Sadness, My Front Driver side wheel Popped off while driving.

So my poor Tacoma finally broke down on me...after 420k miles. The four bolts that attach the wheel to the bottom control arm failed me, 2 fell out somehow and then the other 2 sheered off. So thus the whole wheel came out, ripping the CV Axel out of its socket and destroying all my ball joints. This truck was my first vehicle and holds a very special place in my heart....was just wondering if this has happened to anyboy before and how crazy of a job it would be to fix it. The front axle ripping in half is what concerns me the most. Is it worth fixing it?

 

I have a 2010 with 195K miles that my parents bought me when I got my learner's permit, so I understand the attachment; I think you should fix the truck and keep driving it!

 

Glad you're alright. Looks like a fairly straightforward repair. Definitely worth fixing

 

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/lbj-failure.506985/

 

@Area51Runner has an entire body of research regarding those bolts, maybe he’ll drop in and link it.

 

Actually, @SpikerEng did all the work with his testing. Definitely check out his site https://spikerengineering.com/. Hood struts FTW

As for the collection of part#s and misc info, I dumped it all in a post within his thread. Links to his thread with all of his research results and also a link to my post.

Everything you've always wanted to know about Lower Ball Joint bolts... and Which bolts should I use AND what parts to order?

@Tristan_Benancio, glad you're OK. I'm with the others, fix it.

 

Fix it!

The ball joint on the 1st gen was a design fault and when it failed, it failed exactly how yours did. They changed the design in the 2nd gen.

When they wore, the ball would pop out of the socket due to the design and forces on it, when revamped, the weight of the truck always pushed the ball into it's socket.

 

If u have full coverage ins (COMP)
The ball joint is a failure….not covered
However
Resulting damage from a failure is covered

definitely the fender/fender liner/paint for both fender and driver door would be covered

 

Oh yeah, OP…..
Definitely fix!
Definitely replace R side ball joints as well

 

I didn't realize the bolts could fail with the joint staying intact like that.
Good reminder to everyone to check their bolts are all there and torqued to spec.

I have had one fail, but it was the ball joint itself not the bolts. I have lost bolts before, bit unnerving when you're working on something else and look over and see a bolt missing.

When I had mine fail all I replaced was the rack and pinion, tie rods, CV Axle and the LBJ. Your mileage may vary of course, I was only going ~5mph when it happened so the damage was limited. My fender is still dented from that, but I dont mind.


Heres a couple good informational links for the LBJ and LBJ bolts

https://adventuretaco.com/guide/ste...s-lbj-on-a-1st-gen-tacoma-or-3rd-gen-4runner/

https://adventuretaco.com/guide/choosing-lower-ball-joint-lbj-bolts/#google_vignette

TLDR:
04005-03235 is part number for LBJ kit, comes with both left and right but no bolts. Saves quite a bit of money vs buying the left/right separately.

90119-10933 part number for the 'best' bolts, though hard to come by in stock.


OEM only on these LBJs and bolts, to avoid what happened to you happening again prematurely. The rest of the parts 'can' be replaced with aftermarket, but I would look into the drawbacks to doing so on each part. LBJs are a safety concern, the rest are less so. It'll more be a reliability concern with aftermarket parts.

Another way to look at it, at that many miles the whole front end probably needed a refresh anyway. Now you've just got a reason to put all new parts down there.

 

I no joke 30 minutes ago finished replacing both my LBJs.. The passenger side LBJ I pulled off was still the same original that the driver was when it failed that day.

Dont be like me.

Forgot I even made a thread on that, wasn't active on here at all back then.

 

Excellent Read Time
TY!

 

Read that article just a short time ago and then bought LBJ's and bolts based off of it. Glad I ran across it.

After reading the article above from Spiker Engineering I learned something new I had never heard of before. When you re-use these bolts they actually lose strength, and some more than others. A couple of them you basically can only use them once and after that they are useless! Scary!

 

The first thing I did when I picked up my first gen was have the timing belt and LBJ's done.

 

The absolute best mod you can do is to incorporate periodic checking of the LBJs into your routine maintenance cycle. Grab a paint pen, mark your LBJ bolts for a quick visual check option, when it's on stands hit it with the prybar check.

No being fearful or freaked out constantly worrying about your LBJs, just check em' on a regular basis.

https://youtu.be/bu2rQMxXV2M

Going to also touch on the Total Chaos option. I like what they did and have considered switching to their uniball LBJ. The one thing that keeps me hesitating on switching is the bolts. It's still the same in terms of design/bolt application. We've seen it quite enough on here where it is the bolts that are the failure point. Still, worth looking at if you haven't already. https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...r-ball-joint-conversion.781536/#post-27949425

 

It’s happened enough that there’s even a special thread just about the different bolts available.

https://adventuretaco.com/guide/choosing-lower-ball-joint-lbj-bolts/

 

That’s just a scratch.

 

Unless I missed it and/or we are meant to infer, these were original? If so, well past due for preventative replacement. But good to know for service life purposes if these were in fact all original.

I check mine anytime it's remotely convenient to do so even though they're OEM and only about 1.5 years old. Sure don't want to ever experience this.

 

That seems to be the common failure mode - a bolt (or two) loosens, which creates bending stresses in the remaining bolts, causing them to break. So making sure the bolts are always tight is probably more important than which bolts to use.

I see that adventuretaco has a mirror page of our tech articles on LBJ bolts, which is cool by me since he gave me the credit, but you can also nerd out at the originals here - https://spikerengineering.com/tech-articles.

 

I saw yours first somehow then found it linked on one of his pages. Very eye opening! Especially the section about re-using bolts....I went with the "black" bolts because of the article