Identifying the cause of suspension replacement failure

I have to figure this out before I proceed.

I replaced my whole front suspension in 2019. I got stock TRD Sport struts from a 3rd Gen to give me a 1" lift (I also added a leaf to the rear to bring that up 1"), I got UCAs from a guy with a 3rd Gen here woth low miles, ProForged inner and outer tie rods, and replaced the bushings and ball joints on the LCA with moog (greasable ball joints).

In 2021 I started getting a bad popping and clunking out if the front right suspension and now by '23 it was worse. Brought it to get looked at and they said everything was torqued correctly and the specs looked good but the LCA ball joint went and in doing so, had worn out every other part of the suspension.
One thing of note- when I put everything on in '19 and got an alignment, they absolutely could not get the truck aligned. I took it to 3 places and it still never got fully aligned.

Anyway, I need to replace everything again. I was going to swap out the struts with another set of third gens, and probably Moog LCAs and tie rods. But I need to make sure the same issue doesn't occur again! Any ideas what may have caused that? Could it have been a faulty ball joint to start?

 

Considering you could not have the truck aligned properly, I would think that to be more likely to cause issue than the chance of receiving a faulty joint. Wonder what the alignment showed and if it would have had any clues to what caused poor alignment.

Poor suspension geometry ? You’re gonna have a bad time

 

There is many things that could be wrong, but I just had a ball joint replaced after driving a solid 10k on it not being ok because I thought it was the sway bar making noise.
My theory here is the upper control arm is designed for much more lift than what you have so this is the result they couldn’t get it aligned and everything’s having issues. That’s the biggest issue I see possible on this setup. I am on 1.5” on stock uac and the alignment is perfect and has been for years. Even with a bad ball joint. And I am a heavy off roader.

 

Hmm, so I may be better off going back to stock uppers for a second Gen, huh? I really dont want to do this all over again

 

Am I reading this correctly that you had a problem starting in 2021 and did nothing about it until now (2023)? Should have figured out the root cause back in 2021. Lack of maintenance is what caused all of this, not a magical combination of parts.

OEM Toyota LCAs are the best. Hands down, end of story. If you don't want to do it all over again, use OEM Toyota parts. Same goes for UCAs if you only have 1" of lift, OE will handle that just fine. Same goes for tie rods. Toyota genuine parts.

Moog ain't what they used to be, quality is more mystery meat than quality any more.

 

Not sure what you’re asking.

all I’ve gathered from original post is that you took the truck to a bunch of Jimbobs

 

Kinda sounds like it. I’m a little confused on how you got the lift physically because just changing the strut to a different stock one shouldn’t change much.

 

I started looking into it when it started. First two shops I went to couldn't find anything wrong, but the clunking continued. Then, a few months ago took it to a new place and got this diagnosis. So, more may have worn out in that time

 

I switched from the stock 2nd generation struts to the stock 3rd Gen struts. I know a lot of guys on here did that and it provides about a 1" lift in the front. I wasn't sure if that change in geometry may have altered other stuff, tho that I wasn't aware of, despite having changed all the other suspension parts

 

Mixing 3rd Gen and 2nd Gen parts is most likely the issue here. Some parts are interchangeable but if you're looking to square it all up I'd go ahead and get the actual oem parts needed and work on a lift from there. You've got some worn parts already *noted from the clunking* so you might as well td some maintenance and go through each piece so you can get your geometry back in line.

 

I'm going to replace it again, because I don't want to risk something being too worn at this point. But definitely don't want to allow this to happen again

 

I would just start from the base I’m on 1.5” of lift and did absolutely nothing besides the struts and an alignment after install. Had no issues that were caused by this.

 

That's what I'm talking about. Am hoping for no issues you

 

Here's a question- I have oem LCA with moog ball joints in them. Should I just replace the bushings and ball joint and keep the arm? It's probably the same price to buy some Moog LCA, tho I don't love that company

 

I just had one ball joint replaced in the last month due to failure. Not because of suspension or anything just seemed to be a wear item and honestly with how j drive I’m surprised it took this long.

Was replaced with a Napa like high quality one. I want to say it was $80-130 can’t remember off the top of my head. (Greasable one)

 

How does a bad lower ball joint case the “whole” front suspension to “go bad”?

You got more than a bad ball joint problem.

 

cuz Billybob said