Time for UCAs. Keep it stock or upgrade to aftermarket?

[Cody Templeton]

I can personally say I have over 20k miles on my uniballs and they’re still tight enough not to have to replace. I daily drive my truck, granted I do live in Southern California so we don’t get a lot of “weather” but it feels like the uniballs are anything but fragile.

I'm in Iowa, so we get snow, salt, and sand. Anyone running uniballs finds they do not last very long on anything street driven, especially if it's in bad weather. Might be different in Cali.

 

[98rangerdave]

I'm in Iowa, so we get snow, salt, and sand. Anyone running uniballs finds they do not last very long on anything street driven, especially if it's in bad weather. Might be different in Cali.

Yeah I hear that road salt really ruins everything. You’d think they’d have a better solution by now. ‍

 

[Jakenbake]

Icon has a delta joint and camburg has what they call the “x joint”. Both are sealed or more sealed than a standard uniball. Camburg also seems to make caps for some of the uniballs, including their billet ones too.

My icon’s have heims at the frame side and I just clean/lube them with tri flow every so often. I live in southern Ohio but avoid driving the truck in salt as much as possible, but it seems plenty of sand, mud, dirt, etc.

 

[dfinn]

I called Camburg and you guys aren't wrong. It doesn't sound like the uniballs love being in the snow or harsh conditions although even in good conditions they sound kind of high maintenance, according to what they said.

 

[Cody Templeton]

I called Camburg and you guys aren't wrong. It doesn't sound like the uniballs love being in the snow or harsh conditions although even in good conditions they sound kind of high maintenance, according to what they said.

For years that's what I've read. I have a customer who installed a bunch of them at different suspension areas on his GTi because he thought they would be more durable than the factory rubber bushings, but is finding that with 2 years of use and minimal miles they are already getting loose. What sucks even more is how expensive they were and they need replaced already. It wouldn't be the first time I've seen that issue either, just the most recent one I can think of.

 

[dfinn]

The replacement parts aren't that terribly expensive but I'm not sure how much labor that will be for the shop to press out the old ones and install the new ones, I'm thinking it might not be cheap.

 

[Jeff550]

Nothing wrong with OE type arms.

With corrosive harsh weather arms such as SVC have to covers that seal the top. All aftermarket performance heim/ uniball / poly bushing arms require more/ constand maintenance like lubing the joints to keep them operating smooth and quietly.