Proforged VS Moog Tie Rods Aftermarket VS OEM 

After showing proforged the defective clamp, they sent me two brand new tie rods, and the clamps pre-installed. Great service!

Mother of God, your ringtone is the same as the on-call phone for my job. I got flashbacks to waking up at 1am with an adrenaline rush...

Moog built it's reputation when cars used to be junked at 100K miles, about the same time a car's original suspension wore out, and the car sold, wrecked or junked out long before any replacement parts wore out on the original owner. So perhaps they are the same quality as 50 years ago, and we're never designed to last longer than the car as a whole. The Interstate Highway System was completed from 1950s to the 1970s. Their roads surfaces were smooth & even for about 20 years. Now they are full of holes and patched together with uneven seams, which wears a modern car's suspension out much quicker. Also, cars are hitting bumps at a higher speed than during the 55mph federal speed limit days still fresh in our memories. Slamming into abutments at 75mph is a lot harder on steering & suspension than at 55.

The tighter the ball the the lower the vibration and wobble in steering.

5/6 years ago i bought all new front end parts for my Volvo 240 with Moog parts all the high end O.E.M. series, i mean everything right down to sway bar end links, approx, $6/700.00 in parts and another $600 in install and front end alignment, all parts were grease fitted, i greased them once a years needed, my driving 98% highway annually , these parts started to show wear in around 20 months from date of purchase, finding a loose front end, car was drifting on the highway and increased in the next few weeks, since the install i put around 25000 miles on the car, so i went back to my mechanic and they checked the front end with complete inspection, no charge to me ,thx you Adam bros, my mechanic came back to say you have worn out ball joint passenger side and tie rod end on the drivers side, weird, its under warranty lifetime from Moog but not the labour, seeing it was over a year, got it all fixed up just before winter ,fantastic, next spring the something again, this time just the opposite, here we go again, back there, fixed up again, Moog questioned the repair and my daily driving, so i gave the mechanic permission to release the service history on my car, i have serviced with these guys for almost 40 years and they are Volvo specialists and all techs are Volvo certified, i didn't want o pay for parts that carry lifetime warranty otherwise it would be another $200 plus taxes out of pocket, eventually they paid, same shit again in less than a year, they call in the Moog rep and i was there to find out why their expensive parts failed 3 times in such a short period and the last ones they replaced no longer had grease fittings and lifetime warranty, very beneficial for them , i told him what is the point of continuing to use there parts if they fail constantly and they don't stand behind the product or warranty, i told him that i wanted a full refund for all parts i had to replace and the labour involved to correct the problem, otherwise, i will just quit buying Moog period ,i had at this point been buying Moog parts for almost 28 years, he made a phone call and had my service fill with all my receipts as proof, spoke to his regional manager who ok'd it with allot of remorse and i was told i could not share this with anyone, they did not want very one to come out of the wood work asking for the samething, had to sign a letter of agreement and got my check back some weeks later short of the labor cost, had to chase them for it , it took another 2 months, from this point on i bought Volvo OEM parts and never looked back and no problems, just replacing them now after almost 60,000 miles,Volvo comes with a 1 year warranty and simply just a better made parts they cost about $25/30 each more than Moog and don't have grease fittings, it was a hard and well learned lesson , never ever waste your money on Moog parts, btw all Volvo 240 front end parts from factory are made by TRW for Volvo

Moog has successfully since 2010, when they stopped making their parts in the USA. Quality went out the window when they moved to Mexico, just like optima batterys but we shouldn't be buying from companies that sold us out anyway.

I’ve had proforged for about a year and a few months. I bought them after watching this video. My tie rods weren’t bad but they were non-serviceable so I decided to upgrade. After receiving them one was noticeably stiffer than the other. Not alarming though, after putting them in they performed a lot better than the cheaper ones I had from the local parts store. All the slight minor vibrations I got on the highway completely disappeared!

Thank you for the review. Much appreciated. Not much out there for real world reviews on proforged yet. How are they holding up?

