LBJ failure - Public Service Announcement

I didn't know this. Why did they make them worse in 01? The crazy thing is that even the bigger ones them came out with in 04 fail. Someone did a tally in the LBJ failure thread and found more failures for those than the older ones. Now that doesn't mean they actually fail more. It's all the data we have.

 

They may, they may not. Very often they don't. I know a lot of this stuff gets buried the ball joint thread, 'what have you done' thread or lunch table thread, but we talk about it a lot. Waiting for a sign is the wrong strategy. They're just as likely to fail 'out of the blue' as they are to show any sign of failure. Replace every 100,000 miles, no matter if every check you do on them says they're "fine".

 

Aftermath pics show some with bolts that failed, some with ball popped out of socket failure and some where the ball snapped right off the post. Due to the variety of failure of all aspects of the joint, this one concludes the joint is under tremendous stress by design. When the joint begins to fail and doesn’t move smoothly in the socket the stress gets increased on all the components.

 

Glad you're okay. Same situation when mine went- two minutes prior we were doing 75mph on the highway. Pulled into a parking lot, boom.

We have very safe trucks- but I can't say for sure if I would be typing this if the ball joint went at 75. Really glad that it decided to go in a parking lot.

 

Like many things, the lifetime of any individual ball joint is going to be on a bell curve. Unlike many things, you would not want to bet on the peak of the bell curve.
Hence why we see some ball joints last 200k plus, loads last 150k and of course some last less.

 

Well, that answers my question……mine were done in 2006……time to do them again

 

Recall replacement in 2007 by previous owner. I called the dealership the truck was serviced at, but they couldn't provide the mileage of the truck at the time the work was done, just month and year. I bought the recall kit myself recently and they're waiting to be installed. I'm just trying to decide if I should replace the LCA's at the same time now or let them go and attempt bushing down the road. Currently, my LBJs do not show any signs of degradation and seem stiff with the pry bar test, but I'm at 130k miles and my best guess is the recall was done close to around 20-30k miles so I am right at that 100,000 mile mark.

 

Make sure you got a hold of the new bolts for those.

 

all eight of em, and red loctite to boot

 

My truck had the recall performed around 67K, it's at 229K now and body damage evidence shows it may have had one fail at one point. I have new OEM LBJs I planned on installing tomorrow. What is the "recall kit" you mention? And why new bolts?

EDIT: Disregard the bolts, I read up on it. Now to find new bolts...

 

There's another thread that helped me. This is the "recall kit" and part number. Comes with two joints and new cotter pins. The part number is different from the typical OEM LBJ number. The parts guy at the dealership I ordered from asked me how did I find out about this part number since it is a recall specific item that is typically not available for retail customers. Of course as always, do your part to confirm fitment for your vehicle

 

Yeah trying to stick it to Nam was no good but Civil rights are nifty (and being undone now)....

 

Yotas black bolts are best (and can take 1 or 2 re-tightens) yet need the rock sleeves due to their length.

 

Any reason to go with the kit over the individuals? I assume it’s the same parts just packaged differently? The ones I ordered both came with castle nuts and cotter pins.

 

It is just a little cheaper going with the kit.
Make certain that you are replacing all 8 bolts when changing your LBJs. There are also a couple PDFs with torque specs that you've probably seen with your research. I'll attach them here. I gave these to the shop that did my install.

 

The bolts and part number the dealership sent me for LBJ replacement for my 05'

 

thats the only difference. recall kit does not include castle nut, just the cotter pins.

 

Time for me to start thinking about this also. 90k on mine since the recall

 

For the big ball joint style only, which are different from the earlier style.

 

Didn't realize they were different. I edited my post.

 

https://www.tundras.com/threads/lower-ball-joints-part-numbers.97100/page-7#post-3684945

 

Should be helpful for anyone with 03' and older

 

Sometimes getting the right LBJ part is trickier if you're not careful than actually installing them! Got to read the mega thread and use that https://toyota-usa.epc-data.com link.

ETA - Full disclosure. I ordered the wrong bolts when I got my LBJ's. Even though the autoparts.xxx.toyota site said it matched my VIN. So I shoulda used the epc-data link too!