Hi Sam
This is a point of dismay for me. All I can figure is the sales
executives won the battle forcing the engineers to equip the trucks with
sealed ball jts and tierod ends. And whomever Chrysler's vendor is who
supplies these components there is generally just barely enough grease to get
you 50k mi.
Sales are always wanting to crow about how little maintenance the owner
has to do if they buy this truck. Well as you know, we still have to do
regular oil and filter changes on a time or mileage basis and on every 3rd or
4th oil change interval, if we had a zerk fitting on each of our suspension
ball jts and tierod ends (total 6 fittings) we could shoot each with enough
grease to fully expand the rubber seal and keep our ball jts tight for 100k
plus mi. The added time to shoot 6 fittings when you're already on the rack
for an oil change adds 2 minutes or less.
So if this situation isn't bad enough, they designed the suspension ball
jts such that the entire A-arm must be replaced if the jt goes bad (due to
insufficent grease) by riveting the jt to the A-arm. The (defective) jt is
not removable by common fasteners when in need of replacement. At 43k mi I
had to practically hire a terrorist to get my dealer to honor my Chrysler 75k
extended warranty and replace 3 of my 4 A-arms all of which had jt failure
due to insufficient grease. And then he wanted me to feel he was doing a
really big deal for me.
Before my jts had so much wobble there was no alternative but
replacement I tried in every way to get grease into them but the rubber or
plastic sock they designed as a grease seal fits so tightly you can't peel it
away to add grease without permanent damage to the sock which can only be
repaired with a whole new A-arm. I should think that Chrysler has had a flood
of warranty complaints (and after warranty for that matter) on this as well
as the celebrated sub par engineering on the front braking discs to just go
back to zerk fittings, save company money and keep owners happy. The whole
thing is just absurd.
Paul Sahlin
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