Lower ball joint bolts fell off 2000 Tacoma 3.4L

555 is a brand. They are actually an OEM manufacturer. I've heard that some "OEM" BJs are stamped with 555 on them.

For what it's worth, I've been running 555's (from lowrangeoffroad) for the last year or two and they are fine (~half the cost of oem too). My MOOGs even held up okay for 6 or so years, but I won't buy them again, though.

 

Be careful with Auto zone LBJ's make sure the bolts they give you are strong enough. this happened a week after i installed them.
I'll only stick with OEM from now on.

 

That's true of OEM BJs, too...

 

Jesus.

I just went to Ace Hardware and got some grade 10.9 bolts for mine. I get all my hardware from them.

 

Those look like they just sheared right off...I don't know if that's a sign that they weren't torqued (maybe it could be), but more likely a sign that the wrong quality bolts were used.

edit: just saw that's not OPs truck sorry

OP did yours shear off like above?

 

@Frontier Man

Did you mean to say something or did you just quote my post for posterity? lol

 

who did what now?

 

That's silly. Don't do that. Red loc-tite is not the correct use for the application. Blue (242) is fine. If you want to be paranoid, buy the appropriate grade (I don't know if that's 8 or 10) bolts that have the holes drilled in them so you can run safety wire through them to prevent them from backing out and falling out again.

 

It pains me when people on here say stuff like that. I've gone on this rant before in other threads. But moral of the story is that "tight enough" is not an accurate torque. You can damage the fastener and shorter it's life by over-torquing it and you can damage the fastener and shorten it's life by under-torquing it. Never just go "tight enough" especially on a critical component like lbjs. Toyota designed the ball joints, fasteners, and similarly their torque specs so that everything stays together and stuff like this doesn't happen.

Also helps to mark the heads of the bolts and the lbj with a paint marker so you can peek under every once in a while and make sure they're not loosening up.

 

Not red, blue. You'll thank us when it's time to disassemble again.

Yep. Listen to this guy if you don't trust my thoughts.

 

They were ORM balljoint a to start and yeah autozone is junk most of the time I just needed the bolts so I bought the whole ball joint.

Yeah the bolts were just gone. Top and bottom there was no sign of damage scratches or anything. No sign of damage on the threads of any kind.

I feel like it’s installer error with not torqueing to spec. My only hang up is these OEM ball joints only have 3k miles on them.is there a possibility that is ordeal did internal damage that would warrant replacing it?

 

Paints you golden I assume?

 

Even if they look fine i wouldn't reused.

 

I wouldn't reuse those original LBJs after a bolt failure like that, the ball joint could have been damaged inside during the failure when it hit/dragged on the ground, not a risk worth taking IMO

 

Lol yeah that bothered me to tight enough isn’t... paint marker is a really good idea I’m gonna let the old ball joint ride for a month or so and do a paint marker if anything feels weird or the bolts are moving I’ll replace with a new OEM.

 

Who installed the bolts? If it was a shop, you might have a case for them to compensate you. If it was you, well, let this be a lesson in buying a torque wrench...

I got my LBJ bolts, and most of my general hardware actually, from Ace Hardware. They have a pretty sweet selection of grade 10.9 metric bolts.

 

Not me this happened yesterday.
I’m sure it’s happened to someone else though.

 

Also be sure to check for play in the ball joint itself, LBJs don't always fail at the bolts, sometimes the ball joint pops out of the socket esp on cheaper aftermarket ones.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/rteeAOQlrKY

That's for a 3rd gen 4runner but it's the same concept for checking them.

These trucks have a shitty ball joint design to begin with, which is why Toyota reversed it on 2nd gen Tacomas after 2004 and you never hear of them having these issues.

Our LBJs are consistently under force to be pulled apart, on 2nd gen Tacoma's it's flipped around so the ball joint is being pressed into the socket not pulled out.

 

It was a mechanic buddy of my that did the ball joints when I was super busy and couldn’t. I definitely have a torque wrench and I know he does too but if he used it is the question.

 

Ah shit “pains”**