2009 CC, 2WD, 235K miles. My driver's side lower ball joint is failing and the upper boot is torn. Does anyone cut out the factory ball joint and replace or just change out the entire control arm? The OEM lowers are like $650 wholesale and are not currently available. The uppers are $250 each. Moog makes their Chinese RK series for the lower, but not the better quality CK line. Spending $2K to change ball joints is insane. Its been 15 years since Dodge came out with these non serviceable ball joints, what are the great minds at DodgeForums doing for ball joints???

 

Try Detroit Axle.

 

Maybe a little late... but I'd put greaseable joints in there. Did you look at RockAuto? For a 1/2 ton, they do have CK moog control arms available in their online catalog for about $82 ea.... I've heard good things about the highline mevotech, but I always used moog.

 

You can get the better Moog CK for the UCA, but you are stuck with the Chinese base RK units for the LCA. This is the way every manufacture sells them. Nobody has an up graded model available for the LCA, but they all do for the upper. It's like there is one manufacturer and everything is just rebranded. Moog used to make some good stuff, but there are tons of bad reviews now complaining of their lowered quality. I'm not interested in doing this work again in 30K miles. I got 230K miles out of the OEM and that is the way that I am leaning. Thanks for your response.