torn ball joint boot

[insite]

Originally Posted by racer_d

1) Why do people expect Porsche parts to be "cheap"? Grr. I really hate this one. The car was likely $60,000 when new afterall.

i don't know that we expect them to be 'inexpensive', but i definitely don't expect them to be 'cheap,' which the ball joints certainly are. in a car this expensive that is designed more or less for sport, it should have servicable ball joints OR adequate lubrication / construction to last for 150K miles. these things crap out at the 75K mark. that's crap (and 'cheap').

Originally Posted by racer_d

2) While you may not have road salt, you do have sand, dirt, tar, pebbles, stone,.. you get the point. There are plenty of other substances that will eat away at an unsealed ball joint. Considering the important job that is asked of a ball joint, I'm not really sure why you would skimp out on doing it "right".

if it's not squeaking, a replacement boot is fine. lube up the bal joint, install a boot and be done with it. there's no reason to buy an entire control arm because a boot is torn; that would be crazy. unfortunately, it is the expectaion of Porsche that this is exactly what we will do: purchase a new control arm for $300 to replace a perfectly good conrol arm because a $2 boot is bad. this is either poor engineering or excellent engineering, depending on their goals.....

[RandallNeighbour]

Originally Posted by insite

i don't know that we expect them to be 'inexpensive', but i definitely don't expect them to be 'cheap,' which the ball joints certainly are. in a car this expensive that is designed more or less for sport, it should have servicable ball joints OR adequate lubrication / construction to last for 150K miles. these things crap out at the 75K mark. that's crap (and 'cheap').

I second that. A couple of weeks ago, I was in CA visiting my brother and his next door neighbor was a mechanic. Said his brother does a lot of work on Porsches and when I told him I had a boxster, he said, "with your mileage, I'm betting you are replacing a bunch of plastic parts on your car, huh?"

As a matter of fact, I have been replacing plastic parts a lot. And they are CHEAPLY made and EXPENSIVE for what you get.

I am also riding on my third lower front control arm... I've replaced the original twice now.

[insite]

see my forthcoming post (ETA Sunday or so) on how to install zerk fittings into these control arms to make them servicable.

[JAAY]

I ripped one of mine when I did my suspension also. To be honest with you, I just make sure that it stays greased and I have never had an issue with it at all. I know I should have replaced it but the truth is It causes me no problems. It's been like this now for almost 3 years and about 10kmiles.