I’ve used ProForged for years, but will stop after the latest batch of tie rods. I had three out of four fail within 18 months. They did warranty all three, but I’ve never seen anything like it before. Tie rods were on my GX470 with 265/70/17 tires, so slightly oversized, but not much. A set I installed on a 2005 Tacoma, same part numbers, from five years ago are still going strong with the same sized tires. Maybe a different manufacturer or a bad batch?

Thank you for the great review. I actually enjoyed the video.

You remind me so much of a PG-13 Lite version of the dude from the AvE youtube channel. Thanks for this video.

I like that proforged puts wrench flats on their stuff. All sintered metal too. Moog used to be all USA...personally I dont think it matters how "tight" they start out, but how the metal wears...metal on metal.

Man, i really thank you for the helpful video!

"pull the booty back and look under the skirt" haha nice!

I thought MOOG was a good brand but when greasing my Tie Rod end before installation it started to leak from the middle of the boot so I send it back got a new one and same thing happened, so not very good after all.

I put Moog inner and outer tie rods on, along with a new Moog idler arm and pitman arm and put Moog ball joints on a 04 Suburban 1500 4x4 about almost 5 years ago and they are still working great with having tight tolerances and I use my Suburban off road hear and there in AZ on dirt roads and rocky roads and driven through streams with no problems with the Moogs parts. My Suburban also has a 2" lift with Bilstein 5100 series shocks. When I do oil changes on my Suburban, I always grease up the grease certs on the front end. As long as you service the suspension parts to make sure they are good with new grease I think parts will last longer instead of the none serviceable parts, but I also believe it also depends on the part, if it was engineered with higher quality parts or cheap parts and along with how hard you drive your vehicle or how hard the driving road conditions are on if the part will last long or not. I have heard good and bad about every manufacturer on how their parts are even good and bad about some oem parts these days being made cheaper than what they use to be. Personally if I could afford it, I would put kryptonite suspension parts on that are for trucks because they are way over engineered and don't break but for now I will stick with Moog parts since they have worked for me and my application so far.

Big question is whether smoothness affects handling performance?

I bought my entire front end for my 1988 4runner pro forged. Going to install them soon. Proforged was bought by Holley hope they continue the great customer service

Very informative. Thank you :D.

I have ALWAYS had better performance and better steering feel and stability with a ball and socket part (tie rod end, endlink, ball joint etc) that was tighter. Typically, if you cannot move the ball and socket joint by hand, than it's going to be great on the vehicle and last a long time. I have put tie rod ends on vehicles that moved freely like you show with the Moog and the ProForged, and the vehicle has felt unstable and loose. The parts that can be moved freely by hand is how a tie rod end with 200k miles feels. New should be stiff and brely be able to move by hand or not at all. That's just been my experience. It alot of time doesn't matter the brand as much as it matters on how tight the ball and socket joint feels and the strength of the spring washer. Think about this way... When you add the force of the weight of the vehicle, the power steering, and the road, any joint that is very stiff that can't be moved by hand, will move just fine when all of those forces are applied and provide a nice tight and stiff steering and driving feel.

you're like a kid friendly version of AvE! I dig it

4 years ago, I replaced all my 98 corolla's entire front end with Mevotech Supreme X Factor Pro-grade parts. This included inner & outter tie rods, lower ball joints and front (and rear) roll bar end links. One year later all the Mevotech were getting sloppy, and one part failed completely... the pass side outter tie rod. I then looked at MOOG cause everyone said they were the best. Every MOOG joint I hand tested could be moved by hand and were inconsistent, some being looser than others. I removed the Mevocrap and installed MOOG outter tie rod ends only, the rest of the front end was ProForged. Two years ago, the Passenger side MOOG outter was total shit with unbelievable end play and slop. In go Proforged on both sides. Now one of the ProForged tie rod ends didn't feel tight like the other one when hand tested, but I installed it anyway. I immediately called ProForged and told them I really liked the look and durability of their parts, but was bummed about the loose tie rod end. They said the hand test i did wasn't really a valid way to test, but they sent me AN ENTIRE FRONT END worth of new ProForged parts (kudos to ProForged for making a very happy customer out of me). Sure enough, the pass side tie rod failed a few months ago, but the driver's side is still as tight as day one. So in went a nice tight ProForged PS outter tie rod from all the nice tight extra parts they sent me. Gees that was nice of them. So, long story short... Proforged is still in my car's front end and is tight like day one (after replacing the PS tie rod end, but check all parts by hand first. It may not be a valid test of reliability, but only tight ones are going in my cars from now on. PS. I only drive on the highway 400-500 miles per week. No bumpy roads.

