2011 Ball Joint Lube Possible

I greased my drive shaft last week on my 4x4 2011 Tacoma. I noticed some boots on my front ball joints. But as nearly as I can tell, I didn't see any zerks on them.

Are these serviceable?

 

Nope, not serviceable. That would make too much sense. The u-joints have the only grease zerks on the truck.

 

Oems no

 

I haven't investigated the Taco, but I've greased non-greasable joints. You have to drill the joint and install a zerk then it's greasable. The first one I did was my Mustang SVO because new ball joints were unobtanium and I wanted them to last. Next was my Mustang Cobra which had squeeky tie rod ends, I later learned there was a TSB on lack of lube during assembly. After those I've done a few others. There's often a plastic piece just past where you drill through the metal cap, go ahead and drill through that otherwise the grease won't reach the actual friction part of the joint. The ball is very hard steel so you'd be hard pressed to damage it. I wouldn't bother if your boots are good, once they're leaking it's on it way so there's little to loose.

No guarantees implied, it's your experiment, don't sue me, I didn't tell you to do it, I have a gun.........

 

I am not ambitious enough to install zerks myself.

I'll just wait until they need replacement.

What happens when ball joints fail? Do they render the truck undriveable?

 

Undriveable, likely damaged, possibly totaled and dead people. I've worked on three vehicles that had a ball separate, they were all luckily going low speed. One on a speedbump in a parking lot two on driveway ramps. All three suffered only minor damage, inner fender covers and one brake hose ripped. I've been told about two from customers that failed at high speed and the vehicles were totaled. Those I found out about when they brought me their new car for service.

The check for a ball joint, tierod end, or any other similarly constructed joint is to use a big pair of pliers (I use a big ass channel lock) and squeeze them. A perfect joint has no deflection and it increases with wear. There may be a measurement out there better than what I have so check. When I worked at a truck dealership (my last job) our number was 1/16". I think that's pretty stringent, but we were working on big commercial trucks and that was our number. I've seen close to 1/4" on working joints, but I wouldn't let one go that long. That 1/4" car was scheduled to come back to me for joints, he blew it off about a week past our appointment and it broke.

 

you can poke a hole in any grease seal with a grease needle. draw a paint pen circle around the spot youd like to poke and use just that spot for future greasings. been doing this for years. you can get them here http://www.mcmaster.com/#grease-needles/=of8d79

 

Couldn't grease my 97 either but after 285K they still worked fine passed inspection every year. As long as the boots are fine where is the grease going to go?

 

Don't do it!
I don't believe there's any place on a ball joint where that would work. Squirting grease into the boot will do little or nothing for the friction joint and the hole made will let grease out and water & crap in and will likely be the first place it starts cracking as it ages. If it's already cracked and leaking then maybe greasing that way frequently will extend it's life a little, mostly by just helping to flush crud out and keeping a bit of a grease barrier around the wear parts.

Those needles work on bearing grease seals and if you carefully work it between the lip and the shaft or inner race won't leave permanent damage to create a leak. I usually try to remove the seal and use the needle to fill around the balls/rollers then reinstall the seal.

 

I just replaced mine with Moogs, they have a zerk.

 

^^^^^^^^^^^^ Which is the way they shoulda been from the factory...... and regular serviceable wheel bearings and zerks on drive shaft u-joints for all the trucks. Just bullshit dealership service generating factory engineering practices nowadays FTL or find workaround such as the Moog ball joints to win.

 

Agreed. Things on cars in general these days are becoming less and less serviceable, with the mentality of just replace it at an exponentially higher cost. The dealer will also tell you that the whole LCA needs to be replaced for a couple grand instead of just the BJ, which Toyota does not sell separately.

 

Yep, exponential stupid on top of stupid......that some people actually believe. Betting those same people take the current pres at his word too.

 

The boots on my lcas and tie rod ends have been busted for over 40k miles now and I off-road my truck regularly including water crossings on a consistent basis. I have not wrecked my truck or died yet. Not to say that something couldn't fail but my odds have been very favorable so far ....

 

I'm sure those joints will continue to work great and get you all the way to the scene of the crash.

I think the Toyota lower ball joints are installed in a compression rather than extension orientation; if so it may not come apart 'till you hit a big enough bump to unload the suspension, the landing is gonna suck.

 

Sounds like sage advice. I'll just wait and get some Moogs when they get long-in-the-tooth.

 

Well thanks for the positive words

Just figured I'd point out the fact that just because a boot on a ball joint is busted doesn't mean you will crash and die. There is no argument saying that it can happen because anything can happen. I'm just saying you don't have to try and put the fear of god into people that have a leaking ball joint boot. Haha its not that serious

 

I gave a way to measure the wear of one and gave my experience of how much play lead to a separation and what can happen. A torn boot leads to accelerated wear, which eventually leads to failure. I didn't create an unfound panic and never said a torn boot means you die. The op asked what's gonna happen if one breaks and I told him the facts. It seemed like he might be under the impression that worse case scenario is it would become un-drivable and I thought it prudent to inform him of the possibilities and I think it's something everyone should be aware of.

Given how long yours have been torn and the environment you've driven it in I'm sure your's have measurable wear. Whether they're still safe or not we don't know. Continuing to drive it like that without inspecting them is absolutely ignorant.....actually now that you have the information with which to check them it's just plain stupid and you're potentially creating a hazard with intent. To be clear, I do not mean any of what I say to be insulting, it should be taken as an eye opening advisement. If a ball joint unsuspectingly separates it's an accident. If yours, with full knowledge that it is compromised, fails and kills someone you are a murderer and you created a public record proving you show no concern about it. If you had an oil leak you'd likely check your oil level regularly, if your brakes were squealing you'd probably inspect them, saw a nail in your tire you'd check the air.....but you ignore the ball joints; why?

 

Wow! Feel better now? I check everything on my truck before and after every wheeling trip. I got one coming up in 3 weeks. I'll take a look at them again here in the next week or two to see how they and the rest of the truck are doing. Thanks for your concern man. Knowledge is power

 

anyone know how to grease these?

due to the 45deg zerk
and how tight the space is suspension assembled and truck driving/on the ground

there doesn’t appear to be enough room to actually fit a nozzle and grease them