What causes the lower ball joints to fail? Seeing these recent threads has got me a little nervous. I have a 2001 T4R Sport with 109k on it. Should I replace them soon? Only mods I have is a toytec boss coil over lift up front. Help put my mind at ease.

Sean

I wouldn't just replace them just to do it, I would inspect them first for signs of wear and damage u can also check for play and if u find these things then replace them check out the video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqw85L_sMgE

They can fail without wear. It's not like most where the rubber gets bad dry up and they get play. Mine had zero play and failed. Without lift you should be fine but the lift puts more stress on them. My opinion they should be done every 100k miles. That's just me. Mine failed at 200k and my buddy at 160k. Right after lift installs.

Isn't there a recall on the 2001 lower ball joints? You might want to call your local dealer and see if they will do the recall still.

I think you can just google Toyota recall and enter your vin and it will tell you if there is a recall or not.

I saw the thread that talked about the recall but when I put in my vin nothing came up.

Its virtually impossible to inspect them for wear. The spring is pushing the stud down and the knuckle is pushing up for intents and purposes. The LBJ is always experiencing tension and give the impression the joint is tight. That is until the stud pops out, then its not tight anymore. Its best to replace them at 100,000 miles. Its a wearing part, treat it as such. They dont fail safe.

Newer designed vehicles have reversed the stud so it points up, not down.

Oh hell, roll the dice. Whats the worst that could happen?

I did all 4 of mine with new OEM about a year ago (upper and lower, uppers mostly for good measure but they were a little tired looking) and was amazed how much better the thing drove. Still, I know this is a bit OT but has any third party made a beefier ball joint that is superior to OEM? Sort of like the "Bilstein of ball joints" or something?

BTW OP, if I had a lift and over 100k miles, you can bet I'd change them. Even on my rig which had about 160k on the originals at the time, a stock rig with essentially 100% highway miles mind you, they lowers hadn't "failed" yet, but once I got them off I certainly was happy they were no longer in there. It's a poor design from the factory unfortunately.

When I replaced mine on my '97 they had 175k miles on them. They were the original balljoints. They didn't have any play in them either. The boots cracked and started leaking grease so that was my queue. I replaced them with OEM and would suggest anything else. I had a '99 tacoma (same front suspension at 3rd gens) and got moogs and one failed on me after about 8k miles. Was not a fun experience and was not cheap either.

I have almost 200k on the 4runner I roll in with no sign they have ever been replaced. Didn't check if they needed it or not, but ordered new ones last week because why risk it?

can someone link me to a good place to buy some. Also as stated above has anyone made better ones then oem?

I did a lot of research for the last month on where to buy and the cheapest was camelbacktoyota.com

They had comparable prices, but the thing that put them over the top was the free shipping over $150. Haven't read anything about better than OEM other than using Tundra (or maybe it was Tacoma?) LBJ's.

You can use Tacoma ones but you also have to swap out your tie rod ends. The Tacoma ones are the exact same design just a bigger ball, which in my opinion doesn't do much because they are just as prone to failing in the exact same way as ours. You lose a bit from your turning radius when you put Taco LBJs and TREs as well.

My truck is at 104,000. I got a price from the dealer for $135 each. Toyota has the MSRP for, I think, $122. Toyota Dallas quoted $89.

I will order mine this week.

BTW, the bolts are not included. Takes 4 per part. I am going to get new OEM bolts as well.

can you order online from toyota dallas?