Opinions on a ball joint

D

DMo007

New member
Hey all,

I climbed underneath my truck the other day to just look around and check things out as I do periodically and found a little grease on one of my ball joints. Not much, just enough to get the tip of my finger a little greasy. No rips or breaks in the rubber. I just got an alignment done last week while I had it in getting my clutch done. I told them to check out the suspension while they had it up in the air. They replaced a U-joint but said everything else looks good. I've got no weird noises, steering feels fine, and nothing else feels weird. Got it off the ground and did the shake test and everything felt solid.

Anyway, I know there's many folks on here that are much more experienced in these trucks than I am and could probably tell me if I should be immediately concerned with it, or if I'm worrying about nothing. Thanks in advance guys!
 

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How many miles are on the 4runner? Do you have any record of them being changed?

If the truck has over 100k miles and there is no evidence of them being changed, then I would go ahead and swap them out. OEM LBJs can be found for relatively cheap and it's an easy job.
 
Check them both for play by putting a jack on the lower control arm and use a pry bar to try and separate the ball joint. Should have 0 movement.
 
Ask anyone on here and they'll tell you that the LBJ's are the #1 priority on the maintenance list. It's a known high failure item and often times there aren't any signs. You need to know when they were replaced last.

Search the site and catch up on some good LBJ reading. Tons of threads and pics.
 
Thanks for the input everybody!

To answer a few of the questions, it's got 173k miles on it. I've looked through the paperwork I got with it, and I can't see where it's ever been done. Doesn't mean it hasn't, but with no paperwork I'm just going to assume that it hasn't.

Anyway, I've priced the parts and had planned on doing the work sometime in the next month or so anyway. I guess what my concern was is how bad that LBJ actually looked, and based on how it looked, how urgent it is that I get it done. Like, is this a "Take the truck off the road now and don't drive it until these LBJ's are replaced" situation? Or is it a "It looks fine for now but look into replacing it this weekend or the next" thing?
 
It's impossible for anyone to tell from a photo. The tiny bit of grease isn't your concern. It's the fact that they're a known failure point in these rigs. Aftermarkets fail faster then OEM which is why everyone here will tell you OEM for this part.

Is it gonna fail this in the next month? Only way to know for sure is to drive it till failure. Or just replace them like most of us have done. With the millions of 3rd Gen's sold only a small percentage of those have had the LBJ's fail. So statistically you've got a pretty good shot at making it another month. I guess it just depends on whether you like rolling the dice or not. lol
 
octanejunkie said:
Not to hijack, but what's the best, most cost-effective source for OEM (toyota) LBJs?
Click to expand...

I'm looking on eBay right now and found a complete kit with everything to do UBJ's and LBJ's on both sides for $289. Looked them up by part number on Amazon and for everything that is included in that kit it added up to around $298.

That being said, I'm not exactly sure if that's cheap or not because I've never bought them before but it seems to be on par when I do a google search.
 
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To my knowledge, even if there is no play, they could still be 'bad'. Always replace them going by age (roughly every 100k), unless play is obvious.
 
theesotericone said:
It's impossible for anyone to tell from a photo. The tiny bit of grease isn't your concern. It's the fact that they're a known failure point in these rigs. Aftermarkets fail faster then OEM which is why everyone here will tell you OEM for this part.

Is it gonna fail this in the next month? Only way to know for sure is to drive it till failure. Or just replace them like most of us have done. With the millions of 3rd Gen's sold only a small percentage of those have had the LBJ's fail. So statistically you've got a pretty good shot at making it another month. I guess it just depends on whether you like rolling the dice or not. lol
Click to expand...

Yeah, I understand it's hard to tell from a photo. I'm also aware that it's a known failure point which is why that grease had me a little concerned. Like I said, it was something I was planning to do in the next month or so anyway
because I have no idea when it was last done or if it's ever been done. I just saw the grease and was just wondering how much I should accelerate my timetable for getting it done. Lol.

