GM knows it's an issue, but why fix it?
 

On my 08 and many similar model's the upper and lower ball joints fail and need replacement. I replaced mine with greaseable joints and have been trouble free. Why does GM not offer this? Because they know it will sell parts, or at least the bank who owns them does.
That being said I received a new work Truck that has a similar ball joint but a little beefier. GM has now opted to add a grease zirk. This tells me that GM knows the joints will last longer and take more of a beating if a greaseable joint is used.

Not much of a point to be made other than why would not do this on half tons other than to sell parts.

End of rant....

Re: GM knows it's an issue, but why fix it?
 

Ford won't even put greaseable ball joints on their 3/4 and 1 tons......

Re: GM knows it's an issue, but why fix it?
 

What's the known issue?

GM didn't add a grease fitting to their 2500/3500 trucks. They've always had them.

1500 trucks have them on the tie rod ends, that's it.

They don't do it to sell parts, they do it to save cost.

Re: GM knows it's an issue, but why fix it?
 

All the ball joint's both upper and lower fail on the 1500 at short miles. My 2500 did not have grease zirks and had the same issue. The fact that they install it on the HD shows that they know the grease will make them last longer and yet they don't offer it on the 1/2 ton. I would think at the cost I paid for an LTZ they would maybe try and give me some quality.

I replaced all mine with grease able joints. Never had ball joint issues on anything with a grease zirk.

Re: GM knows it's an issue, but why fix it?
 

I agree...grease saves em..........but.........my last 1500 had 285000 on its no-grease joints...my current 1500 has 140000 on it ....never had a failure....my zr-blazer would eatem for lunch...but I used it at the hunting club so it got a lot more abuse than my 1500s ever saw

Re: GM knows it's an issue, but why fix it?
 

Maybe that is my issue, I am using 1500 trucks for 2500 jobs.

Re: GM knows it's an issue, but why fix it?
 

Haha..may be....I know you cant haul much with a 1500...I can hook my boat up and my truck squats bad...same when I load my 4 wheeler in back..major squat...I've added air bag helpers to mine to make it sit level when loaded.....they just dont buildem like they used to..

Re: GM knows it's an issue, but why fix it?
 

100,000 miles is about average for 1/2 ton silverado ball joints. That used to be the life of a vehicle...

Re: GM knows it's an issue, but why fix it?
 

In 2011 GM changed the heavy duty frames and it appears that the front end IFS stuff holds up a lot better than 2010 on down.