so this happened as I pulled into the driveway

^^^This

If you need help, I'll help you. I just completely updated/changed my front suspension with the help of TW and YouTube videos. LBJs are really simple.

You'll need:
Ratchet
Sockets
Breaker Bar
Loc-Tite
Replacement Parts
Torque Wrench (Borrow from Auto Parts Store)
Pitman Arm Puller (Borrow from Auto Parts Store)

Get OEM LBJs from @gunny1005 on here for best pricing and get them changed out.

Seriously, if you need help, just PM me and I'll help you out. It's really not that hard.

 

What? Why?

For older vehicles, this kind of work is expected (well, preferably *before* failure, lol).

I would say the exact opposite: If you're paying to have this kind of work done on a brand new truck, it's time for something different.

But if you buy a new vehicle because you think it's cheaper to maintain than that parts heap of an old truck, you're sadly mistaken. I could replace every single "wear part" of my suspension (ball joints, bushings, tie rod ends, even the f/r springs, etc...) on my '04 4x4 Taco for (I'm guessing here) around a grand, after that, I'm good for another 100k miles. That's 3 months of payments for my new 4Runner. Then you add in how much more it costs to insure my new truck over the old one, and it's not even close.

The OP's issue is 2 fold: a bad set of BJ's that had since been open to replacement via warranty, and second, simply a wear part that wore out past the point of failure.

 

I think he meant do it yourself since it's super easy to do and if you can't you'll be paying a lot in labor fees for each thing you have to start fixing. Then just put the money into a new truck.

 

I just swapped out my stock UCAs with SPC ones (including the ball joints) when I noticed that the boots on the stock ones were torn and leaking grease. Since the stock arms/joints can't be serviced I went ahead and upgraded rather than take the chance on them running dry or getting dust/dirt/debris in the joint through the torn boot. My stock ones only had about 38k miles on them but they were 13 years old

 

I could see that.

You can like the lure of an older vehicle, but not generally have the DIY know how. That will for sure increase the costs, but not exactly enough to offset the cost of a new vehicle. Looking at it from a purely monetary standpoint, it rarely makes sense to buy a new vehicle just to save money. You'll spend less on ball joints (for now), but you'll also have higher insurance, new car payments, etc...

If you average out all the expenditures I've had for my 13 year old truck, including payments, insurance, upgrades/mods, etc... I'm probably at about $200 a month. That's including ~$3k worth of suspension/armor upgrades I have in the works.

I also just bought a new 4Runner, it wasn't about saving money (especially since I kept the Taco, lol).

I know I'm getting a little off topic here, just my 2 cents...

 

I've never so much as inspected mine more than the occasional "eyeballing" for mine in 175k miles. Wondering if I should do these next. I've got some LBJs that I need to do soon methinks, but I've never truly inspected those either, just figured I would do preventative maintenance at a certain interval

 

Happened to mine at 200,000 miles. It was wobbling on the freeway, and broke right just as I parked in front of my job site. My helper drove me to get parts, we replaced the upper and lowers on both sides. Took it for an alignment. I'm just lucky it didn't happen on the freeway.

 

I just replaced every front suspension part on my 2001 except for the actual control arms themselves "new bushings" and I have right at 1000$ in it. That includes new 5100's/coils. I love looking at new trucks but then I see the sticker and realize how sick it would make me to have to drop $600 a month when I am only paying around 40$ for liability insurance on my 01.

 

Two things kill those LBJ's

1. Rust/corrosion causing lack of lubrication/ball articulation and thus causing BJ metal fatigue.

2. Loose bolts securing the LBJ assembly to the lower control arm will kill it regardless of rust/corrosion.

Thankfully yours didn't fail at speed.

Mechanical components do not last forever.
Especially if rust/corrosion come into play.

Commonly the lower BJ's fail first because they carry the vehicle's weight.

Most modern cars utilize this common suspension design.

I once bought a new Dodge Neon at a dealership...
drove it two blocks and the LBJ separated messing up the car.
But the fault was due to the MFGr not tightening the nuts properly.
And the dealership's failure to inspect it upon their delivery.

Thankfully I was going slow when it let loose.

Regardless... returned that car for a refund and purchased another.
Wasn't skeered... so I purchased another Neon

Didn't have that issue again with the replacement up to the 100K when it was traded out.

I change my '00 Tacoma U/L BJ's every 200K
and I don't have rust/corrosion issue here in the SW.

The lowers are easy... the uppers require special tools and know how.

 

Like others have stated already, don't let this be the reason you sell your rig. You can fix it yourself. The lower balljoints are easy to replace. You do need a puller for the outer tie rod connection to the balljoint and the ball joint connection to the lower control arm but you can rent those for free at many auto parts stores. It would probably be a good idea to replace the upper balljoints as well but the upper balljoints are a little more involved to replace. A balljoint press is usually the tool people use to press the balljoint out of the knuckle but I've heard people use a puller too to drive it out. With the knuckle still on the vehicle, you have limited space to use a balljoint press in the wheel well. The first time I did uppers, we disconnected the brake line since we were replacing them anyway and rotated the knuckle perpendicular to the ground and out of the wheel well to have more room to use the balljoint press. The second time I did it, I just removed the whole knuckle and clamped it in a vice to do the press work and I found it was much easier to do it this way. To remove the knuckle, you'd have to remove the caliper and rotor, remove brake line bracket from the knuckle, remove ABS sensor from knuckle if you have ABS, remove axle nut dust cover, remove axle nut, and then tap the cv axle shaft out of the knuckle. The axle nut is a large size, 35mm, and not one people usually have in their tool box. I don't know if auto parts stores rent sockets so you might have to buy this.

Here's a couple videos that could help you out. The work in both videos was done on 3rd Gen 4runners but they should be almost identical to 1st Gen Tacomas. The lift video shows footage of removing the OEM balljoint and replacing it with a Total Chaos joint. Even though we didn't use an OEM balljoint for the replacement, you get the idea of how to do it.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/bfLvtEnX9qk" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/yXjioXyZa_M" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

Op you say it's your dd and you need something reliable, well why not swap out the lbj's and keep it. From the first pic it looks to be in good shape and those trucks go forever with little maintenance

 

You all missed my point !!!

It was if you need to run to a mechanic to fix every little item on the vehicle for what ever reason !!

Paying any where from say $50.00 to $100.00 a hour labor maybe a 22 year old vehicle is not your best option.

Sure I would be the first to say I would rather put $10,000.00 in parts into a older vehicle and have a few times .

Then maybe I just look at things different .

 

Your driveway must look like mine!!

https://youtu.be/cgd5EJkf55k

 

Say it costs you $2000 in repairs and maintenance a year to keep that old truck running. That's to the extreme, more likely it will be less than $1000 if no catastrophe occurs. I mean it's $1000 a year vs payments every month

It would still be worth it (IMO) to fix it and keep it running. But that's just me. I do see where you are coming from though bro