Anyone Experience Total upper/lower front Control Arm Failure While Operating at Low Speeds? 2021 1500 Laramie Longhorn

[recklessconduct]

I had a 2" leveling kit professionally installed on the front end of my 2021 Laramie longhorn 1500. I also upgraded all 4 tires to Toyo Open Country RT 305 55 R20's. All this was done at approximately 36,000 miles. At approximately 60,000 miles I began to notice a periodic steering wobble during hard acceleration at speeds over 50 mph but no noises, squeaks, creaks, etc to indicate issues until I was driving through a shopping center parking lot at speeds under 7 mph and my entire right wheel assembly falls completely off the truck.
My dealership quoted me $16,000 to repair the damage. Yes, sixteen thousand dollars! I have a friend who builds custom 4X4 systems who fixed it for $2100, using quality aftermarket parts. He said the MOPAR parts were complete garbage. Six months later the drivers side wheel assembly fell completely off in the Dodge dealership garage bay AFTER they allegedly inspected & said it was okay during servicing.

 

[jl13]

I don't think I would call this a common issue but it is a known issue on both the 4th and 5ft gen.
I have seen this happen to atleast 3 members here. At parking lots. Maybe others will give you some feedback on cost, etc
For this reason I changed to aftermarket uca's.

 

[jl13]

If you are going to keep the lift after you fix it. For sure upgrade uca's and if you are running the top hat lift spacer consider doing adjustbale struts like the bilsteins 5100.
See pics, the angle on the uca's improve with the upgrade, its less stress on the ball joint. And more metal than plastic

 

[HSKR R/T]

Looks like it was a cheap top hat spacer level. Didn't change UCAs. Ball joints failed due to increased stress of different suspension geometry. When you had your fried "fix" your passenger side, he should have inspected the driver's side at the same time and "fixed" that as well. As other have mentioned, get yourself some proper aftermarket UCAs, and a better level kit that doesn't use spacers.

 

[Jedi9]

Something like this happens, definitely redo both sides, with upgrades. going back like it was will produce the same results

 

[PurpleRT]

Common…no but has happened to a few guys on here and while I always recommend at least the Mopar 2” control arms if leveling.. prices are very reasonable of course there’s better out there but that also comes with more cost.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

 

[boogielander]

welp you went cheap in the first place and now it came back to bite you.
if a shop installed that spacer lift for you... i'd question how "professional" they are...

and if your friend didn't tell you NOT to run spacer lifts (with or without stock UCA), or he didn't give you an earful for running that spacer junk, i'd question how experienced he is in 4x4 and IFS.

let this be an expensive lesson for all running spacers and hopefully by "quality aftermarket parts" you meant something like Bilstein 5100s with aftermarket UCAs designed for lifted suspension.



sorry if i sound harsh or whatever but this is the reason why I am so against running spacers. these are basically road hazards.

 

[theblet]

That sucks. If you run spacers, make sure the ball joint isnt at a bad angle. And if you off-road, definitely get UCAs. Lift struts are even better.

Also check the wear every few months when rotating the tires.

 

[LTDNGT]

welp you went cheap in the first place and now it came back to bite you.
if a shop installed that spacer lift for you... i'd question how "professional" they are...

and if your friend didn't tell you NOT to run spacer lifts (with or without stock UCA), or he didn't give you an earful for running that spacer junk, i'd question how experienced he is in 4x4 and IFS.

let this be an expensive lesson for all running spacers and hopefully by "quality aftermarket parts" you meant something like Bilstein 5100s with aftermarket UCAs designed for lifted suspension.



sorry if i sound harsh or whatever but this is the reason why I am so against running spacers. these are basically road hazards.

Ofc the Forum expert starts running his mouth again, just stfu if you have no clue what you are talking about. Causation doesn't equal correlation genius, regardless of what type of lift you run you need an aftermarket UCA to correct the upper ball joint angle. In this case the point of failure was the ball joint, you could've ran Bilsteins and still caused this without upgrading the UCA.

Spacers aren't inherently bad if you understand how they affect your suspension geometry and use them within the recommended parameters, and for the right usage of your truck.

Only road hazard is yourself, talking outta your *** with the brain capacity of a squirrel. Stop spreading dog **** information when you don't know all the facts.

 

[HSKR R/T]

Ofc the Forum expert starts running his mouth again, just stfu if you have no clue what you are talking about. Causation doesn't equal correlation genius, regardless of what type of lift you run you need an aftermarket UCA to correct the upper ball joint angle. In this case the point of failure was the ball joint, you could've ran Bilsteins and still caused this without upgrading the UCA.

Spacers aren't inherently bad if you understand how they affect your suspension geometry and use them within the recommended parameters, and for the right usage of your truck.