I bought pro forged tie rods over a year ago...no problems.very little rust too.

I tried moog parts and I installed them in the summer and they only lasted the next summer

I just replaced the inner and outer tie rods on my 2005 all wheel drive Denali. I used bargain parts from the internet the driver side came loose I mean the inner tie rod literally just came it was just popped loose two months after they were installed. I just compared $112 set for the driver side from O'Reilly's lifetime guarantee to the ones for $134 at AutoZone also lifetime guarantee. The AutoZone parts are literally almost twice as thick and also can be greased from both ends. To be honest I was surprised how much bigger and beefier the AutoZone parts were. So I'll be spending a couple hundred bucks to redo both sides instead of the 75 I spent for both sides but hopefully this time they'll stay fixed.

Amy feedback on Delphi suspension parts?

Tight tolerance is important but without hard enough parts they won’t last.

how do you get a used part ?

I work for advance auto parts, commercial Manager, I choose Moog all day. When you see how they're built, the testing the parts go through, customer feed back from shops, you choose Moog everytime. I have people come in wanting the cheaper brands because they believe it's the same part just cheaper... they couldnt be anymore wrong. You get what you pay for with Moog, it's worth the extra 20 to 30 bucks, in the long run you won't be replacing the same part 2 years down the road.

my 2010 escape goes through moog control arms and sway bar links like crazy, i only put on 8-10,000km a year and ive gone through a ball joint in 8 months once, i keep putting them on because i got the ones with the 3 year warranty so i keep getting free ones, but i am getting tired of doing them. thinking of jumping ship to a better brand.

Great review. It's hard to find good reviews of the Proforged line. I did my own research and went with the Proforged on the front end of my 1998 Astro AWD, except for the upper ball joints which they didn't have in stock (went with MOOG), and the idler arms (also MOOG, also not in stock). I'm even replacing the control arm bushing with polyurethane ones, and do a 4" lift. We will see how they last, at least for a while I should have the new truck feel, lol.

thanks for info

I am so glad to have found out about PROFORGED! I would not use Moog, it is not what it us to be. No worries with Proforged.

Did you do your ball joints? How is the ride

I just bought some Moog lower front tie rods for a 91 Miata. The box say made in Japan. The sealed bag they came in say made in Korea. And the biggest difference. The Moog don't use a castle nut. It uses a compression nut. A nut with that plastic in it. There is no cotter pin hole in the threads. The nut is bigger but still. I need to get my car fixed but if they can't tell you where the part is really from, I have a hard time trusting them now since it's my first time buying Moog.

Do not and I do mean do not cheapen out on getting OEM parts since the most expensive part of the repair is NOT part----it is the labor cost. Do it right the first time...

Sounded like WI, then I saw the New Glarus bottle.....awesome.

I’m replacing all front steering on my G body car and STILL undecided on which brand 😢 I’m not going with AC Delco that’s certain I think proforged, their sleeves are nice too

I go with Moog replacement parts for my suspension and it's served me well over the years.

Great info. I believe the same differences apply to end links.

I agree that the metal and threads a deff. better. I always think about the ball joint and tolerances.--OEM. They are built exactly as OEM man. wanted/did. Tighter tie rod ends can make the steering feel completely different than the OEM. I would like the steering not tight not loose. But, I don't like any play in the suspension steering. I'd go tighter. Sometimes OEM is worth the $$. But we can't all afford that, right? --U can't get that boot to stay on at all no matter what you do because of all the grease.

that phone scared the balls outta me

I had good luck with reybestos best pro/premium grade. Hard to tell anything by looking cause the grade of steel is one of the biggest differences. I guess I was hopping for a steel hardness test or something.

