check your ball joints

On the way to work this am a tacoma was flipped over because of a lower ball joint failure...

 

this is what saving a few dollars and not buying OEM balljoints gets you.

 

2001-2004 Tacoma's are eligible for free lower ball joint replacement through the 50J Technical Service Bulletin. Mine's at the stealership getting this done as we speak.

 

Only certain VINs are eligible for free replacement

 

Correct, only a certain vin range. Of course, mine wasn't included

 

so where do you go to check if your vin is listed?

plus on my 99 the lower ball joint have no movement and no play but if you jacked it off the ground it had 1/4" of movement straight up and down and had I not found it, it would have popped out on me one day. it was a genuine oem Toyota ball joint too so its not just because its cheap aftermarket, its because the entire weight of the truck is supported by the ball.

the entire front end should be replaced every 100k miles, you cant ask for or expect it to last longer then that. plus the whole front end (both sides) can be replaced for only $150 in parts

 

Some of us play with fire. Myself included. I'm at 173xxx on original bjs. Think about it almost every time take a drive. Hopefully I can get some income and swap them out soon. For whatever it's worth I've seen some 200k + Tacomas with original ball joints still driving around. On the flipside I've read about people with less than 80k having a ball joint pop.

 

To my knowledge(via the PO who said he never did them, owned the truck for about 200k miles), my truck lasted about 221k miles before I replaced them.

 

If you go to www.toyotaownersonline.com you can create an account. There it will list all recalls and dealer service history. That or call a dealer with your vin and ask

 

You replaced them because they dropped out on you or because they were past due? The thing is some people drive their trucks hard off road and that will definitely wear them down quicker than the guy hauling around his gardening stuff (not to say that's you). Some of it might just be down to luck.

 

The PO just drove freeway with about 500 feet on dirt to his house. I changed them because I was scared they were going to drop. Just had my gf's 4runner drop hers prior so I did them as well.

 

I replaced mine after I brought it in for an alignment and the shop tech came out and told me to come back in to the shop.

Driver side LBJ had well over a 1/4" of vertical play in it and was a ticking time bomb Luckily there was a NAPA directly across the street, and my house about two miles from there. Put in a set of 555 LBJ's until I could get a set of OEM's.

 

To add, my truck has 225k on the clock and I have no idea if they had ever been replaced before. Didn't really look too close when I pulled the old ones off

 

Thanks for the information. Definitely going to replace mine with oem as soon as I get some money. I know some 4runner parts are "weaker" than Tacoma parts. Don't know if the ball joints are.

 

I think the 4Runner ball joints are a little bit smaller than the ones on a tacoma.

 

Holy shit I just picked up a 2000 4 banger with 280k. Its in the garage getting gutted. I was planning on doing the ball joints but now for freaking shure.

 

Where did you get the front end parts for it for $150

 

Yeah oem toyota stuff definitely isn't 150$ thru work it was still pricey even with the 30% off that we get

 

My stuff picked up from Camelback Toyota was just under 200.

 

Got mine done couple months back for free under the recall. New Lower ball joints and free alignment.

Go to http://www.Toyota.com/recall and enter vin