Lower ball joints/part numbers

Where were they manufactured? Should be stamped on the LBJs.

 

I did call a local dealer, she very quickly was able to pull up my truck and tells me the recall was done in 2007. That's what I would have expected, just interesting/annoying it is not shown on the Toyota Owners site. Back to my already planned replacement happening within the next 5-10 days.

 

My LBJ kit arrived today from Ourisman containing 2 LBJs and 4 cotter pins.
Castle nuts were *not* included.
I see nothing indicating country of origin.

 

Does yours not have the sticker on the side indicating origin, same as Jerry? It'll be in the red text as I think I showed in a prior pic.

​

 

I'm an idiot
Yes there is a Japan sticker on the box

 

I also ordered the 8 grade 11 bolts , 2 castle nuts and 2 cotter pins listed in a screenshot earlier in this thread. Obviously, I did not need to order any cotter pins as 4 are included in the LBJ kit. The castle nuts are clearly not grade 11

 

Hey all!

I just recently picked up a 2002 access cab 4wd 5spd and I'm pretty stoked about it.

Question being, I looked up the vin and the LBJ recall was already done, I can't find dates or mileage when it happend though. Is it worth just going ahead and replacing them again for peace of mind or did the recall replacements eliminate the catastrophic failures that occured?

Apologies if this has already been asked, thanks!

 

It's an 02 so it's the small ball joint style. If it was covered under recall I'd imagine it was many years ago. You didn't state your mileage but I'd say it's probably time for some new OEM with new bolts.

 

Welcome to the forum, and welcome to your MT V6! A lot of folks are quite fond of them.

Really would help to know miles as Nick mentioned. Pics could help too, if the patina of the LBJ, LCA and everything around it match, that can at least give clues to the age.

There's a few big things on these trucks you should be replacing proactively every 100k-125k miles, where applicable, with Denso or Aisin brand parts: Timing belt/water pump and its tensioners and pulleys. Radiator. LBJ and its bolts.

I want to say a lot of that info is in the new owner community megathread, and if not, I should be putting it in there eh: https://www.tundras.com/threads/so-you-wanna-buy-just-bought-a-1st-gen-tundra-eh.115928/

 

Great. Thanks. I may order a set to have for the future replacement just in case Toyota decides to discontinue this part.

 

I bet the answer lies in this thread somewhere but the original recall - did they actually upgrade/improve the design or the strength of the OEM parts, or was it just a one time replacement of the factory parts with more of the same (hence the need to continually replace them every 100k or so)?

 

The need to replace periodically is due to these being a wear item (on all cars). Every time the wheel moves up and down or left and right, the joint is moving internally. This creates wear, much like a bearing. The reason we are adamant about preventative replacement is because failure can be catastrophic. If the ball joint fails on your 2003 Dodge Ram, it just squeaks and annoys the shit out of everyone and the steering feels a little loose and/or stiff. If it fails on a FGT, the wheel literally falls off and attacks the wheel well causing major suspension and body damage in many cases.

 

Thanks, and that all makes sense but then what was the defect that resulted in the original recall? In my truck's case that was done within 18 months and probably about 15,000 miles of the truck rolling off the line. So what I'm mainly curious about is if the recall was never done, do you just have an old LBJ or do you also have an old LBJ of an inferior design/strength?

It's a general curiosity question is all.

 

I would add “the reason we are adamant about replacement …” is also because they will fail catastrophically without warning. That includes not showing play at all (when under load) which many mechanics look for when testing front suspension.

 

I did find in the recall notice it says they are "improved" - I'm just still curious what they actually did to improve them. Thicker steel, better rubber, etc etc.

 

I want to say there was a casting problem, but …

 

The defect is the design that puts them in tension not compression

 

I hear you, but the recall states that "improved" parts were to be installed. Since they couldn't/didn't change the whole design of the front suspension with the recall, what was improved? Maybe nothing, but Toyota felt that replacing 1-3 year old ball joints with identical parts but calling them "improved" was enough to keep the lawyers and government off their back.

A change to the casting process would actually make sense if there was a weakness in the actual part on top of the already shit design.

 

My man.