Is this AVE?

The moment he showed how stiff it was i ordered all my stuff from Proforged at amazon for my truck.

Moog is garbage and poor design. The boots on alot of their suspension parts are just to cover the joints and dirt easily gets into it and they don't last long. I would go factory OEM if you want it to last longer honestly.

I see a huge problem with the non-Moog Inner tierod end. The wrench area, for lack of a better word is far up the Non-Moog part. This makes the part thinner on the end and on some vehicles much harder to reach. outer tie rod ends balls should be stiff. Think about how much weight that is taking on compared to your bare hand.

people dont outsource products to china, mexico, and ship stuff 1/2 around the world for better quality, they do it to save money

Go get some cable ties, for those boots they look better, easier to put on don't rust and they'll last.

omg, I thought my phone rang lol thanks for comparison.

100 years ago, same technology. Always end up breaking.

Replace bushing when it's worn or perished, not because it's old or high mileage. You'll often be swapping out decent parts for crap that way.

Bought moog outer tie rod end boot busted in 6000 miles always go with OEM PARTS dealing with any front end suspension parts

Moog is made in USA? Which product line? The problem solver control arms I have on my truck are sloppy and rattling after a year and half at about 10-20 miles a day. No grease fitting holes in them, and didn't come with any either. They are JUNK!

Made in america is better than an import...eating our own seed corn otherwise. Keeping the jobs here.. Moog is good quality in my parts replaced on my vehicle. Glad we found out about the poor quality of Proforged parts

You should not be able to move the inner tie rod by hand..poor tolerance in manufacture. I bought the moog and they were so loose my dodge dealer mechanic who does all my work said get the TRW. TRW was the OEM for my year dodge ram and I couldn't budge them when I got them..super tight tolerance.

Adding more grease in the boot area does nothing. Adding it in the ball area is what helps.

From my experience Moog has gone to shit in recent yrs but in there defense Moog does have different levels of quality and price The steering end you have look close in quality. The tie rod ends also but as you stated the one that has the band to install yourself allows it to be packed with grease. on the other hand you should not be able to move a ball joint around easily by hand.

As for you mentioning the friction and "smoothness" on the greaseable joints it's not a fair comparison to the sealed joints unless you were to install the zerk fittings and priperl grease them with a high quality suitable grease before making the comparison... The sealed joints come properly lubed obviously and that's why they feel so much better . Grease them and redo the test then give me your opinion that would show me you know what your talking about and make me value what you say until then this is just some guy with a camera trying to make a video about something he only partially knows about not saying he doesn't know anything about it but needs to know more before trying to teach any1 else

A bit of deductive reasoning is called for in making the comparisons. Honda has developed a very, very high reputation in all their products for longevity and reliability, from lawn mowers, generators, and vehicles. Rental companies select machines with their engines because downtime is lost rents. Their branding is the gold standard for quality. If their engineers came up with a smooth articulating ball joint, and Moog's came up with a tight one, ponder who is doing it correctly for a Honda. Then ponder why a Toyota, made with Toyota parts, lasts longer than the Energizer Bunny. Sealed bearings were invented 35 years ago because greased bearings were based on old technology that didn't last very long. A smooth, frictionless bearing doesn't need to be greased at every oil change. I did that with my 1959 Buick Electra and 1973 Chevy Caprice, which wore bearings out in 30,000 miles despite religious greasing, and I'm glad the industry has put those days behind us. My 2007 Tacoma has 178,000 miles on it with entirely original front end parts and is still tight as a drum, with no sign of fatigue. With quality performance like that, am I supposed to look for better from an aftermarket company that makes parts for all brands?

I'm sad to announce that ProForged was recently purchased by the Holley Group in 2021. After talking to Holley, I can tell that they are NOT going to be good for the ProForged brand. They already removed the ProForged web site which shows they want to change things, and not for the better. I've seen this way too many times to not even waste time "hoping" Holley rises to the occasion. THEY WON'T! They will vanilla-ize the brand and look for ways to cut costs. Gees' I hope I'm wrong, but the type of acquisition that occurred says it all. You can no longer trust what anyone from ProForged or from Holley says. Another hidden gem ruined IMO!