Only road hazard is yourself, talking outta your *** with the brain capacity of a squirrel. Stop spreading dog **** information when you don't know all the facts.

OP is definitely a sucker. The fact that his "friend" charged him $2100 to "fix" it the first time, "using quality parts", and it failed again six months later, shows his friend either didn't know what he was doing, or didn't use as good of parts as he claimed, but charged for them.

There's a right way to do things and a cheap way. OP has proven that taking the cheap route didn't work out well for him twice over

 

[LTDNGT]

I had a 2" leveling kit professionally installed on the front end of my 2021 Laramie longhorn 1500. I also upgraded all 4 tires to Toyo Open Country RT 305 55 R20's. All this was done at approximately 36,000 miles. At approximately 60,000 miles I began to notice a periodic steering wobble during hard acceleration at speeds over 50 mph but no noises, squeaks, creaks, etc to indicate issues until I was driving through a shopping center parking lot at speeds under 7 mph and my entire right wheel assembly falls completely off the truck.
My dealership quoted me $16,000 to repair the damage. Yes, sixteen thousand dollars! I have a friend who builds custom 4X4 systems who fixed it for $2100, using quality aftermarket parts. He said the MOPAR parts were complete garbage. Six months later the drivers side wheel assembly fell completely off in the Dodge dealership garage bay AFTER they allegedly inspected & said it was okay during servicing.

Don't listen to that Boogie moron, he runs his mouth on every thread as if he knows everything. Buddy learns two brands and all of a sudden name dropping Carli and Bilstein as if that is the solution. Anyone with half a brain will evaluate the situation on a case by case basis instead of spewing nonsense.

Here is a great explanation of the risks of different type of leveling kits: Spacer Lift vs Preload Spacer vs Coilover Preload – AccuTune Off-Road

With that understanding, I doubt you were doing extreme off-road where you are either a) bottoming out your shock or b) over extending your shock at full droop as the failure point wasn't your spring/shock. Also from your pictures it seems like your truck is well taken care of and no visible damage to those components. What did happen was your stock UCA (with an already weak ball joint) was operating at an angle it was not designed for, leading to premature wear and ultimately failure. The spacer itself contributed to the issue, but it not the main cause. The change in suspension geometry is what caused the failure. You could've installed the most expensive shock in the world and still had an UCA failure if your UCA ball joint was not designed for the changed angle it is now operating at. Long story short, don't listen to the morons who tell you that you need expensive suspension kits just to achieve a simple level. If you understand how different leveling systems work (with the above link), and what your needs are, you can safely run spacer or collar lifts with zero issues just like the millions of truck owners who do.

The only time you run into issues is when you don't understand what your purchased kit was designed for, or when you use your equipment for purposes beyond it's intended function. If you understand how to upgrade essential components to support your modifications, you can prevent and hopefully avoid this type of failure in the future. In the end you learned something and you didn't hurt anyone including yourself, the truck can be fixed. Best of luck in the future.

 

[LTDNGT]

OP is definitely a sucker. The fact that his "friend" charged him $2100 to "fix" it the first time, "using quality parts", and it failed again six months later, shows his friend either didn't know what he was doing, or didn't use as good of parts as he claimed, but charged for them.

There's a right way to do things and a cheap way. OP has proven that taking the cheap route didn't work out well for him twice over

LOL sure he might not be too knowlegable, but hating on him isn't going to help answer his question or concern. Or does it warrant giving him sh1t advice that doesn't even address the failure point. Cheap can work if you understand what you are doing, and the consequences of each modification. If he upgraded his UCA and adjusted bumpstops correctly, you can run spacers all day and not have any issues especially doing the type of driving he does (which I assume is mostly on road). The change to suspension geometry was the cause for his issue, no expensive shock or kit without a properly adjusted UCA would've prevented this.

The right way doesn't have to be expensive, calling him a sucker when you had nothing valuable to say is ironic.

 

[boogielander]

Ofc the Forum expert starts running his mouth again, just stfu if you have no clue what you are talking about. Causation doesn't equal correlation genius, regardless of what type of lift you run you need an aftermarket UCA to correct the upper ball joint angle. In this case the point of failure was the ball joint, you could've ran Bilsteins and still caused this without upgrading the UCA.

Spacers aren't inherently bad if you understand how they affect your suspension geometry and use them within the recommended parameters, and for the right usage of your truck.

Only road hazard is yourself, talking outta your *** with the brain capacity of a squirrel. Stop spreading dog **** information when you don't know all the facts.

sorry but not sorry i am one of the forum experts and i do get paid to fix other people's junk on spacers.
cry about it, new guy.

poverty advocating for poverty i see.