Ball Joints

I recently changed inner and out TREs and lower balljoints. I chose to use OEM for the LBJs and went with the 555 brand of TREs. I got the TREs from LowRange Offroad for ~$30 each IIRC

http://www.lowrangeoffroad.com/1995-2004-toyota-tacoma-inner-tie-rod-end-left-or-right.html

http://www.lowrangeoffroad.com/1995-5-2004-toyota-tacoma-outer-tie-rod-ends-made-in-japan.html

 

Honestly I didn't even look for outer tie rod pricing after I saw the difference between moog and oem for inners; thanks for the heads up.

 

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Saw this old thread. I have a 2002 Tacoma Pre Runner I picked up a few months ago. Figured why not and checked online at Toyota Owners with my VIN and it indicated my truck was part of the recall. I took it to my local Toyota Dealer and they changed the LBJ under the recall. At 170k it was probably time for a change anyway. Thank you. Would have never known...

 

This info is GOLD for any 1st gen owner!
BUMP

 

Im in the same boat. Ran my 04 at the dealer and they said no recalls for my truck. This was 2 years ago, so maybe time to go back and see if anythings changed.

AVOID AUTOZONE UBJ at all costs!!! If you're pressed for cash, sure. Replaced mine a few years ago after about 170k miles on original. Had one of them fail while in the woods and had to call a tow truck to the woods. Not fun

 

Just received my L/R OEM lower ball joints yesterday and believe it or not, they came with bolt flanges. Ordered 8 bolt flanges that I don't need now

 

Installed my OEM LBJ's last night and they looked to be original (206k). No tears in the boots though, but the play in the joint was very easy to move on the old LBJ's

 

I can't tell which model year your truck is, but I'm pretty sure it depends on the Toyota part number for the ball joints as to whether they come with bolts or not. I think the '01-'04 LBJs do not come with bolts so you have to order them separate if you want new ones. The ones for my '02 did not come with bolts.

 

1995

 

Well, I just joined the ranks of ball joint failure victims. My left LBJ failed recently...fortunately at low speed. But UNfortunately, my vehicle is slightly outside of the VIN range for the recall (see PDF of recall in post #42 of this thread) (My VIN is 5TE WN72N 04Z371680 and the recall ends at 5TE WN72N 04Z357097).

The failure occurred close to the Toyota dealership, so I had the vehicle towed there for the repairs, which cost over $3K! There are 175,000 miles on the vehicle, and the original ball joints were still installed. According to Dirty Pool (see post #41, paragraph 5), a ball joint will be far out of spec before it separates. Inspection of the ball joints is part of the service at every recommended service interval. The dealer who performed this service is the same dealer where I have had all of my periodic maintenance performed at regular intervals. Also, at 165,000 miles (10,000 miles before the failure), I had this dealer perform a front end alignment as part of the service, so they were working right there at the ball joints.

I have a couple of questions about this:
-should the dealer have detected the ball joint being out of spec?
-even though I am slightly outside of the recall VIN range, is there a chance that my ball joints could’ve been defective originally, and should have been replaced by Toyota?

Thanks for your time… Sorry my post is so long-winded!

 

my 04 didnt have recall for lbj's

 

Lower ball joints on 1st gens are a wear item and should fall into the normal maintenance routine. Waiting for failure, however it is defined, is an expensive mistake to make. Would you do the same with your tires?

If you're a v6, install new ball joints when you replace your timing belt and water pump.

 

I would call up toyota, they would probably wanna see your truck. Similar to that million mile tundra this is not the norm.

Here in arizona, boots wont even last a few years just sitting.

 

Thanks for the replies. Yes, now I definitely know that this is a normal maintenance item. I have had all of the periodic maintenance performed at the Toyota dealership, pretty much following the recommended maintenance schedule. Since ball joint inspection is part of every maintenance interval, I assumed that they would let me know if there was a need to replace them... especially since a front end alignment was part of a previous service 10k miles ago (you know what happens when you assume!).
Thank you

 

I got really lucky this evening. As I was changing my oil, I decided to check my Lower Ball Joints out that I changed roughly a year ago. The driver side was holding up fine but as I looked at the passenger side I noticed that one of the bolts was missing and the other 3 was rather loose. Now I am going to go back and replace all the bolts and make sure to put lots of loctite on them. Can anyone tell me the proper Torque rate for LBJ's? Could of easily lost all the bolts within the next few weeks if I hadn't checked this.

Note To All: Check your Ball Joints!!

 

Glad to hear you caught that before something bad happened. I’m so paranoid I look to make sure my bolts are there every weekend. Lol. Mine only have like 8k roughly on them and I’ve only lightly wheeled it twice since then but damn it keeps me on my toes. Lol

 

Makes me nervous too, when I replaced them last summer I didn't use OEM so I'm paranoid as well lol. Will probably do OEM's here soon.

 

59 ft/lbs and a small amount of blue loctite will do it fine.

 

Any clue what size bolts it takes?