I'd put that tight Moog inner tie rod in my car before I put that loose OEM inner tie rod in my car

Moog all the way.

So, where we going with this info? Nothing you showed means much. Moog, since about 2019 has become poor quality, mostly from bad measurements in manufacturing.Currently, I would avoid Moog for that reason. I installed many Moog parts in the 60's and 70's and they were Top line quality, but they aren't anymore. Now, I stick with OEM parts only, because aftermarket quality nowadays is getting pretty bad.

a super tight toe rod like thst will beat on the rack guides and trash them. So then you'll have excessive play internal to yoir steering rack.

A lot of mood stuff is made overseas now. It's not all made in America

Pretty sure proforged is a holley brand

Throw the ones away that don’t say moog

the tiered the better

I replaced all 4 of my tie rods with Proforged in 2019. All have failed already to varying degrees. Unacceptable.

You wouldn't happen to know who makes Honda oem parts would You Or the best after market part for honda?

You better make sure that that hose clamp is ALL stainless steel or it will rust in no time....

Pay a little more and get OEM parts, or you will spend more on labor. Moog parts are made by unskilled Chinese laborers.

I stick to moog

MOOG has different levels of quality. The Problem Solver line is decent. The cheaper is garbage.

Ok exactly what parts are made in the USA🤔🤔🤔🤔 because moog's are made in Taiwan..

Everything is junk these days. Your only hope on these suspension brands are oem and hope u get oem and not a fake. Moog is junk now. All mine are breaking after 10k miles. Napa is junk now too.

Need to replace my rear endlinks and will probably go with moog

MOOG gets their parts from all over the world. Read the box. where did those come from?????? I have stayed with 555 made in Japan for my 79 620 KC

I know this is an older video. But he keeps saying MOOG made in America. To be totaly honest, I cant remember when I've seen an American made MOOG part. MOOG is a trusted name. Like so many other TRUSTED names that people knew from the 60's and 70's have gone to crap. I hear people all the time put down parts made in Japan. I hate to say it, but I prefer parts made in Japan. I look for parts made in Japan. Thats becouse the quality surpasses almost everything out there now. I stay away from MOOG and Gates. Doorman used to be a quality, not anymore. I'm 58 years old and have been working on cars all my life, and yes as a profession. I had an older brother that built racing engins in the late 60's and early 70's. I have spent countless houers researching and comparing parts and manufacturers against each other and even in my own experiences. Face it, Japan leads in quality. Next time your looking for parts, do a search on the company, look who ownes them, where theyer made, look at reviews, educate yourself before buying. You cant just rely on a name anymore. MOOG is made in 16 differant Countrys.

Moog is made in China my friend

Seems your just chan

I thought mood was made in China

Taiwan makes the best computer motherboards/GPUs

Are you are your mind or just a millennium high quality from Taiwan doesn't even make sense

Taiwan has better quality of manufacturing than China could ever have. I have tool's made in Taiwan and they are good quality. I try to avoid anything made in China

Every Moog part I've used has failed prematurely. Absolute garbage.

Moog is hit or miss unfortunately

I hate moog

The difference in threads, could mean the steel used in the Proforged parts has a higher lead content, making it easier to machine, but have less strength overall.

The crimp is better. The band on the moog will fail.

super good quality just by appearance , not

Taiwan parts are absolute garbage dude who the fk are you kidding? Ive been working on cars for over 40 years and anything from over-seas especially China isnt worth the cardboard box they are shipped in.... OEM Parts are quality parts.

Lets caper apples to apples... To truly compare components you should get some Moog parts that are made in Taiwan.

moog is not american...

moog warranty totally sucks compared to driveworks limited lifetime replacement moog is 3/36 , past is not a guarantee of future performance only warranty can tell you what is good. also moog is 4 times more expensive as driveworks , you would think they should stand behind their product just as much , but no. so they do not believe in it. If they dont then why should you?

555 or OEM ftw

Moog was a good brand when they were reboxin a lot of three 5 parts - now moog all garbage