But, I've got the parts on order now (OEM Toyota) and they should be here middle of next week. The weather is looking pretty good here for next weekend so I'll just go ahead and get it knocked out then. Need it or not, at least I'll know when it was last done.
 
DMo007 said:
That's just the front lowers. I was going to replace the front upper's too while I had it apart. They're like $40 a piece.
Click to expand...

Do you plan on lifting it at any point in the future? If so I'd hold off on the uppers. If you go with an aftermarket upper control arm you'll just end up pressing the new upper BJ's out again.
 
DMo007 said:
Hey all,

I climbed underneath my truck the other day to just look around and check things out as I do periodically and found a little grease on one of my ball joints. Not much, just enough to get the tip of my finger a little greasy. No rips or breaks in the rubber. I just got an alignment done last week while I had it in getting my clutch done. I told them to check out the suspension while they had it up in the air. They replaced a U-joint but said everything else looks good. I've got no weird noises, steering feels fine, and nothing else feels weird. Got it off the ground and did the shake test and everything felt solid.

Anyway, I know there's many folks on here that are much more experienced in these trucks than I am and could probably tell me if I should be immediately concerned with it, or if I'm worrying about nothing. Thanks in advance guys!
Click to expand...

I'll echo what everyone else is saying. At 173k they are due for replacement if they have never been changed.

You should be able to get OEM for around $200~.

I personally have come across 3-4 4runners right after they had an LBJ failure. My own truck suffered one as well with the previous owner. So it does happen and it happens more than we think.

I'll reiterate what other have mentioned about only using OEM genuine Toyota LBJs. Do not make the mistake of using premium Napa or any other aftermarket. It doesn't matter if it has Sankie or 555 on it – they are all shit and will not last long. I can personally attest to this. Do yourself a big favor and only use OEM LBJs.

Last two trucks I personally came across right after their LBJs failed.






​
 
Received my OEM/Toyota LBJs yesterday and ordered bolts from local dealer, will be in tomorrow

I called a few shops to install for them me, no free weekends this month, and I got pricing ranging from $400 to $40 per wheel - insane what some shops want to charge.

The guy that said $40 a wheel has worked on my cars before, is up the street from my office and is fair and reliable. He will get the job.

I have free lifetime alignment from my tire shop so after the LBJ install it will go straight to the tire shop for an alignment - all while I am at work. Pretty sweet.

I hope the OP has his LBJs sorted out
 
octanejunkie said:
Received my OEM/Toyota LBJs yesterday and ordered bolts from local dealer, will be in tomorrow

I called a few shops to install for them me, no free weekends this month, and I got pricing ranging from $400 to $40 per wheel - insane what some shops want to charge.

The guy that said $40 a wheel has worked on my cars before, is up the street from my office and is fair and reliable. He will get the job.

I have free lifetime alignment from my tire shop so after the LBJ install it will go straight to the tire shop for an alignment - all while I am at work. Pretty sweet.

I hope the OP has his LBJs sorted out
Click to expand...

Or Mike, you can do it yourself. It's pretty straight forward. A couple different pullers are nice to have and you can rent them for free at many auto parts stores. Here's a video [MENTION=102606]infamousRNR[/MENTION] and I made replacing the balljoints on my rig.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/bfLvtEnX9qk" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
 
mtbtim said:
Or Mike, you can do it yourself. It's pretty straight forward. A couple different pullers are nice to have and you can rent them for free at many auto parts stores. Here's a video [MENTION=102606]infamousRNR[/MENTION] and I made replacing the balljoints on my rig.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/bfLvtEnX9qk" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Click to expand...
I appreciate the support, and I definitely can do it myself, I just don't have the time this month, and I don't want to wait another month to swap these out.

I'm choosing the lesser of two evils, pay to get it done sooner before one fails.

However, if my daughter's softball team looses on Saturday, I'm free on Sunday.

Thanks [MENTION=120071]mtbtim[/MENTION]

Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk
 
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