Lucky or Unlucky?

This happened in front of my house the night before thanksgiving after running errands all day.
My mechanic couldn’t believe how lucky I was that the bolts snapped at home.





Anyways, he found me spare parts and was able to get me back on the road a couple days later.





Shit happens, unexpected expenses are better when they are for your car instead of for yourself. I’ll call it lucky as it could have definitely been worse.

 

Very lucky, google Tacoma broken lower ball joint

 

Yikes! How many miles on it?

 

She’s got 230k

 

How many since they (LBJs) were last changed?

Definitely could've been worse. Glad it wasn't.

 

Got the passenger side done about 1 month ago after I purchased the truck. The driver side looked fine, anyway the lbj held up the bolts holding it just crapped out. My mechanic tried drilling them out but two of them had seized in there so he just got me a replacement part

 

Yeah, lucky.

Pretty sure those bolts are one time use, and the torque is much lower than you would think.

 

Surprised everyone isn’t blaming the wheel spacers

 

lmao my mechanic did. He recommended i maybe get a different wheel and tire so it doesn’t put so much pressure on it.

 

Probably cause of your wheel spacers

 

How do people not understand that 1” spacers and 1” less back spacing is the same thing.

 

Is there something definitive about wheel spacers and breaking LBJ? Makes sense in principle but how much does it really affect it? Seems like to me in this case that the owner has more than enough miles on them that they should have been changed a while ago.

 

Save your money on Lottery or Power ball tickets you used up your Good Luck!

 

One of the issues with first gen lower ball joints is the weight of the truck and the suspension components are actually pushing the opposite direction the ball joint is supposed to support. Not a great design, not an issue with other generations. I’ve changed my lower ball joints every 100k or less, especially important if you push the truck.

Also, make sure to replace the 4 bolts when you change the lower ball joints
https://www.toyotapartsdeal.com/oem/toyota~bolt-flange~90080-10066.html

Also, use OEM lower ball joints, worth the added expense

Some light reading and some pics as reference

 

Additional up-to-date information on the various LBJ bolts and their failures is available. Absolutely worth the time reviewing and understanding just what is going on with the bolt you are selecting. Big thanks to @SpikerEng for putting this together.
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...s-wanted-about-lower-ball-joint-bolts.772506/

If you want to skip ahead to his results, link is here. I do suggest reading the entire thread though.

*NOTE* If you are using the LBJ dust protector (2001-2004 had them) then you MUST use the toyota Black w/washer bolt (P/N 90119-10933). Torque for this bolt is 37 ft lbs. No more, no less.

 

swoosh

 

Anyone else getting the green flange bolts appearing on the OEM Toyota parts pages when trying to order the black bolts with Part No. 90119-10933?

 

I got my 8 bolts (P/N 90119-10933) from Yota Performance. Quick delivery. Concur with 37 ft lbs...don't follow the FSM of 59. Use some blue loctite.

 

May just be an image issue. As long as you order the correct part#, I wouldn't worry.

Using loctite, you'll need to account for it when setting the torque value. Why I opted to install dry. Factory doesn't mention it in any of the docs (including the LBJ recall campaign), so I skipped it. We know these bolts are picky AF when it comes to torque. For those black w/washer it says 37, it's getting 37 on my truck.

 

Could be. But the parts description specifically said "GREEN", so it sounds like the reference is to the green colored locktite-d bolt?