Aircooled VW South Africa

Needing to replace the ball joints on a Bay window Kombi, are the ball joints on the newer kombi's the same as on the bay window,

I don't know the answer, but be very careful what ball joints you buy. Most of the available replacements are such garbage that you are better off with worn originals.

@TonyZ can tell you which brands are acceptable, as he has been buying replacement ball joints and cutting them up to check the materials and construction.

as far as I know, all ball joints on the bay window kombi's are the same, irrespective of the year.
Problem is the quality in SA sucks. How bad? Very bad. The Autozone balljoints which you can get easily for around R100 each are not worth their weight. I am importing some to test to check the quality and also sourcing local balljoints from anywhere I can find them to test their quality.
I wont have an answer anytime soon, but I am looking into this.

My advice is to stick with the old ones unless you have to change them.

Febi/Bilstein ball joints have been readily available any time I have needed. I have replaced several of mine over the years and not had an issue yet. Just ask for the quality items and pay a bit more instead of just accepting the cheap Chinese crap the lazy salesman is trying to sell first simply because he thinks only price matters.

With regards to the later kombis ball joints being the same, they are not. That's if you comparing a T2 to a T3 or T4.

Tony Z wrote:
My advice is to stick with the old ones unless you have to change them.

The old ones were completely trashed, the whole wheel wobbled on them, have no option but to replace.

sean wrote:Febi/Bilstein ball joints have been readily available any time I have needed. I have replaced several of mine over the years and not had an issue yet. Just ask for the quality items and pay a bit more instead of just accepting the cheap Chinese crap the lazy salesman is trying to sell first simply because he thinks only price matters.

With regards to the later kombis ball joints being the same, they are not. That's if you comparing a T2 to a T3 or T4.

Salesman trying to find me new ones but not having much luck at the moment, he tells me the T2, T3 and T4 should be the same, thats why I asked, thought they not have different part numbers .

Where do you get the Febi Bilsteins Sean? I had the BJs replaced on my 71 single cab by one of the ACVW repair shops that advertises on this site and they said they could only get crap ones. I intend to redo them as soon as I can find quality parts. The rubbish BJs fitted now are worse than the badly worn originals that I replaced.

I have got balljoints from 5 different manufacturers in USA waiting for me to send them to SA once the last few of my items arrive. These will all be cut up to check their quality. @Sean, this even includes that odd one that you have which has the retaining circlip.
Fig, your balljoints which we spoke about are also in USA ready for shipping. I am hoping to get them to SA before Xmas.
I have 3 locally sourced balljoints at home also waiting for me to get to them.
So thats balljoints from (possibly) 8 different manufacturers waiting for me to pull them apart to inspect.
If anyone thinks this is cheap they are sorely mistaken. But just as I dont want to fit crap parts to my cars, I am sure you dont want to either.

I am hoping to get my parts before the end of the year and then will need a day to cut them up for inspection. I'll let you guys know what I find.

I had new balljoints fitted supplied by a well-known local source, and they were so stiff that I struggled to keep the car driving in a straight line. It was actually dangerous. So I had the workshop fit the Midas crappy one's instead just so that the kombi could be driven safely. Tony, I'd also be very interested in the outcome of your investigation, as going forward I will not replace any balljoints unless I know I can get a suitable replacement. I was better off with the old balljoints as Fig mentioned.

@Derek
You'll probably find that it isnt the stiffness, but the balljoints inability to take the weight.
I have a feeling I know which supplier you are talking about and I do have one of their brands on the way.

Just as a price comparison - those crappy Midas ones cost around R100 each (maybe less). I have got the correct OEM replacements on the way from USA and I get these in at a ballhair under R700 each.
Once I know which companies parts are worth using, then I'll source a local supplier to reduce the costs (if possible).

On a side note, there was a company in the UK complaining that their "top quality" balljoints for the T25 were failing after less than 500 miles. This is what got me started on this project as no-one in SA has the correct info on what to use, not even the "pro's" who make money from selling us professional quality products.

So, if anyone has balljoints that they want to send to me to check out, please feel free to pm me. It'll add to the knowledge base.
And yes, I have sourced a set of VW balljoints too - OK, they are used, but its a baseline...

Why are we referring to "well-known local source" and "I have a feeling I know which supplier you are talking about" yet mention "crappy Midas" stuff. Are we to protect crappy well known local suppliers, supplying crappy parts or am I missing something?

You're missing something ...

Ah...ok...now I see?

Just to clarify, the reseller I'm referring to is based in Cape Town, but refunded the money for the faulty ball joints and changed suppliers after we identified the bad batch. As he did not actually manufacture the parts, and makes great efforts to assist VW owners with spares, there is no need to 'name and shame' here. Once he was aware of the issue he sorted it out as best he could. Midas is a supplier I use often, and I think that the poor quality of many of the spares they supply is well known. They will refund a return, but never attempt to source higher quality parts - they continue to supply the same parts regardless of the returns they get. There seems to be no regular source of Febi/Bilstein ball joints anymore, and I've tried several known resellers of VW spares in CT.

What I see many times is that the non genuine ball joint has got a grease nipple and the genuine not,also on universal joints

Here are the ones I got and with pics of part numbers. I got them from my spares shop across the road, but they just bought it out from Masterparts. If you want best quality tie-rod ends, go to a Mercedes Benz agent and buy the complete tie rod for a W123 Mercedes. This is the same as a bay windows.