$ replacing u joints?

Taking her into the stealership this week for a nasty vibration that’s been steadily getting worse. Before I get hosed can I get an idea at what replacing the u joints (should) cost me? Any insight and advice is greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

 

Dealership wont replace ujoints, they will want to replace the whole driveshaft at a part cost of ~1100 bucks.

You can replace the u joints yourself for ~ 30 bucks a piece, and while you are there replace the CB.

 

i can tell you the ujoints at my price are 59$ a piece, i imagine its somewhere around 75 ish for normal customers. They are 30 bucks a piece off Amazon and all the same part number. Then just pay labor.

 

what wack ass dealership doesnt do ujoints? they take like 3 minutes each once the shafts out!

 

Because its not a separate part, AFAIK there is no "toyota part number" for U joints.

OP this is the U joint for the rear shaft and its greaseable. 30.55 from Amazon, same exact u joint used as from toyota.

$31 Spicer 5-1330-1X U-Joint Kit

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DOI8BDS/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1v

 

The dealership in Flagstaff AZ replaced mine 3 years ago. We were visiting the Grand Canyon. On the last leg of our trip I felt a vibration all day. By the time we pulled into the campground it was squeaking. On a Sunday afternoon. I left my wife to see the sights and drove back to Flagstaff and was there when they opened on Monday. Cost me just under $300 for one U-Joint. I could have had my normal local mechanic do all of them for less. But when you're 1700 miles from home and don't have anyone to trust I paid the ransom. I might have gotten screwed over even worse at an independent shop in that situation.

 

try to order the part and have the dealership replace it. There was literally a TSB regarding U joint failures wherin the WHOLE shaft gets replaced.

OP seriously. Just do it yourself or have an independent trusted shop do it, to replace the 3 u joints and carrier bearing its maybe 2 hours of labor. So 120 bucks per hour permium labor + 50 bucks a joint due to markup + 50 ish for a cb you are looking at 450ish OTD.... when you could do it yourself for about a third of that.

 

Very helpful. Unfortunately I do not have the time or desire to do this myself so I’ll have to pay the man. Just looking to arm myself with good intel so I go in prepared. Thank you.

 

might be a dumb question, but is it ok to use a cheap aftermarket CB?
Such as from Amazon or RockAuto; they appear to be around $15-30

I wonder why U-joints wear out. Is it neglect from lack of greasing? Do they even have grease/zerk fittings on them?
In which case, maybe after installing new ones, it can help prolong their life by adding 'greasing' to the maintenance schedule?

Last time I did something like that was on street car sway bar bushings. For an aftermarket Hotchkis bar kit. The brackets came with zerk fittings so I bought Hotchkis's white clear bushing grease (big tube) and a pistol-grip grease gun on sale from NAPA for like $20, thinking I'd grease them every 5k mile oil change.
But even that may have been too frequent because when I did, the old grease getting pushed out still looked good, and there were no symptoms to treat such as squeaking.

 

Stealership told me that there was a tsb until November but they couldn’t do mine because they can prove that the vibration comes from the U joints because my truck was “ heavily modified “ those were the words that they used. That was the most retarded answer that I ever got from them.

 

This is what i ran into. The dealership wanted to replace the driveshaft for $2500 i i had a local shop replace the u joints Then toyota had a recall and i was able to get reimbursed for the cost of the repair.

 

Regarding the TSB if you have a lift or bigger tires Toyota won’t pay, most likely. In that scenario it’s better to have an independent shop do it and try to get reimbursed so that Toyota won’t find out about the mods or they’ll most likely deny.

Or as @nd4spdbh posted just get the ujoints from Amazon and do yourself. I carry one in my truck as trail spare anyway.

 

I bought a 12 year old 2005 Tacoma Prerunner with 147,000 miles on it. It had a whole truck vibration to it. I took it to a drive shaft specialist, after having new front shocks and alignment done. The shocks were original and never replaced. They replaced the 3 u-joints and the carrier bearing. This took care of the vibration. The carrier bearing was an O.E.M. Toyota part. The shafts were balanced. Cost for all bearings was $438.00. The good news was that the dealer I bought it from paid both bills. The shocks and the drive shaft bill. I had a 90 day warranty on this truck.

 

I paid $180 earlier this year for mine. Parts and labor.

I highly recommend not bothering at all with the dealership. Just go to an independent shop. This is an easy job.

 

I did mine myself with a little harbor freight shop press and some impact sockets lol cost me like $50 and about an hour and a half.

 

November 2019? Or this past November?

 

I run an IEDLS Poly Ford Ranger CB, but i can because im a 4x4 and have a slip joint after the CB. If OP is a prerunner hes gotta use an OE style doughnut CB to allow the driveshaft to move forward and back through the CB. Not sure how the aftermarket CB's are for prerunners however.

As far as U joints, yup, lack of greasing / ingress of nasty shit / general wear. Most prerunners came with Non greaseable joints that were marginally greased from the factory... I want to say all 4x4's came with the same joint i linked to above (a greaseable one). Prerunners can use the same greaseable joints as the 4x4's. I grease mine with every oil change 8-10pumps of grease, yeah it might be excessive, but for the 30cents of grease per joint, its well worth it and will GREATLY extend the life of the joint.

 

Yes id also recommend replacing the ujoints with greasable ones.

 

Ask your local Fire Chief where he gets his work done

 

prepared for what? If you aren't willing to do the work yourself, then you are prepared to get raped only. I suggest lube.