Originally Posted by Bad Luck

A design flaw and a defective part are two entirely different aspects for Toyota. I'm not sure how Toyota handles it, but for GM if the part was not installed by a GM dealership then there's no liability attached to that part. There is no way for anyone to prove in a court beyond a reasonable doubt that the part was installed correctly following the correct procedure and using any applicable torque values.

Originally Posted by Spiker Engineering

I'd love to get those as well, but they are out of stock, it appears.

ETA - Josh just told me that they are revamping their uniballs to accept a 1" ball.

Originally Posted by StangRunner

Hi All, just wanted to share my experience with OEM LBJ from my local dealer... I just had to replace my 2yr old sub-20k miles ball joints due to noticeable play on both sides. My originals had zero play at 160k miles but I decided to replace them as 'preventive maintence' (should have left them alone lol). The only off-roading these saw were two trips to some sand dunes in Michigan, which were admittedly very abusive, and a ton of pot holes on our terrible Wisconsin roads. I was running 32" A/T's on stock 16" wheels for the majority of the miles and 31" snow tires on 17" 5th gen wheels for the last 500 or so miles with stock ride height (99 tall springs) prior to noticing the play. Even still at nearly $300 for the set, I'd expect better.

I'm curious if anybody else has had similar experiences as it really seems that the QC standards have lapsed since these vehicles were new. Here is a link to a video I took of the play. It was the same on both sides.

iCloud Drive - Apple iCloud

I'm wondering if there is any possibility, with enough people complaining, of Toyota investigating this issue and possibly work on a solution since a failure can be potentially deadly, especially since there really aren't any noticeable noises prior to them failing and one shouldn't expect a failure having changed them so recently. The majority of people think 'my originals lasted 20 years, the OEM replacements should last just as long' which is absolutely valid but based on my experience, not the case. I see all this talk of re-greasing but my engineer mind makes me think that this is a heat treat / material hardness, and fatigue issue.

Its obvious that the design is inherently flawed, with the LBJ being in constant tension, but it is clear that the design was optimized to the best of their abilities when new since there likely was not a single failure of original LBJ's prior to 150k miles. Working in automotive component design, I've learned that there are certain criteria that have to be absolutely perfect if you want something to last and I'd bet my life that any aftermarket manufacturer does not have or is not willing to invest the money in optimizing materials when making a part like this.

The closest I've seen to a true upgrade or fix are the heim conversions from Total Chaos but I for one do not want and shouldn't have to spend $1000 on a part that should not be a problem to begin with. It might be a good choice for people with extra deep pockets not living in the rust belt but those will turn to absolute crap in a year or two where I live.

Toyota 4Runner 1996-2002 3RD GEN 4RUNNER LOWER UNIBALL CONVERSION - TC HEIM STEERING | TOTAL CHAOS FABRICATION

Thanks,
Sam

Originally Posted by Devbot

Hm, interesting. I wonder if they'll still use the factory castings. I can't imagine so because they're kinda running out of material as is and the 7/8 fill it up well without making the walls thin, but I guess we'll see