Ball Joints

Never been in the 3rd Gen forum...nor the 2nd Gen forum either... I can imagine they are full of....

"How big of tire can I run?"
"What length LED bar fits across...?"
"What tire do you recommend for my new 30" wheelzzzz, bro?"

(Yeah, I'm still kinda new here I guess (even though I joined 5 years ago now), but I've been around Toyotas for 20+ years now and been around deez 'nets for even longer...just was on other forums mostly...and mailing lists (for those who remember mailing lists...lol))

 

That's the personality type who'd buy a $45,000 truck then put on the most ghetto leveling kit that Chinese prison labor could possibly produce.

Also, "Help! I'm stuck in 4WD," "Help! I can't get into 4WD," and "Check out the plasti-dip on the plasti-dip I plasti-dipped on my plasti-dipped plasti-dip."

 

I know how it works, once again, I said you might not have meant "made by toyota" but many do and it's just silly is what I was getting at. I also see a bunch of people with the misconception that oem toyota parts are all special imported parts right from japan. I believe this is where the whole 555 fad began, but 555 is nothing special. I've got cheap house brand parts from vatozone stamped with 555. Any who, you can use the google and find info stating that toyota sources parts local to their assembly plants, that means most likely the parts you buy from toyota here in the u.s. come from a vendor here which probably outsourced the parts themselves from somewhere else so who knows what your getting.

As to special specifications for oem joints, toyota is gonna go with whoever gives them the best bang for the buck just like anyone else. You win some you lose some, hence the early lbj recall on our 1st gens. This country has safety standards on everything, so no matter whether the box says duralast or toyota on it all its gotta do is hit that standard. If aftermarket joints were as "dangerous" as toyota folks make them out to be they wouldn't still be on the shelf.

Toyota owners are the most over sensitive and dramatic group of auto "enthusiasts" there is, especially with this whole "oem or die" b.s. every time a part needs changed. No matter what part it is oem is the answer. It's just laughable.

Is the horse dead yet?

 

You're making some pretty sweeping arguments. First, if you can find who's making oem ball joints and where to source them then would you please share this information? It would be greatly helpful in making some good savings when buying oem spec ball joints. As Dirty Pool found out when cutting open aftermarket and oem ball joints in the past, they use different construction processes that leads to greater longevity for oem ball joints.

I don't believe that this argument should be about ball joints exploding as even he said that they will not necessarily fail catastrophically, but wear more quickly. Again the danger in the lower ball joint issue is with Toyota's suspension design holding the joint in constant tension, which they corrected for the second gens.

Finally if everyone only used oem parts on their trucks, this site would not exist; we'd all just need the FSM and be done with it. There are many aftermarket specialty companies that work with our trucks that produce wonderful stuff that people recommend regularly on this site. From my perspective we're trying to find the best product for our vehicles and compare cost with benefits.

People are pretty split on this topic, but if more attention were paid to the workings of the parts than testimonials that are more or less anecdotal due to an insufficient sample size, then some more enlightened discussion may take place. Hopefully you find our other threads enjoyable because these ones often become the least peaceful in the first gen forum. Thank you man!

 

What if I buy my OEM Toyota parts direct from Japan? Cause i do.

 

No idea who toyota is currently using to source they're joints, they keep it pretty hush hush.

Digitalferg, then your probably spending alot on shipping.

 

That's what I have in my truck for the past 2 years. Ac Delco Moog 555.
45k miles . I bought oem bolts and didn't use the ones from Ac Delco. $2.00 each .
OEMs are the ones failing out there and killings people...not moog 555.
People use them for too long without replacing them, so they fail and people blame aftermarket.
Don't buy any Chinese ball joints.

$71 ACDelco Professional 45D2266 Front Passenger Side Lower Suspension Ball Joint Assembly

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B000...ball+joint&dpPl=1&dpID=414YBvOjMjL&ref=plSrch

 

I was going to let this thread just fade away into the murky depths of redundancy, but...

People are blaming factory ball joint failures (due to sub-par maintenance) on aftermarket ball joints...?
That makes total, logical sense.

ACDelco, Mevotech, Moog, etc, "manufacture" (sub-contract) their parts, including ball joints, all over the world.
Moog, for instance, buys parts from 16 different countries, according to the Google. China is one of them.

I wish you and your $57 ball joints, made somewhere in the world by the lowest bidder, the very best.

 

All right .
Post here from the internet 4 cases of Moog 555 lower failure.

I'll post 200 of oems

 

There was a recall. The faulty ones were installed in trucks 13 years ago. There was a defect. Those won't be the ones you can buy now.

 

Yep I got mine replaced in 2011 under that recall.

 

You see so many failed OEM joints because of lack of maintenance. People just leave them and forget about them. Are there any reports of OEM joints failing under 100k miles? How many miles we're on the 555 failures that you are talking about?

 

I wouldn't trust aftermarket lower ball joints just like I wouldn't want to play Russian Roulette with three bullets in the cylinder. But, to each his own. It's your rig, do whatever floats your boat.

But, here's a video tutorial you can use to perform this preventative maintenance or repair. It was done on a 3rd Gen 4runner but it's the same. Happy Wrenching!

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/bfLvtEnX9qk" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

I actually only know about one case(in this forum) that wasn't a ball joint failure, but the bolts.
I was just trying to make it easier for the guy.
Lack of maintenance or not, oem are the ones giving people head ache out there not Moog 555.
And of course the mevoteck shit too.

 

Well, I also think your forgetting some obvious factors when touting the amazing Moog 555 lower balljoint. How many people like you are running them compared to how many people are running OEM? Many of the OEM failures could be from the recall and others could be from abuse wheeling or just old age from tons of miles. I know a guy who had a balljoint failure but his rig had almost 400,000 miles on it.

It's my guess there's a very very very small fraction of 3rd Gen owners running Moog so your conclusion that Moog are somehow superior to OEM is pretty flawed.

 

Sorry, but nope. This is simply not true. A guy I wheel with had 2 catastrophic (aka sheared the ball off) LBJ failures--BOTH were moogs. And the second failure he had was within a few thousand miles of installing the replacement for the first failure. At the very least, you cannot even try to say the second failure was due to lack of maintenance.

I don't see how any of think you are qualified to even make such claims like this.... It's only OEMs that fail... blah blah blah...

Regardless, nobody's mind is being changed on any of this shit so run whatever the hell you want. Its your truck.

 

Its the factory design giving people problems, not the OEM parts.

 

I would not say moog is superior to oem, and I am one that does not believe the "oem or die" b.s. and won't pay the marked up oem prices. Moog was once a pretty highly regarded source for steering and suspension components, but their rep has gone down drastically over the last 5-10 years. Not just in the Toyota world either. In the gm world there are many reports of moog pitman arms snapping off. This is the one and only direct link from the gear box to the rest of the steering so when they fail there is zero steering control, and I have seen this first hand. Needless to say I'm skeptical of moog these days.

Moog is not superior to oem, but I also believe oem is not superior to any of the higher end aftermarket parts. To someone's question earlier, yes, there are many reports of oem joints failing under 100k miles. On some faceyspace pages I'm on I've seen people have failures on new oem joints with under 10k miles

 

MOOGs get my vote. lol