Fergus

Hello,
I am replacing the lower control arm on my '09 Suburban. The original stock is cast iron. I ordered the part from Rock Auto and when the part arrived, (it comes with a new ball joint), they sent the wrong ball joint. The one that was supposed to go with the part I ordered is flush with the arm, but I received a ball joint that is used in their aluminium arm. It sticks out farther and is domed which makes it a bit taller. Does anyone know if it will be OK to use? Being that it was made to be pressed into aluminium and now it is in iron, I wasn't sure it would be safe to use. Also, don't know if it will even fit. I didn't want to attempt to install it if it won't fit correctly and then try to return it. Please see picture. I have the arm on the left, but with the ball joint on the right. The one on the right is aluminium. There is about 1/8" gap between the snap ring and the base of the arm. I could actually fit 2 snap rings in there.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you!

repairman54

Reach out to Rock. They are very knowledgeable and helpful to make sure everything is right.

Fergus

The first thing I did was let Rock Auto know. All they did was email me a return label for both control arms. I then emailed them letting them know about the ball joint. They sent 2 lower control arms from another supplier. One was great! It actually had the correct ball joint! The other one, however did not. It had that other kind. I measured everything to make certain it wouldn't fit and it won't fit. So, once again, I get to drop off another return. I guess my emailing customer service did no good. I wonder if I'll get a third one with the wrong ball joint. These companies need to stop phoning in the item listings on their websites and actually pay attention to the picture of the items to make sure the customer gets what is pictured. That is all the customer has to go by when shopping online. The picture and description. If they had the picture of that wrong ball joint, I would have found a different lower control arm to order. It also said it comes with "mounting hardware". WRONG. It only came with a grease zirc and castle nut. NOT the mounting bolts and nuts. Hint, don't put "mounting hardware" in the ad if you really mean "castle nut".

repairman54

Rock orders and ships from various parts wholesalers/warehouses. With supply issues, returns and restocks all kinds of stuff is possible when things are drop shipped from other parties. Original may not have had a zerk and a locking nut. I've had aftermarket replacements come like that with zerk and castle nut. Large mounting bolts are reusable. These part descriptions are written for techs not the average person and usually are just copied from the manufacturers site. This is what we have to do and go through to save a few bucks rather than the dealer or going to parts stores with their markups.