Ball joint failure after two months

Did you physically look at the underside of the vehicle after this replacement (but before the wreck/failure)?

As @Andy01DblCabTacoma stated, those ball joints look a lot older than 2 months old. I've heard stories aplenty of mechanics/shops charging for work that was never performed.

 

This is the failure I keep seeing coming in at work with MOOG ball joints. Theres been an uptick in aftermarket joints failing the last couple years. (Especially 1st gen tundras)

 

2 inch spacer lift will cause ball joints to bind and break!

 

Wow that was catastrophic

 

Also- it's worth mentioning that you need to get that brake line clamped off asap, especially if you have ABS. Bleeding the ABS system is problematic at best; the dealer will have a SST that will run the modulator. Otherwise, you're looking at heading to a dirt road to get some speed and smash on the brakes to get the abs to run, then bleed, and repeat.

 

It was as about 12 at night when this happened so I couldn’t get the break line clamped until I got it back to my shop. The ball joints are from Napa. I didn’t put a spacer in my suspension I just moved the the collar up on the 5100 shock to stiffen it.

 

Hello everybody, Merry Christmas. I was wondering if the failure rate is the same across the board no matter what platform the 1st gen is 4x4, prerunner and so on. Hypothetically speaking let's say they were all stock and driven in the same fashion. Does it matter what vehicle configuration. Just thinking out loud.

 

Merry Christmas!

A 6-lug first gen uses the same front end parts whether it's a Prerunner or 4x4.

They can and have failed on completely stock vehicles just going out to town on an errand. It's the design itself which was changed over going into the second gen and up.

The problem is, a lot of people neglect replacing their lower ball joints the way they neglect replacing their shocks. Sure at 200k miles the truck is still in drive-able condition cause the shocks haven't broken, but that doesn't mean they weren't long due for replacement already.

Not the case here with the OP since it seems like cheap parts were used.

 

Just like some on previously said, do you think the joints were not actually done for whatever reason? There's always good reason for asking for old parts back, one is accountability.

It was mentioned gen1 have this issue, thats true, but its hugely exaggerated by these now very high mile units or sinfully shitty chinesium parts. I dont think gen 1 is more guilty than gen2 and up. The design is the same. We'll be seeing this more and more as they age out or get a China pedigree.

The LBJ poking upwards (load force pulling on stud) design is shared with many strut or even long arm/short arm set ups, just as GM has used successfully on 3 ton cars for years. Although GM LBJ can pull out, I've seen this happen (they are just pressed in). All the weight of each corner is focused and yanking on that one point.

Napa USED to mean some of the best parts out there. NOT NO MO'!

This says the most so far. Its possible the perfect storm.
1) Supper stiff springs set full hard +
2) LBJ angle pushed out of spec and binding (lifted) +
3) not replaced or chinesium at best LBJ's +
4) One hard boing boing too many +
5) poor 4x4 high stress design any way

= ca pow! Skid, cfash & burn

Use O.E.M. parts and seasoned techs on critical components like this IMO is always prudent.

 

Or do the IFS elimination and not worry about it again…

 

There is no way that is 2 months old. The UBJ looks new, but the LBJ looks old.

 

Merry Christmas all,
Im sure the engineers at Toyota didnt have the obstacle course at Moab in mind when the IFS 4x4 came about, yeah not the best set up for serious off roading. What i see is a lot of old impact damage and scrapes on lower control arm, lower ball joint boss and bolts, look at the cooling shield, dings everywhere. The 555 ball joints come with a straight zerk fitting that ones got a 90 degree one, the straight ones were a pain you have to turn the wheels to full left or right to grease them, could’ve been swapped later. Yup could have been over torqued at install, i think its gonna take more than a lift, 5:29s and 35s to seriously off road these trucks, SAS it or upgrade to a better ball joint design which is available.
R/

 

I took my truck dropped it off to the shop that did the bj. They replaced both bj on both sides as well as everything else that broke on them. I think I will order some oem ball joints and replace the 4 myself. Would getting a lift spring instead of compressing stock springs help take some pressure off the bjs?





They also put a hole in my radiator while trying to move the truck. They couldn’t get the truck started from a bad starter and I didn’t trust them doing that. I hauled it back to my house and since then my auto will not shift from 3rd to 4th. Drained the fluid and filled it. Still wouldn’t shift. Dropped the pan took the filter off replaced filter and gasket, refilled with dexton III or whatever it called for. Still will not shift from 3rd to 4th. Doesn’t shift well in general what could be the issue?

 

I’m still running what I think are the original ball joints. The trucks got almost 230,000 and I’m clenching every time I drive. I need to get them done. I off-road it mildly rough and I know there gonna go one of these days.

 

ACK! My taco (bought from first owner at 240K mi) was on--I'm pretty sure--original LBJ's until I started reading TW. Replaced them myself (proper torque, reputable parts, yada yada) at 275K miles a couple of weeks ago. Now you've all got me panicking that my shit's gonna blow up. Sheesh. Good thing I don't do much off-roading, I guess.

OP, sorry to hear of the failure. Those pics do not look like new LBJ's unless you've been going hard in the paint for the last 2 mos. Just my opinion....
and it sounds like you have the skills to do LBJ's yourself (lots of threads on TW to help). Good luck!

 

Have you tested them for play? Pretty easy to do.

 

Oh they’re playing alright. The next thing on my list is to get them done. They creak every time I turn and make some other noises.

 

Damn

 

Your driving on borrowed time. Buy the Toyota upper and lower ball joints and get this done ASAP

 

you can spend 2-3 hundred dollars for the balljoints, or 2-3 thousand for repairs if one or more fail. The Choice is yours.