The car is a 94 Accord EX. I ordered two new outer tie rod ends from Rock Auto. I ordered Moog. They came in two different boxes, one Moog and the other Car Quest. Both had Moog stamped on the part itself. They are different in construction. Both boxes say they are made in Japan, but there is no ID on the parts themselves saying that. Is there any way to actually tell what I received? They were the "Problem Solver" series of parts.

 

As long as it says Moog AND the boot itself is sealed you're fine.

 

Carquest is just a distributor. Since the joint has MOOG on it that should be no issue.

I've found with suspension parts that even matched pairs often look different. Different production runs or different factories. Nothing to worry about. I don't suppose you bought a "wholesaler closeout" part?

 

I bought the same thing about 6 months ago and installed them about 3 months ago.... not happy to say, but I'm replacing them with Deeza parts here soon as they're trashed. I can't believe it. Deeza parts are getting some great reviews lately, they're sold by the manufacturer so they're cheap(half the price of what I was looking at for Moog and Proforged stuff), and QC should be VERY high as they're manufactured in Germany, Belgium, and Turkey. I bought inners and outers. I'll take some pictures and post a comparison between the two on Thursday, keep an eye on my build thread in my signature. I'll copy and paste the post into here.

 

Please explain why you are not happy with Moog parts. Going to do the inners and Moog was hi on my list.

 

I have heard reports that Moog is manufactured in two qualities, one being a cheaper one and the other being what I have always expected from Moog. In the Rock Auto online catalog they have pictures of the parts. The pictures have "Japan" stamped into the bottom of the rod end. The ones I received to not. It makes me wonder. But the boxes themselves do say made in Japan. I have already replaced the tie rod ends twice in the last three years, so this time I want to make sure I get a quality part.

 

Moog has two different sets.. one is sealed the other is not .. the sealed is the better version its the Problem Solver.. the unsealed one sucks major *** .. as long as you got the sealed one its going to be fine

 

Problem solver vs the "R" line. The "R" line is the cheaper stuff. I bought what I thought were outer tie rods from the Problem Solver line, what I received was the same as what the OP received. Installed 3/10/15. Ignore the coilovers, they're not installed.



They're definitely cast different than the factory pieces were. After installation, everything was fine for about two months, the past month I kept hearing clunking going on up front when transitioning left to right. This sound turned out to be the noise that's made from the Moog outers not fitting properly into the OEM inners. The threads are machined just a HAIR too big and fit loosely. Think of it this way: take your left hand, make a loose fist. Take your right index finger and insert it into your left fist. Loosen your grip so you can wiggle around your index finger. That's what's going on. Tighten your grip on your index finger, and that's how it should fit.

Deeza parts arrived, all made in Turkey. Look like nice stuff, and the outers have "SV4" stamped on them, which leads me to believe they're refurbished OEM parts; no greaseable outer joints. Inners are greased well. Both very nice, tight fitting stuff. I'll have pictures Thursday for comparison.

 

Looks exactly like what I received.

 

avoid moog problem solver ball joints, boots are paper thin.
i'm done with moog, no longer a quality brand imho.
just get honda ftw. for tie rods i went with raybestos service grade, they seem decent enough.

 

Im totally with tamboo tbqh .. for what your paying the value just isnt there anymore

 

My quoted price(at employee cost) from Honda was $180. Yeah.... no.

 

Got the Deeza inner and outer tie rods installed, very, VERY impressed with the Deeza stuff. Outers are definitely refurbished OEM parts(stamped SV4 as OEM stuff is), the Moog's had smaller ball joints than the Deeza's. The inners looked almost exactly the same as the OEM stuff, but didn't have the slop 225K miles makes. Very happy I went with Deeza, my stuff was manufactured in Turkey. The old driver side wasn't stamped Moog(had a smaller ball joint, too!), nor had the "SV4" stamp these Deeza one's have. Only downside is they didn't come with cotter pins, but I had some new ones sitting in a bag in my toolbox. $50 shipped from Rockauto.com for the Deeza's, and I can say I highly recommend getting them. Took all the slop, clunk, etc out of the steering I was experiencing.