BDS ball joint gives way... What a mess.

[FishOn]

Do you know if either of the other 2 cases were able to get the failed parts out to BDS to analyze? Unfortunately I feel like without that there is no real way to get to the bottom of this

My thoughts, exactly. I don't know what their situations are like, but I passed along the email response I got from BDS to @RAMROB91 to see if he could get his from the shop before it was tossed out...

 

[hellmans]

once modified loses all reliability

 

[FishOn]

once modified loses all reliability

That hasn't necessarily been my experience, historically... If you do things right, you typically get what you pay for. This is the first time I've ever been let down by a product from a higher end off-road company, and there have been some pretty heavily modified vehicles under this hind end. That being said, anything that's failed on me before, I was TOTALLY asking for...

 

[FuriousDZ]

once modified loses all reliability

That hasn't necessarily been my experience, historically... If you do things right, you typically get what you pay for. This is the first time I've ever been let down by a product from a higher end off-road company, and there have been some pretty heavily modified vehicles under this hind end. That being said, anything that's failed on me before, I was TOTALLY asking for...

I would also go as far as to say this wasnt modified. Yes the truck was modified but this wasnt a stock arm or joint this was an upgraded arm/joint made for this lift to push those tires at that geometry. If this was stock arm and ball joint Id say yeah it wasnt designed to handle 37" tires and all bets are off

 

[Vinnie.]

snapping like that would lead me to believe the "shank and ball" portion of the joint was colliding into the shoulder of the socket ... sort of bottoming-out so to speak. maybe at full or near full droop? how else would it see such high sheer loads if this wasn't the case?

here's an interesting part ... look at the rust in the middle of one of the snapped BJ's .... that would lead me to believe it was cracked long enough for water to get in and rust to form.

agreed the rust definitely makes me lean towards a fatigue crack

 

[Ram1500rsm]

Another BDS UCA BJ failure. Same issue with the BJ snapping off same place as everybody else. Posted yesterday 04/20/2021 in our local RAM forum. in this case it's a BDS 4" lift with Fox 2.0 CO's and the offending BDS UCA's, same UCA part# for everybody lifted with their kit or not, 4th or 5th gen1500 truck.
Edited: Confirmed with the owner the install of his lift kit was performed last month. So the UCA's are fairly new.

Unfortunately this happened to me Sunday. Approximately 2000 miles and zero offroad on my BDS control arms.



State trooper told me there was at least 300 feet of skid mark about 2 feet away from the guard rail...yep...I was there for that.












I sent all these photos to BDS. Their tech support tells me their control arms are not recommended for their 4" lift kits. Not the same thing the sales person told me when I was convinced to buy them. Bottom line I am paying out of pocket to replace the tire, cv axle, abs sensor, tie rod end, sway bar end link, and possibly a lower ball joint. Tech support was only willing to cover their parts so I'm being sent more crappy Moog "Problem Causer" ball joints.

I was told using the Fox 2.0 coilover shocks with the 4" lift and it's required spacers has not been tested by them so they wouldn't accept liability for their product failure. No Fine Print warranty my ***! He told me their 4" lift kit is based on using stock struts. I asked what's the difference since the fox shocks were set to factory height per the instructions and going back to factory struts I'd still have the same height issues and angles on the control arms. No response. The shop that did my install is just as shocked by BDS and their response. My shop recommended we raise the front an inch to decrease the angle of the control arms and go to 3 inch spacers in the rear to keep it level. After seeing how others of you out there have the 6" lift and suffered the same failure you'd think BDS would realize there's a serious problem with the ball joints they are using!

It's very aggravating that BDS won't step up for their product failure and how this could have been a far worse situation...potentially life ending! Of course my setup was going to work fine when I was convinced to make the purchase of their control arms, but now that something has seriously gone wrong they are back tracking with quickness. Say anything to make the sale...then find any reason not to honor up to collateral damage cause by a failure of their parts.

Shout out to the tow driver that got me from Gettysburg to Dillsburg where I was able to get the replacement ball joint and to the AAA tow driver that got me all the way back to WB. I was able to get the ball joint replaced Sunday night and had to order a new abs sensor from Amazon since it wasn't available locally at 1/8 the price. My shop got the new tire in this afternoon along with the replacement cv shaft so I'm setting up to bring it to them Thursday morning.

If anyone has recommendations of control arms that I can trust...please share. Worried about the passenger side ball joint just going "snap" on me at any time like this one did. No excuse for this failure with such low miles after a month.

 

[FishOn]

Hey BDS, still an isolated incident caused by my vehicles "salvage title" or "direct impact"
Anyone know how many "isolated" incidents are needed before we file a class action suit? Join the club here...
@FishOn @RAMROB91

 

[FishOn]

FWIW, I just sent Moog a message regarding these failures... Maybe they'll have something to add...

 

[WXman]

My father, who is a 45+ year master mechanic, has always made fun of MOOG ball joints. I guess this thread sort of explains why.

In any case, if this was happening to OE control arms, there would be an immediate stop-sale and recall on them. BDS, if they have any ethics at all, will stop selling these lift kits until they can find decent parts. This is ridiculous. I'm glad none of you guys have been injured or killed.

 

[SurfRebel20]

i have zone ucas which also use moog. I wonder if it's the same ball joint

 

[JohnnyTyler]

Disconcerting news indeed. Have 200 miles on my BDS UCAs. Decided to swap the MOOGs out this afternoon. We'll see how long they last.

 

[Txy]

Are the moog ball joints that are breaking the ones with the small rubber boot. Looking at MAJ_Charlies photo it looks like the ball joint broke where the boot stops.

 

[James1414d]

Wow, BDS is junk!

 

[FishOn]

i have zone ucas which also use moog. I wonder if it's the same ball joint

Pop the dust cap... "Problem Solver", huh?

 

[21Longhorn]

Thanks for sharing !!
Looks like an issue with the design, like they may have back cut the ball joint to allow more travel causing the failure. really shocked at BDS's response.

 

[SurfRebel20]

Pop the dust cap... "Problem Solver", huh?
View attachment 91396

 

[Ram1500rsm]

Another BDS kit with the now infamous BDS UCA's that bites the ground. BDS is still muted. you guys should definetely get all together lawyer up and get on BDS butt for a full refund. This is beyond BS. They're still sending you crappy MOOG BJ's assuming you filled out the no fine print warranty and you're left in the dust for the rest of the damage. in this case this was another truck with the Expensive Fox 2.5 CO's

Guess what just happened to me? BDS uca's strike again.

2017 Ram 1500 Laramie Hemi CC 5'7". BDS 6/3 2.5 Fox coilovers, 2" Fox rears, 295/65/20 STT pro's on stock 20's, Hammerhead bumpers with Warn winch, Rigid lighting,

 

[Abrams117]

I glanced at the BDS website and noticed they no longer offer UCA's with the 6 inch or 4 inch lift kits, so they must know about these cases. I have Zone UCA's with my 6 inch lift and their website still shows them available with the lift kits so hopefully I'm good.

 

[FishOn]

I glanced at the BDS website and noticed they no longer offer UCA's with the 6 inch or 4 inch lift kits, so they must know about these cases. I have Zone UCA's with my 6 inch lift and their website still shows them available with the lift kits so hopefully I'm good.

WTF? "Nope, there is not a problem on our end, must be something you did..." and now the UCA option has been pulled from the CO kits?

 

[singlerail]

says right on bds website NOT to use with there lift kits !!!!

• BDS122251 UCA will NOT work on BDS 4" Lift Kits or 6" Fox Coilover Lift Systems