Sudden incident of wheel breaking off control arm?

Hey all, posting for a friend who isn't on here. Her taco ('09) spontaneously (meaning she wasn't off-roading or driving crazy/intensely) had the front driver side wheel break/fall/melt(?) Off the control arm. She has no idea how it happened and never really heard any odd noises before it happened.

Anyone have any ideas as to what might have caused it to happen?

Its and '09 6ft bed sport (im pretty sure)

 

Have any more photos of the actual break? It is pretty tough to see what is going on in the one posted.

It takes quite a bit to break a control arm, so I would guess it finally gave out after having been previously damaged without her knowing. Does she do any offroading where the LCA may have taken a good hit? Did the truck have a proper alignment and balanced wheels prior to this?

 

Looks like ball joint broke off the adapter piece

 

Closer pic would help. Can’t really see much on the ones posted

 

Looks like a ball joint. But can’t be certain from the pictures.
They can break off, kind of rare that they do on a 2nd Gen.
As Toyota upgraded the lowers after the 1st Gen were “a weak link”.

 

Pre-existing damage is what I was thinking also. Maybe hit a pot hole, run over the curb, etc ...

 

Could be upper BJ, haven’t seen a wheel bearing this bad in years.... take the wheel off and let’s see what’s up

 

I thought about the wheel bearing was a possibility.
But OP says, “never really heard any odd noises before it happened”
You’d think a wheel bearing would make all kinds of noise before a failure like that?

Until we see more, I’m sticking with BJ

 

Looks like upper ball joint blew, happened to me a year or so ago and my wheel looked the same. Mine was aftermarket and appeared to fail due to lack of lubrication and looked rusty, this was on the SPC arms prior to them adding the greasable ball joints.

 

My sass just keeps slipping out...

 

Looks like control arm broke and went into CV axle and tore the boot to that. May have also damaged the CV axle itself.

 

Also if that is what happened I'm impressed. A broke control arm is no easy feat lol

 

"I'm not even mad.... you ate the WHOLE wheel of cheese?"

 

yeah second that. Did she buy it used?

 

I'm going with wheel bearing as mine looked just like that and made no noise before failure, which took out bearing, cv axle, wheel speed sensor.

 

Yep

 

You need better pics. Esp. Of the lower ball joint.

 

do you have any better pictures

such as maybe one taken at night with your hand over the camera

 

The photo shows the wheel rim not aligned with the brake rotor dust shield, which is rigidly bolted to the knuckle. That means the control arm is fine. Lower ball joint is fine. The wheel bearing destroyed itself. The dangling rubber cord is likely a shredded inner seal, which sits at the interface between the CV joint and the knuckle.

Wheel bearings don't fail suddenly. It's a wear item that likely had been making loud noises for the past 500 miles which your friend has been oblivious to. (Nothing strange about it - I have friends like that, too ) The good thing is the repair won't be too expensive - new bearing/hub assy, new inner seal, and possibly new LF ABS sensor (tends to get crunched when the wheel bearing is worn to that level).