I just fired off an email to Lowrange. I replaced everything on the front end last year, July 2019, and somehow I missed the issue with 555 labeled parts. I bought from Lowrange and they were advertised as OEM Japanese. It’s been just over a year and the outer tie rods and LBJ’s are rusted to crap. Luckily, I only have about 5K miles on them, but I’m going to pull them and get factory unless Lowrange has a good explanation and the rust is superficial.
BTW, I live in Austin, TX. No beach trips or salt on the road.

Absolutely.
Why? "Official" Lower Ball-Joint Thread here.


Special Service Campaign 50J – Front Suspension Lower Ball Joint, 2001 through 2002 4Runner, Safety Recall Notice:
https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/rcl/200...5V225-6542.pdf

Should really apply to all 3rd gen years based on above explanation but talk to Toyota lawyers about that.

Keep me posted. Mine are rusty too. It appears superficial though

Is it true OEM LBJ’s still have “555” marked on them? Pretty sure I read that somewhere. Shop I took it to was an employee of my father’s way back in the day. I insisted on OEM. And paid for that. Upon picking truck up he insisted LBJ OTRE and End links were all OEM. Truck was there over weekend so I assumed he went to Toyota dealership for parts. I told him about the importance of going OEM in these trucks and the LBJ failure thing. But I remember seeing ‘555’ stamped on them after install and him mentioning greasing somewhere before I left??? Hasn’t been a year and there’s a lot of surface rust and I’m in SF Bay Area. I provided part numbers and everything. It was last second thing, dad was bringing his Mercedes there for other work and said he’d cover my stuff too. Or else I would have ordered parts myself and done it at another time. $500 was initially my cost including labor. But of course my dad insisted on a huge tip for both cars afterwards.

Anyway if there’s something to look for to know for sure, please let a brother know! I’m lifting it soon and will be doing light off-roading and want to know. I would also have a bone to pick with this guy.

I’m in SF as well, not 100% sure but I don’t think 555 is stamped on the oem stuff.. OEM doesn’t haven’t a zerk fitting to put grease into also. Lets see what others say. Honestly at 500$ I’d be surprised if they were OEM, 200-300$ for parts 200$ for labor/overhead? Should be higher labor cost IMO.

I received this:
“ Hi,

The tie rods and ball joints we sell are made by 555 from Japan. They are OEM quality. The only difference is they come bare metal, or not painted, which is why they are cheaper than OEM. It is normal for bare metal to rust quickly in humid areas, such as Texas.

Thank you

--
Dillon Charles
Sales/Tech Representative”

I guess that means I’ll be uninstalling, painting, and reinstalling or buying OEM. I think, if this is true, they should put that in the description.

Toyota OEM ball joints don't have 555 stamped on them

Who cares about surface rust? You should care about the internal construction of the ball joint - of which only OEM is done to OEM standards.

Sometimes you can get better options aftermarket - in this case you can't.

-Charlie

"OEM quality"....you read and hear that so much even on total crap parts

555 NEVER makes parts for TOYOTA, or better put TOYOTA will NEVER use 555 parts as those are NOT even a bit close to Toyota quality.

555 will fail in 20K miles as experienced by my friend's 03 tacoma. OEM 200K Miles (i've experienced). The difference is NOT the paint! but the Quality and material.

For the past 30 years experience with Toyota and their parts, I am yet to find an aftermarket manufacturer making a better part than any of the toyota part.

OEM's are currently $159 each at my dealer. I'd rather just have total peace-of-mind than skimp on something this important....

Thanks everyone for this thread. I just had mine done this week.
Be sure to buy directly from a Toyota dealer. I've had two mechanics, one VERY reputable, say that the distributor they ordered from listed the Sankei's as "OEM". They are not the same part. If you work with an independent mechanic, be sure they order DIRECTLY from a Toyota dealer. Both mechanics were surprised to hear the difference. And yes, each LBJ is in the $160-$190 range.

If you get them from a stealership, yeah. They're closer to $100 everywhere else.

I just bought OEM ball joints from a dealer for $105ea.

Me too. Picked up a spare set at camelback Toyota in the spring for about that. Ordered online picked up at the counter.