so this happened as I pulled into the driveway

I bet the ball is dry and started to lock up in the socket from rust. Causing the metal to fatigue.

 

Yeah just look at it, that ball joint has probably been on the truck since 95!

 

So if the ball joints haven't been replaced as part of the recall, I am entitled to the repairs being done on the Toyota?

I am the third owner so I'm not sure where the Tacoma was purchased from. I assume I can take it to the local Toyota dealer and see what they will do for me. Hopefully it can save me costs out of pocket to get this fixed.

 

plug your vin in here

 

Probably WHY he held it together

 

Been there done that, as others have mentioned, you may want to consider replacing critical suspension parts.

Judging by the failure, ill guess there would of been some play in that particular ball joint, and eventually it was enough of a bump to shear it off to failure. Alot of the issues had by others were bolt failures on the 6 lug trucks, but yours is 5 lug. Slightly different components but still the same safety concerns.

 

Id rather pay $500 to have it done once than pay $500 a month for a turd gen with more problems

 

You had a wear part wear out and fail. It will continue to happen on other things. Fix it & continue driving it. $500 for parts/labor is cheaper than a $500/month payment for 6 years.

 

I must be reading too many LBJ threads. I decided to check my service records at the Toyota Owners site, and what do you know, I see my 2003 truck has a service record for LBJ R&R from 2005 under the LBJ recall. At the time, the truck had 40K miles, now 170K. So there are few less miles on this set than I thought (say 130K not 170K). I'm a little less paranoid now, but they probably should still be replaced. At 12 years, 130K, it wouldn't be a ridiculous thing to do.

It is quite likely that the recall does not go back to the 1995.5 model year, but I don't know that for a fact. Check the owner's/recall site or with your dealer.

 

Not to hijack, but I'm gonna hijack. How many miles should people go on UPPER ball joints? Mine I don't think have ever been done.

 

Lots has to do with driving conditions and road/weather. If you are in a state that uses lots of deicer and or salts stuff will wear out quicker, if you live in AZ stuff will last longer. Lots of variables to answer that.

 

Changed mine a while back..........at 300,000 miles!

 

just did both lowers on my 2002... I dont think it took more than a hour... about $240 for both lbj from my local dealer.

 

Upper or lower?

 

This is why I will be replacing my LBJs in a week or two.

 

Lowers.
Uppers still tight.

 

My buddy had a new oem ball joint fail the same way. We guessed it was over torqued.

 

If you don't wheel much and they are tight I would not replace the uppers. Lowers I would do every 80k miles.

 

i had mine replaced by the dealer under the safety recall back in April. should have them check your vin #.

 

I don't think rust played as much a part of this as just plain ol' metal to metal contact right at the contact point causing extreme fatigue. that joint looks like grease dried out a lonnng time ago. The factory joints are designed to have life long grease AS LONG AS THE RUBBER SEAL IS INTACT.
I changed mine @ 180k just as I noticed the seal disintegrating and the metal (joint) was still great. No play at all.
Thought I was doing the right thing using those Japanese 555s (Sankos?) from (Wheelers?) that were a few bucks cheaper.....nah. Rubber is already (not many miles just a few years time parked on hot driveway) failing again.
just buy factorys......and man, they're easy to change, grab a bud who knows what he's looking at and do it at home. Even w/o an impact, the bolts aren't bad and you can just just bang out the old ones and slip in the new.

Look at your spindle socket (where the joint contacts) closely for pitting....a shop isn't going to do that for you anyway. In/out is their way of working.

You can do better even if it's your first time.