LCA ball joint failure. (1 Viewer)

[Atwalz]

Yesterday, as I left home, I heard click sound. I pulled over in the parking lot to check the suspension. It was dark and could properly see what happened. As I started to back out, my LCA separated from steering knuckle. I had truck towed to home. Later inspection revealed that it was a ball joint failure. I am lucky that it happened at low speed and parking lot. I am not going to speculate how it failed and how long it was like this. It had an initial crack and then final failure. So don’t ignore suspension sounds. I typically inspect all fasteners visually if anything is loose. But in this case, it was not discovered during visual inspection. I am replacing both LCA with OEM tundra.

 

[silverhorse]

scary stuff, glad you are safe! are you going to do the Tundra conversion or just replacing the LBJ with a Tundra part?

 

[OregonLC]

Man, mine are weeping a bit of grease and I was wondering whether to proactively replace... Though yours looks like a straight sheer (defective part?) rather than wear. Even the grease looks relatively fresh on the one side.

 

[Atwalz]

I have done tundra conversion few years ago, so replacing it with tundra parts. No LBJ, as Toyota doesn’t sell them and I don’t want to deal with pressing a ball joint out.

 

[Atwalz]

Man, mine are weeping a bit of grease and I was wondering whether to proactively replace... Though yours looks like a straight sheer (defective part?) rather than wear. Even the grease looks relatively fresh on the one side.

I am guessing defective part.

 

[LBridges]

Thank goodness you are OK!

I understand very little about suspension geometry. Is there any more stress placed on a lower ball joint when it's "upside down" like in LC, Tndra, T4R, etc. From a dummy (me) perspective it looks like the spring is trying to push the ball out of the socket.

 

[indycole]

Yikes, super glad this didn't happen at speed! Dang.

 

[Madtiger]

Just to be clear...you had a lift and aftermarket parts where this failed, right? This was not a stock LC.

 

[silverhorse]

@Atwalz for what it is worth, I use only MOOG suspension components. (i'm using them on my tundra coversion, in progress) I maintain a fleet of commercial vehicles for my business. I'm a big toyota OEM guy but, I have found MOOG to be just as good and better in some cases than OEM AND THEY ARE SERVICEABLE! (have zerk fittings)
most manufacturers now, sell non serviceable parts including Toyota sadly.....

 

[Atwalz]

@Atwalz for what it is worth, I use only MOOG suspension components. (i'm using them on my tundra coversion, in progress) I maintain a fleet of commercial vehicles for my business. I'm a big toyota OEM guy but, I have found MOOG to be just as good and better in some cases than OEM AND THEY ARE SERVICEABLE! (have zerk fittings)
most manufacturers now, sell non serviceable parts including Toyota sadly.....

Thanks. I am using moog tundra TREs on land cruiser. I like zerks on them.

 

[bloc]

I’m betting that was the result of prior damage. Too many of these running around without that failure. At least these are in compression unlike the old Tacoma/4Runner LBJ that was in tension and would separate when it wore out.

 

[Whiskerz]

@Atwalz for what it is worth, I use only MOOG suspension components. (i'm using them on my tundra coversion, in progress) I maintain a fleet of commercial vehicles for my business. I'm a big toyota OEM guy but, I have found MOOG to be just as good and better in some cases than OEM AND THEY ARE SERVICEABLE! (have zerk fittings)
most manufacturers now, sell non serviceable parts including Toyota sadly.....

I like grease fittings on ball joints but in my fleet experience with heavily loaded Ford vans we found no improved life with ball joints with grease fittings vs. those without. I expected otherwise. The results showed I was wrong. These vans when loaded to 10,500+ pounds would eat a lower ball joint in 40,000 miles.

 

[bloc]

I’ll take premium quality materials/construction over a grease zerk every day of the week.

 

[silverhorse]

That's very interesting especially because all our fleet vehicles are Ford vans as well and we've had zero failures but I suspect it's probably because ours are all lighter than yours ..and it's all about the weight

 

[silverhorse]

I’ll take premium quality materials/construction over a grease zerk every day of the week.

I believe it was the Toyota OEM part that broke?

 

[bloc]

I believe it was the Toyota OEM part that broke?

I understand that, but look at how few have. I maintain that it was prior damage that caused this (obviously no real evidence other than my gut and the history of these trucks and tundras).

My experience with aftermarket replacement parts has been that they just don’t quite meet toyota OE quality. With toyota parts I know that I’m getting something where no corners were cut, save for clear design faults like the original radiators.

 

[silverhorse]

I totally agree with everything you just stated above. I also believe that the crack had to have started way before that point. Also I should point out that Moog is the only brand of parts I use other than OEM ....most aftermarket parts in my opinion are low quality

 

[bjowett]

The circled machine marks suggest the joint could be aftermarket... but it's hard to tell w/o having the part in hand. IME, most Toyota ball joints are either net forged or shot peened in this area.

 

[Atwalz]

The circled machine marks suggest the joint could be aftermarket... but it's hard to tell w/o having the part in hand. IME, most Toyota ball joints are either net forged or shot peened in this area.
View attachment 2189923

It was an aftermarket tundra arm.

 

[silverhorse]

Well there ya go, damn aftermarket junk! LOL