For your info! While working on the mod's for the steering hub assemblies, I found what I believe may be a factory design flaw. If you do some research, you will find that Chrysler had, and probably still has problems with ball joint failures on some of their models, which appears to include our PT Cruisers. This is a very serious problem, which can cause serious injuries, or even death, if not corrected. The 1st picture below is of the ball joint from my 2002 PT Cruiser. I had only 19,000 miles when I found this ball joint rubber boot damaged. What happens is, the heat from our brake rotors is transferred to the ball joint boots. This condition can, and in some cases causes the boot to crack, become brittle. It then eventually opens up, exposing the ball joint internals to the elements. The grease that is packed inside the boot eventually dissolves after a period of time leaving the ball joint without lubrication. This condition can and will cause the ball joint to fail. That small factory heat sheild that you see at the outer edge of the ball joint assembly, is the only thing that is suppose to protect the rubber boot, from all that heat that the brake rotor is generating. I don't know how you feel about it, but it seems to me that the rubber boot is getting little to no protection from that heat shield. If you look at the 2nd picture, you will note that the heat shield that I designed, fabricated and installed to protect the ball joints on my 2002 PT Cruiser, offers much more protection from the heat generated from our brake rotors. The 3rd and 4th pictures gives you a better view and understanding of how I designed this heat shield, and how it mounts to the base of the ball joint assemblies from our PT Cruisers. I used some pieces from an aluminum sheet to form the shield. On the inside of the shield I also formed another aluminum piece that has the rounded shape of a channel iron. The outer edge of that channel iron is pop riveted to the heat shield, and the inner edge of the channel iron, is where a standard hose clamp is placed. The heat shield is then positioned at the base of the ball joint housing, then simply tighten on the adjusting screw on the hose clamp with a flat tip screw driver. It only takes about half a minute to install this heat shield. The heat shield shown here of which I fabricated, is just a proto-type. I'm sure the design of a marketed product, would appear much more professional looking. The wonderful thing about the design of this heat shield is that it installs in minutes. Some ball joint heat shields currently on the market require disassembly of the ball joint assembly to install it. Please check your ball joint boots periodically. If it is cracked or damaged in anyway, have it replaced right away! Remember, if your ball joints fail, more than likely it will cause you to lose control of your steering while driving. Good luck. Aloha, Tommy.
