Need advice on repair of lower ball joint

Hey all, my truck has been driving out of alignment lately with a vibrating steering wheel and wearing on the inside of my front tires. I went in to my appointment and explained my issue and the mechanic noticed that my front passenger side lower ball joint is likely one of the main culprits to blame for this. He gave me a quote which included using their part (Napa or precision) which they will warranty but the thing is is that I'm not going to need the warranty since I'll be moving out of the state soon. Can I just buy a cheaper MOOG part for $40 and save myself $60 in parts or is the quality difference significant enough to where I should go with their part? Thanks.

 

I am a big believer in OEM parts on a stock truck.

You get what you pay for.

 

pretty sure the lower ball joint is considered a no serviceable part, so toyota recommends replacing the whole LCA. you can find aftermarket lower ball joints, and there might be a part number that you can find for a oem toyota lower ball joint. i think most people would recommend oem on something like a ball joint

 

Welp I asked the mechanic if we should just replace the entire LCA and he said no need to and it would cost me more, so indeed it is possible to just replace the lower ball joint by itself. Apparently people do it with speciality tools from your common auto parts stores according to what I've read online.

 

I’m not trying to spend your money but it would be best to buy a OEM LCA with ball joint already installed.

 

The ball joint would have to have alot of play to cause any sort of tire wear. And def would not cause a vibration. Not going to say your mechanic sucks but that diagnoses is not true. I'm sure the boot is leaking and he just wants to replace it.

 

you can definitely use a ball joint press and press the ball joint out, but because the lca isnt designed to service the ball joint it could be potentially unsafe, although im sure it would be fine. for aftermarket ball joints, I dont know of any ball joints that are gonna be even close to the quality of oem. I thought moog used to be good quality, but ive heard from a lot of people that moog isnt the same as it used to be

 

Napa doesn't manufacture its own ball joints, so it'll be an existing brand (Moog, 555, Mevotech, TRW, etc.) in Napa packaging. It costs more because Napa provides an easier warranty and Napa makes a profit.

The $2000 off-road performance LCAs from Dirt King, BTF, etc. use Moog ball joints. So Moog is good enough. TRW (owned by ZF) is also good enough.

 

Do you have a small floor jack and a prybar or similar? you can check the ball joint yourself fairly easily with those alone. Lift on the lower control arm, and pry the tire up and down listening and feeling for play. You can reach around the tire to where the knuckle meets the LCA and get a feel for if there's any slop at all. You can buy just the OEM balljoint on ebay, as a Hilux lower balljoint, but you might have a hard time convincing someone else to put it in for you. I did one this way myself and its been on there almost a year without issue.

 

If the boot is leaking would'nt I see it?

 

The mechanic is the one that recommended this repair when I went to get an alignment done.

 

48068-04060 right lca
48069-04060 left lca

If you get them on sale they run about $250 each.

 

I'm ballin on a budget haha. The part from the mechanic will be $106 for the ball joint. I can afford that better than a $250 LCA right now...

 

Yeah, but what are they charging for labor? I just bought new oem lca's for that reason. Plus you get new bushings.

 

$142.99 for the labor. Plus $15 for shop supplies and $26 for sales tax. Is all of that too much? I don't have the money, space, time, or tools to mess with an LCA I've never installed before.

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/154012666304. This is the listing I purchased from, the parts gave me no reason to believe they were anything other than brand new OEM. The price is for 2 of them.

 

That's cheap for the work involved. You'll need an alignment after too.

 

You're the 2nd person that's told me it's a decent price. Alignment will be 69.99 so after everything will be roughly $360. If that sounds good to you guys I'll go through with or I can also order my own, cheaper non OEM, part online which will not be under warranty but I don't need that since I won't be much longer in this state.

 

I would stick with oem for best fitment. Ebay has several sets for $70.

43330-09510

 

I looked that serial up in the Ebay search bar and there are a lot of pairs of ball joints claiming to be genuine and OEM that range in price from $65 to $145 hahaha. This whole process is giving me a few extra little gray hairs.