Sankei 555 lower ball joints question

Hey everyone,
It's been a minute but does anyone know if sankei 555 lbj come pregreased enough so I don't have to grease it right away?
Thanks guys!

 

Never heard of them not coming greased.

 

Most 1st gen members will tell you to go OEM Toyota only lower ball joints. You can go 555 for the uppers, because they aren't under as much stress. But if you shop around and look, I'll bet the Toyota uppers aren't much more than the 555 brand. Check out McGeorge Toyota Parts Online, and CamelBack Toyota.

 

I greased mine anyway. Good time to hit the rest of the zerks too

 

Camelback had LBJs for $110 last I looked (week or so ago). My 555's were $60.

I would say that if you can afford it and it gives you piece of mind, sure, get OEM. But I certainly don't buy into the hype that non OEM BJs are going to explode and kill you and everyone on the road. I draw the line at those $40 "kits" on Amazon of course, but even Moogs really aren't that bad. If you're on a budget I'd say moogs are easily better than leaving the BJs you know are worn out on there because you can't afford the OEM.

Everyone should be routinely inspecting their balljoints no matter what brand they purchase. It's not like if you put OEM you should just forget about them for the next 100k miles.

 

Point taken but since it's only $100 more for OEM for both sides and they are to be changed every 100k miles, we're talking about $1 per 1k miles. Small price to pay to have a peace of mind.

 

Ok grease them anyways thanks guys, I'm going with OEM next time, a little too expensive right now, sankei seems to be pretty well built and from Japan too

 

Ironically, I JUST yesterday bought 555's for my truck since I don't have a garage right now and the weather is shitty here in Michigan, so I am having a friend that owns an import auto repair shop do the brakes up front. Figured as long as he was under there, I'd have him do the LBJ's too (160K). He had 12 yrs with the local Toyota dealership (Spartan Toyota) before he opened his own business. He told me that the 555's are the same castings as the OEMs.

 

Sure, but unfortunately we don't get to pay a dollar at a time. If you don't happen to have $200 at the time you need BJs, if doesn't matter that it's "only" $1 per 1k miles. I've been there. I've bought a bag of rice at the store because that's literally all the cash I had and my debit card was over drafted. So amortizing by the mile is kinda pointless. I guess there's always payday loans, right?

If you CAN afford it, yes, get OEM, but if you can't, don't freak out. Get what you CAN afford, and do your due diligence. I have a little diatribe on my build page (link in my sig) for why 555's make perfect sense for me. They don't for everyone, but I stop short of claiming they are dangerous simply because they aren't OEM.

Yeah, 555 is an OEM supplier. There have been some threads that showcase there are differences in the pure OEM vs. 555 branded ones, but as far as I'm concerned, it's not that critical of a difference, especially if you intend to keep an eye on them and replace them at regular intervals (as you should no matter what brand they are).

 

The Moog LBJ's have "555" stamped into the bottom of the actual ball joint part. Are these Sankei ball joints pressed into Moog metal?

As to OP's original question, everything does come pregreased. Wouldn't hurt to pump an extra bit in there to double check though.

 

Neither is OEM so it doesn't matter what is stamped on them really.