Bad CV joint?

I noticed today on my way home that the front of the truck is clicking gently when turning to the left - nothing going straight or to the right. My thinking is this is a bad cv joint caused by these stupid spacers on the front suspension? The boot itself looks fine, no tears or grease coming out.

There is a bit of feedback from the steering wheel as well, so my first thought is CV joint. Anything else I should look at?

Open to suggestions on good replacements as well. I guess I'm going to replace these when I pull the spacers and replace the shocks as well!

 

*sigh*

This is where I start yelling about the truck as a lemon, right? Dang truck couldn't wait a week until all my parts arrived, I guess.

 

That is right! Its all someone else that did it, and you have no responsibility at all!!!! FREAKING TOYOTA!!!

Seriously though.... WTF did you do? I hadn't seen that one before. Did you undercoat that thing or something? And whats going in its place? IT HAD BETTTER BE SHINY!!!!

 

lol...me, personally, I literally did do nothing other than buy the truck a couple weeks ago. It had the spacer kid and the giant mud tires on it, which I was already planning on replacing. Whenever they installed and under-coated it they sprayed the whole suspension setup.

So...it's actually NOT my fault!

 

I've seen that happen before. Time for some upgrades.

 

WTF!!!? I’ve seen shocks fail but only at the bottom mount. That son of a bitch gave in right in the middle Huh? Upside, you were already going to replace those. So hopefully your CV is good to go.

 

Yeah, apparently the bottom half of the shock decided it wanted to wear the top half of the shock as a winter hat. It's not even that cold yet!

I'm just waiting to hear what else is wrong with it at this point. I literally...LITERALLY!...bought replacement shocks/coils from the forum LAST NIGHT, and a replacement CV axle with 12k off Ebay...LAST NIGHT! Hopefully that's all it needs at this point. I've dropped it off at a local shock and am planning on having them just put their OEM-whatever shocks on the front. I'll still do the backs myself and I guess just sit on the front coilovers for a bit. If it needs the CV, I'll see what they have available there, although from what I've read, the actual Toyota axles are better than aftermarket OEM-types, so I'd like to get the 12k one on there...but if it's shot, I probably can't really wait a couple of weeks to do it myself either.

Guess I really am a truck owner now.

 

Well sir, if you are anywhere in the Houston area you let me know and I will help you in any way I can.

 

Wisconsin, unfortunately. I'm hoping down your way you don't get that much rust on the underbelly of your truck

I'll likely be in the San Antonio area early next summer...if we remember, I'll probably be driving down and take an extra couple days vacation. I'm just assuming you guys drink beer down there.

 

So updating here: having the shop install their Monroe coilovers in the front for the time being (I've got a setup from here coming, I'll put it on down the road somewhere). Apparently the driver's side front wheel lug nuts worked themselves loose. Fingers crossed there's nothing wrong there, but that was causing my steering wheel shake on the way to the shop today.

Hoping this fixes the current crop of glitches, and I'll get it back Monday or Tuesday ready to hit the road again.

 

yeah..I used to have spacers when I was a young buck..it folded my stock toyota shock in the front after couple bumps in the desert...

 

So...mixed bag I guess here? I just got a call from the shop and they said it's just the dust cover that's crumpled on the shock. Good news I guess there. Going to re-check the lugs after driving for a bit. They actually turned down the work to replace the front shocks/springs (said they'd do it if I wanted, but didn't think it was needed).

They have a guy there that owns a Tundra...and said he has the same spacers on his front suspension as well and didn't recommend removing them and thought I might have more problems down the road removing them rather than just leaving them in there. That didn't seem quite right to me, but they said it's even got Toyota stamped on the spacer. So now I'm confused. I guess I might just wait until the spring and confirm a few more times.

Anyone reading this have a pic of their Rock Warrior front suspension that can confirm the spacer? Got me thinking maybe the RW package had it added as a "look" feature?