Yesterday was a lucky day

BallJoint by CactusBob posted Aug 18, 2017 at 6:55 PM[/GALLERY]About two months ago I had to replace the upper ball joints , struts, and steering rack bushings to get it aligned. A few weeks ago my front end started creaking and the steering was a little funny. Once in awhile it would seem to stick after turning. I finally had the time available to take it in to get it looked at, which would have been this morning, however the fates or Murphy, decided that wasn't good enough. Last night on the way home it seemed to be creaking more and sticking a little bit more after each turn, to the point of having to fight to get the wheel straight. When I pulled in my yard and stopped I heard a loud bang. When I looked I realized that changing the lower ball joints at a 100K is for a reason. Check out the pic from this morning. I don't want to think what would have happened at 55 or 60. I think Im going to pick up a lottery ticket.These will be replaced with OEM and the uppers are going to get redone soon

 

how many miles were on it?

 

Glad it worked out. Some people have all the luck! Lol

 

How many miles and what brand were they?

 

Wow..glad you got lucky

 

What is that guy poking? I can never see it

Glad you had good luck with this OP. Time for some wrenching

 

Pick any of the vin numbers from that truck buy a lottery ticket and you are sure to win! That is incredible.

 

You are one lucky sob.

No, you got it wrong. There is no reason to replace LBJ if they are perfectly good. This is the reason to check all suspension parts at least every oil change and for sure immediately after "funny" things are happening like grinding, popping, or not normal steering. You wouldn't wait few weeks to check the oil level when low oil pressure warning light comes on, would you? Same thing with other parts even they don't have a red warning light.

 

I replace mine every 150,000 just like I replace my timing belt at 90,000 miles, why take a chance when
you know Toyota made a poor design in this area

 

Where I live during monsoon season the mud from my road causes the entire suspension to creak so just creaking this time of year isn't abnormal but your right once that steering started grabbing it was going in to get checked.

These were OEM balljoints with 125,000 miles and 17 years worth of use, so I cant complain about the longevity, New OEM's are on the way

 

You dodged a bullet there OP, that's about the luckiest LBJ failure I've ever seen!

 

Whoa! Go buy that $535 Million Powerball ticket before your luck runs out.

 

Wow, I just changed both mine out and pretty sure the passenger side one was original, 170k. Do you go on rough roads/ off road a lot?

 

Not really, I live a mile back on a dirt road but normally I take it pretty slow. Even when I go into the desert its mostly old dirt roads.
Bob