dealer for alignment and to check all torque specs on new components. Currently waiting on a phone call to determine if the alignment solved the upper control arm/tire issue.

Waiting for parts on the week before Christmas was awful.

Well, was that it?

 

[Keffdawg]

Well, was that it?

Yeah it’s aligned, and no issues. However the upper control arms are super close to the tire.

 

[msnyder1112]

Yeah it’s aligned, and no issues. However the upper control arms are super close to the tire.

Dang. Did they say it’s ok?

 

[Keffdawg]

Dang. Did they say it’s ok?

Yeah they said it was fine. The tires are larger than stock. So that makes sense.

 

[dixiedogg]

Have a 2020 Ram Rebel that I had all services performed at Ginn Ram in Covington, GA. That is until the rusty defective upper ball joint came out of its socket while going through an intersection. I opened a case with Ram Care who had told me that they would do a good-will repair. Ginn did not want to touch my truck and verbally told me it would cost $12k to repair and that it should go to a collision shop (I have since learned that I have been blacklisted by Ginn for leaving a bad Google review). Had the truck towed to Courtesy Collision in the next town over and they told me they only do body-work and it needed to go the dealership. The truck was moved to Courtesy Ram and was told by the service manager Chaz that I was in an accident and that Ram would not pay for it. I assured him that I was not in an accident and that it was due to a defective greaseless sealed ball joint. I told him that I would pay for it and work with Ram on getting reimbursed. The repair total was $6.7k because I had both upper and lower control arms ball joints replaced along with other damaged items. Chaz stuck to his idea that the ball joint was not defective and that there is no way a ball joint would last 57k miles with no grease. He only needed to look at it. He also told me that I would have felt the ball joint go bad placing the blame of the defective ball joint on me. Gave Chaz a bad review when I got my customer satisfaction survey and now I have been blacklisted by a second Ram dealership. To make things worse both Jason at Ginn and Chaz at Courtesy were correct, Ram Don’t Care sucks and they did not pay for it. They only paid for the towing and rental. They did a bait and switch with case manger at the last minute. Adding photos showing the junkyard part Ram put in their higher-end truck.