so this happened as I pulled into the driveway

I showed the pictures to my mechanic and he said it was the ball joints. Didn't get an estimate.

It's a 95 Tacoma. I've had it for 5 years. Been a pleasure to own but it's getting to that point where I'm not sure if it's worth it to get work done on it to keep it running. It's my daily driver so I do need it to be reliable which it has been but going forward it's going to require some work to keep that the case.

 

Replace both sides and keep driving it.

 

I just had this happen last week! I've owned mine for a month and half, but they just happen. The way I see it, the engine and everything else still run great, it's just dumb things like these that go out ever few dozen thousand miles. It should be about $500 with labor and taxes and everything to get both lower joints fixed.

 

Yup, notorious 1st gen tacoma issue.

 

"As I pulled into the driveway" Nice...... Good truck. got you home.

 

That happen to our parts driver in our Tundra, but he was on the freeway doing 70. He held it together and pulled it over. Didnt hit anyone or the wall. Dudes like 70, I could not believe it.

 

Luckily in the driveway and not the freeway.

 

They're pretty easy to replace, so you can save a lot of money by doing them yourself. Do a search on the forum and/or google and you'll find a lot of write-ups on how to do it.

 

If your paying to have work done to a 22 year old truck maybe time to think about something newer

 

Replace uppers and lowers on both sides, get an alignment, keep driving it. Parts wear out over the years and ball joints failing is not uncommon.

 

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/picking-up-an-04-tonight.494609

 

Is an easy fix, that rust under there looks nasty, replace top and bottom ball joint with all that rust.
Ball joints should be replaced with OEM only

 

this is the bad design flaw everyone talks about when referring to the lower ball joint. the way its designed the weight of the vehicle puts constant tension on it so you cant tell when it gets play in it. just have to wedge a pry bar in there to see if it moves to know.

when they let go they let go as you found out and had you been on the road it can cause accidents.

replace both lower and upper ball joints and your going to be good for another 100k miles

 

The upper ball joint area looks rusted to hell, I'm sure rust may have helped it fail sooner

 

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/ball-joints.266989/page-3#post-6650774

 

Whats interesting to me is that the ball joint didnt pull out like it usually does, it somehow snapped, Ive never seen one go like that, replace the uppers and lowers and clean the rust up and paint all that stuff and keep going, I don't think the recall is active anymore since its older than 15 years but i don't really know.
also ONLY OEM, do not use moog or any other aftermarket ball joints

 

Generally, automotive issues officially classified as a recall do not expire. You can have your dealer run your vin number to see if it was included in the LBJ recall. If the vehicle was serviced by a dealer in the past, they would have most likely handled the recall then, as it would have come up on their system during check in.

This is in contrast to the 15 year extended warranty on the frames of 2001-2004s. As a voluntary measure taken by the manufacturer, it has none of the recall requirements, and is backed by the full faith and credit of the manufacturer (subject to their guidelines).