Auto Zone Ball Joints

[Ford Man]

Just a little information to those of you who do your own automotive repairs. I just changed the ball joints on my '02 Escort SE the other day and replaced the original factory ball joints with Duralast ball joints from Auto Zone and found upon opening the Duralast box that the plastic bag that the ball joint was in had a Moog brand name sticker attached to it, so at least part of the Auto Zone Duralast suspension parts are made by Moog. After finding this out I priced Moog ball joints for the car at Rock Auto and the price was $43.79 each plus shipping, I bought the same ball joint with the Duralast name on it for $26.99 each plus tax and that is with lifetime warranty and Auto Zone has never failed to stand behind their lifetime warranty on any part I have worn out. Too many people think just because parts have the store brand name they are not good quality parts, but fail to realize they just buy the parts from a supplier that will give them the best deal on whatever they are buying. I've been using Duralast suspension parts for nearly 20 years and a set of ball joints or tie rod ends usually lasts between 100-150K miles which is better than the factory installed tie rod ends and ball joints lasted on the '02, I just replaced both on (tie rod ends/ball joints) and the car is currently at 96K miles. Hopefully this information will save someone a few dollars.