Newer??? Lower ball joint failure

manufacturing defects happen, even if Toyotas name is on the box. Especially nowadays. It’s unlikely the new joints you buy today are the same quality/manufacturer as what came on these trucks originally 20 years ago. This is why I think it’s silly when people online tell people they’re guaranteed xxx,000 trouble free miles if they buy oem joints. That’s just gonna give people a false sense of hope which will cause them to not inspect the joints regularly as they should.

 

20-50k. 100k+ is simply flirting with death.

 

A lot of our original LBJs went 200-300k or more, but that was with the stock tires and suspension in most cases. It’s possible QC isn’t kept up as diligently on parts for trucks this old, though of course Toyota would never admit that, so all we can do is speculate.

 

8 new bolts ordered to get the torque value correct this time.

 

I had to do the same thing and feel much more confident in the OEM LBJ installation now that it has been done properly. Leon's data put the 90119-10933 black bolt squarely in the "YIELD" range when torqued to 59ft.lbs., which I viewed as a very unacceptable risk to my "antique" '97 V6 Taco and myself.

 

I would really like to know how much play the ball joints had before catastrophic failure. It's tough to determine by the different responses. Some speak as if failure is eminent after X number of miles, or, even a minute amount of play will surely lead to disaster in a few days. Toyota's spec is .5mm max, but realistically I wonder how much play is sure to result in failure in short time.

 

Just to update as to how this story ends. The Toyota dealer installed new Toyota ball joints and repaired everything that got damaged under warranty. They claim that the ball joints were brand new last year but I dont believe that. I'll be looking elsewhere for service.

 

It looks like they reused the four mounting bolts.

 

Unbelievable they reused the bolts. Good news is the LBJs should outlast everything else under that poor truck.

 

Lol they didn't even replace the bolts, wow. Definitely don't go back there. I would just replace the bolts yourself

 

was about to say the same thing.

Unreal that this is a Toyota dealership service dept.

 

Dude, buy some bolts and replace them yourself.

 

That service department should be reported to Toyota corporate. Mind-boggling incompetence and ignorance.

 

A friend of mine who works at Advanced auto told me that for the last couple years several dealerships around our area have been buying aftermarket parts through Advanced, Auto zone and Napa due to them not being able to get the parts themselves.
The dealerships mark up the parts and provide the OEM warranty.
This is all being done without the customer’s knowledge.
So you think you’re getting quality parts but they’re really just cheap knock offs
It’s not just happening at the Toyota dealership. It’s been all the different manufacturers.
It’s beginning to slow down now he said
Although he said last year, their commercial sales side sold 5 times as many parts as they do in a typical year.

 

That is some very sad workmanship, very half-assed IMO. Worth noting is that the LBJ bolts these "technicians" reused/reinstalled are the longer 90119-10933 black bolts used without the LBJ Protector. And who knows what value those reused black bolts were torqued to. If these reused black bolts were over torqued to 59 ft./lbs. (or more), this poor Taco may be in for another dive very soon. I would not be able to sleep well at night until replacing those used bolts with new 90119-10933 black bolts torqued to 37 ft./lbs. .02

 

Yeah, I was shocked to see the old bolts in there too. The service manager I was dealing with left on vacation so I really had no one to bitch at. Those bolts will be replaced....total incompetence

 

Sorry I'm late to reply, and you already got great responses regarding the bolts. As others said, the first choice would be the black bolts, torqued to 37 ft-lbs, or the ARP bolts torqued to 59 ft-lbs. I really dislike generic 10.9 bolts (including McMaster Carr) because they come with no pedigree and can vary a lot from batch to batch. My data shows that some generic bolts have 2X preload of others, not good.

Most of these bolts can actually be torqued to 90 ft-lbs without breaking (except the black bolts), but they will yield at that torque. So if you torque a bolt to 90 ft-lbs, I'd replace it with a new one, not reuse it.

Hope this helps! And it's great to see my work help others, very rewarding!