[screamin340]

Got a 2001 Dodge 1500 ever since I bought this truck something just wasnt right.. Its all over the road. Ive had several people drive it and say nah it drives good including my wife who drives it quite often, who never has a problem with it.. I blew it off as its just my imagination..until 2 weeks ago I got pulled over... Cop said I was all over the road, got the whole "have you been drinking thing" (and I hadn't) Thats when I knew I had a problem
I replaced my Brakes on Saturday, Figgured id do a real good inspection check all the nuts and bolts make sure everything was tight and found I have quite a bit of play in my lower Ball joint. No biggie I'll run to the parts house and get some.....NOPE!!! dealer only part..
Well I just got home from the dealer inquiring about ball joints 225.00 a piece!!! But lucky me they had an opening and could bring it in today and replace both for 1800.00. have it back on Wednesday....hmmm lemme think...Eat a D**K. I laughed a little and said no thanks I'll do it myself.... Thats when he told me the best news yet...There riveted in there!!! But they have a machine that makes quick work of rivets.. But wont get it back till Wednesday? Asked why the price was so high he said Labor mostly... But they have a Machine that makes quick work of the rivets...I dont get it
I HATE DEALERS!!!!!!
Sorry had to rant

[killerformula]

holy friggin crap dude. I need a balljoint too for the jeep. 35 dollars at autozone!

Boy. For as much as american car makers are losing ground to foreign markets, they really aren't doing anthing to make you want to keep buying american and friggin 1800 dollars a ball joint!

K

[slowturbo]

[QUOTE=screamin340] No biggie I'll run to the parts house and get some.....NOPE!!! dealer only part..
[QUOTE]

http://www.partsamerica.com/ProductL...wer+Ball+Joint

[screamin340]

[QUOTE=slowturbo][QUOTE=screamin340] No biggie I'll run to the parts house and get some.....NOPE!!! dealer only part..

http://www.partsamerica.com/ProductL...wer+Ball+Joint

Sweet...I dont have any around here have to order it though....Thanks man

[Nightfire]

Yeah those rivets will give you a HARD TIME. We replaced a ball joint in the school shop once and it took us 3 whole hours (3 classes) to get them out, we drilled, air chisseled, hammered etc. And I thought parts for my dodge truck were expensive (new draglink $425) Looks like owning an old dodge truck is cheaper than owning a new one





Mike

[slowturbo]

Originally Posted by screamin340

Sweet...I dont have any around here have to order it though....Thanks man

No problem. Also, in case you didn't know, Parts America is the same as Advance Auto Parts.

[Kevin45]

Buy a small die grinder from someplace like Harbor Freight and grind the rivets off. Almost all factory ball joints are riveted and the replacements are bolt in. BUT.... when you own a Chrysler product, they have this thing where they hold a patent on things so the aftermarket does not get a chance to make the part for a few years. Hence the dealer only stuff. I had a Dodge D50 a few years back....I am not a huge Chrysler fan but I got a good deal on this truck and for what itr was I could haul 2200 lbs. easily. The reason I know this is I had to get a load of gravel one day. Anyways, one day it started to run real crappy. The dealer told me it was the igniter. I asked what that was and he stated it was the same as the Control Module in a GM distributor. No problem..I will go to Advanced and get one. GM module $35 bucks. Not one for a Chrysler. Thats when I found out what Chrysler did. They will not release components to be made aftermarket like GM and Ford did. So the Control Module for a GM was $35 aftermarket...the igniter was $400 from Chrysler All it was, is the magnetic pick up in the distributor. Luckily, I ended up finding out it was only a shorted out starter wire and only cost about $.30 to fix.

Kevin

[RCastle]

Originally Posted by killerformula

holy friggin crap dude. I need a balljoint too for the jeep. 35 dollars at autozone!

Boy. For as much as american car makers are losing ground to foreign markets, they really aren't doing anthing to make you want to keep buying american and friggin 1800 dollars a ball joint!

K

Never thought about it that way Killer,but you hit it on the head!! Why not drop your prices and rates just enough to keep customers. They will price themselves out of existence one day.

[Magnus_Jager]

Kevin a D-50 is actually a re-badged Mitsubishi Mighty Max... Not a dodge at all, all Japanese. Ususally on em somewhere is a badge that says imported for Dodge. The early colts and raiders where also mitsubishi.

[Kevin45]

Kevin a D-50 is actually a re-badged Mitsubishi Mighty Max...

I knew that. But the only place around to get components at the time was the local Dodge dealer. No Mrs.*****ys around and back then the only other places we had was the local NAPA store. We did not have any Advanced or AutoZones now that I think about it.

[Magnus_Jager]

Still dealer only on alot of those d-50/raider parts. (At least it was about 6 years ago) They where such limited runs and import, so not alot of aftermarket support. Only parts you could find where engine parts that fit all the 2.6 motors, like gaskets.. Chevy and Ford have huge aftermarket support due to the sheer number of them sold / on the road, but that may be changing if they keep losing their market share.

However, it sounds fishy on those prices from the dealer for Screaming340's ram though... Specially the labor. I've never heard of a balljoint that needs $1350 in labor... You could buy a whole a arm and replace it for less I would think...