Do not drive the vehicle.

 

I'm sure he was joking when he asked if he could drive the truck...

 

I was joking so much that I drove it (3 times). I appreciate the input from all but I was hoping for a little more first hand experience (granted this probably doesn't happen much). I am aware of the possible I was looking for the probable. Anyway the Carli guy got back to me and asked if I had pictures. I sent him the ones that you can see. He called right back and said the replacements will be shipped today, just send the others back when I can. I then posed my question to him, he said for safety reasons (this I understand of course) he couldn't advise me to drive... but they have been driven with similar and more things wrong and have yet to get a catastrophic failure. There still is an upper bolt and the weight of the truck holding this thing together.

 

Ohhhh... there are black ones and grey ones. I guess the grey ones are newer and more wonderful. Mine are the black ones.

 

I just got the invoice and tracking and they are sending all 4. I think that was brought up?

 

Great to hear they are stepping up and sending you a new set. I figured they would, or should, replace all four.

If they were produced at the same time, and they most likely were, there could have been an issue in the manufacturing process.

If Carli products are as good as they claim, I imagine they'll be running tests, both non and destructive, on the ones you return.

I doubt they'll tell you, but it would be interesting to learn what they determine was the cause of the failure. You can always ask.

My Carli ball joints are getting installed tomorrow. Hopefully the gray ones are better.

 

The labor is far worse than the parts. Even if you do it yourself that's a miserable way to spend a Saturday.

 

No kidding.... $800 in labor alone for all 4 balljoints on my truck... Then it needed bearings on top of that for a total of $1400.... Worse than a miserable saturday, that's an entire week's work.

 

That is the downside of getting all 4.

 

I was just glad I found a shop that would install the ball joints. Several shops I went to would only install the parts they sell (which are marked way up).

Luckily I checked a local small garage I've used in the past and they said they could do it.

And since they're only charging me $425 to install all four I guess I can't complain. Hopefully they don't find other issues!

 

Some food for thought since it sounds like you are going to have the work done by the same person/shop. If these were the original joints from the factory I might conclude bad metallurgy is the culprit. Something else is at work here and I think it starts with rusty mating surfaces.
I downloaded and enlarged your photos of the joint. I notice 2 things that lead me to believe they were over-torqued when installed. There is a corrosion stain at the centre of the broken shaft, which looks like the torque applied to the nut over-stretched the shaft beyond the limit of its working elasticity limit. Moisture eventually got past the threads and a corrosion cell was set up further weakening the steel. Secondly, both the face of the large nut and its mating surface look like there is severe galling of the metal, an indicator of over-tightening. Thats a large nut and an over enthusiastic "someone" on the end of an impact tool would have no trouble stretching the shaft almost to the point of breakage. Add some time and road shock and you are very fortunate it fell apart doing zero miles per hour! The manufacturer has stood by their product as they should. Kudos to them!
Ultimately you should go back to your mechanic and ask the question, "what did you use to measure torque?" You paid good money for the work and they (he/she) owes you an honest answer. Its a matter of your personal safety that is at stake. If it was done by that, "feels tight", method I suggest you insist the replacement(s) are torqued according to manufacturers specs. On the other hand if the stud was a tight fit in its bore and "torque" was used to overcome the resistance/binding to seating the unit you can be assured that unless the mating bore is cleaned of any rust it just might happen again. Remember, any part that mates with another has to have any rust removed from their mating surfaces otherwise they will either not mate properly or a lot of force will need to be generated to fully seat them. I think you have experienced that result first hand.
Happy driving
RS

 

I agree with the comments by 2003slt in regards to the oxidization stain on the shaft.