Hey guys, I'm making this post mostly out of frustration and anger, but here it goes anyway. A little over a year ago I brought my truck to AAMCO to fix some things one of which being the passengers side u-joint. Today on the way home from work I felt some clunking and when I god home I went under the front of the truck to fond the u-joint that was just replaced in pieces. I'm pretty sure this isn't the average lifespan of a u-joint so I just wanted to see some of your guys' thoughts on if I should pursue this through AAMCO and bitch at them until they give me some labor to fix their screw up.

imgur: the simple image sharer
imgur: the simple image sharer
__________________________________________________ ______

1996 | F150 | 5.0 | 4x4 | Single Cab | XLT | 4R70W | 178,800 Miles

 

i think you will have more luck, and get more satisfaction if you just go outside and bang your head against a brick wall.

 

Not to mention specific nations of origin of parts but this is what I hate about the cheap crap that's being sold as replacement parts these days. It screws the consumer AND the shop that uses it. Who eats the cost to replace the part?

Most warranties are 6 months so unfortunately I think TJC is correct, you'll get farther banging your head against the wall. With that said I would still ask. Just be polite and see what that gets you.

 

and places like normally use the cheapest parts they can get to maximize on the profit margin.

 

They use the cheapest crap they can find, then charge more than an original part, and beat you to death with the labor..

 

Was it a greasable joint? Did you ever grease it? Did you have options on different u-joints?

These is a lot of info left unsaid

 

they said they replaced it with a non-greaseable u-joint. dont ask me where he got it, i thought they only sold greaseable ones for a while now. but looking at the cap and the sud on the u-joint, it looks as dry as african desert. so it looks like its been screwed up for a while now.

edit: oh and the best part is, the aamco branch that did the job is out of business now... go figure.

 

I assume you were using 4wd when it went?

 

no i had the hubs turned in case i needed it but the tcase was not in 4x4.

 

I dont think you can get greaseable joints for these trucks... I just replaced mine and out of 6 places of tried I couldnt come up with them anywhere. Id rather grease my own.

Whether he was in four or not... The u-joints are working. That has no effect on anything.

The sad fact is most places do indeed use cheaply made junk to repair our vehicles and unless we go out and get the good stuff ourselves and A) Put it on ourselves or B) Find someone trustworthy enough to put it on, things probably wont turn out well.

You may have just gotten a bad joint or a seal was bad. It is probably hard to tell. The u-joint still lasted over a year. the part itself was cheap but im sure you got hit with labor. Still... If you decide to get it fixed again, you know what to make sure of.

I think you need to bite the bullet on it since its been so long and since the company is gone. I think fighting it may be just as good as the front wheel bearings I bought from Auto Zone for my car. 3 weeks after I got them they were grinding and making noise and really loose. I went to AZ and complained and said I invested a lot of my time into replacing them, where is my compensation? Naturally they dont care because you arent a qualified shop, even though you WORK in a shop. So, I upgraded to new (better) bearings and had to take my labor loss. You live and learn.

 

i replaced both u joints in my driveshaft and they are both greaseable but i think your right. ill just have to fix it myself if i want to know that it was done correctly.

 

Driveshaft u-joints are still greaseable. The axle ones for some reason dont seem to be. Just to clarify. Doesnt make sense to me either.

 

im pretty sure if you turn the wheel hubs into lock position even with the tcase in 2wd that it still hurts things?

 

It only "hurts" things in that they will wear from turning, but not enough to be dangerous. The real "hurt" is if you are 4x4 on hard surfaces and you wind up your drive train. That will pop u-joints and other things in many cases.

 

Greasable AXLE u-joints are still available. I just put some in last week. They were the CHEAPEST ones Advanced had.

Not saying you didnt get a cheap part, but how often do you drive around with the hubs locked. After all, these are U-joints and not CV joints so they are NOt really designed to be constantly spinning at the angles these do.

If you notice the 97+ f150, 94+ dodge,88+ chevy all have CV joints in their axles because they constantly spin and hard angles. A u-joint can only take it so long. especially a non greasable one