 

Well Gentlemen, I did it. The job was easy; it only took me a few hours. I really got a look at the suspension. The only challenge I had was the rust on the tie rod end caused the nuts to be a challenge. I will change those very soon.

Thank you all who helped me to better understand OEM parts, I will never shop at my dealership again. It took 2 weeks to get the damn bolts. They came in Wednesday before last and when I went in that Saturday, 2 had been poached for a "work order." I was so pissed as I missed a trip to Tahoe because of the delay. They kept referencing a "nation wide shortage on this part." After a week of no word, I had to call the manager they finally brought a couple in from a neighboring town.

The FSM has a section on "Inspection" of the LBJs. I did that and determined they definitely were bad. The new ball joint set could not be turned by hand, the old could be turned freely.

Next up, the shocks.

 

10/10 know I’m beating a dead horse here but I just bought a new to me 06 Double Cab SR5 4x4 and I’m trying to replace the lbj’s. Because I’m in Alaska and parts are expensive af to ship up here the kit 04006-62134 , castle nuts 90171-18003 and bolts 90105-12316 should get me the right parts for my truck? Should I buy boots with the kit just in case it doesn’t come with them (I’ve heard mixed results).

The closest dealership up here wants $272 each side for them bringing my total to about $544 with no new bolts but boots, castle nuts and cotter pins.

 

Hey VJMarsh,
I learned a ton here on this thread --> Check out the link at this post:

Shifty was so right. I got screwed by my dealership and it was a pain to get all the parts together; never again. That said I know you are in AK so there is that complication.
My kit came with the LBJ, boot, castle nut and cotter pin. I did not replace the steering tie rod end but I need to.

Hindsight, I would also get a new tie rod end and cotter pin for that. If your tie rod end is good maybe just the cotter pin.

 

Can you wait a few days for delivery @vjmarsh?

If you can ...

For your 2006 Tundra, here's your left, right, and get 8 of these bolts to go with it.

Should be free shipping, zero tax, and 25% off you order if you purchase within the next 6 days. $227.63 for everything, out the door. Fuck your local stealership.

​

 

Well damn. Thanks shifty. That’s a steal of a deal. I can definitely wait if that’s the out the door cost.

 

That’s the OTD cost, yep.

That dealership is pretty solid. Quite a few of us on here use them because the no-tax/free-ship deal can’t be beat. The fact there’s a national 25% off sale going on thru the Toyota Parts system is icing on the cake.

Save 50% of what the local stealership is charging! Put that money into something else, like a genuine Aisin timing belt kit, purchased anywhere BUT fleaBay or scAmazon. Summit Racing should also have free ship on that and better prices than either of those, and without the risk of counterfeits you’ll have with fleaBay/scAmazon. Timing belt needs to be done every 9yr/90k miles b/c you have the V8, though you can probably roll to 10yr/100k miles if you use OEM parts (Aisin is the OEM manufacturer/supplier for those parts, no need to pay more from Toyota direct).

Maintenance is key, the trucks will last hundreds of thousands of miles if you keep up with the basic maintenance schedule.

 

So Serra is always no-shipping? Nice. I did notice the national sale right now is 25% and free ground shipping for orders over $75, so they're essentially all doing free shipping at the moment. Serra does charge me tax though, I think that's more dependent on where you live than the dealership perhaps. But ordering online is clutch, even if ordering from a local dealer. Not sure how vjmarsh's dealer was quoting $272 per side when MSRP is only $205 so they might be all time scum, but even if buying local you should still order online and just pick it up to take advantage of any online discounts, i.e. the current 25% sale.

I just paid about $8 more than Serra from my local dealer to order tie rod ends last night, in the hopes they're in stock and I can grab them in the next day or two. Fun fact, if I'd taken advantage of the current free shipping offer I would have saved another couple bucks on tax, since the dealership is in the city and I live outside city limits. But I figured if I tried to cheap out over 2 bucks even though I'm only 5 miles away, somehow I wouldn't get them til after the weekend.

Last week I bought a pair of OEM oil filters from my dealership for $3.68 each out the door and picked them up on my way to lunch. Even Walmart was double that, although they seem to have stopped carrying the YZZD3.

 

Most of the dealers using the Toyota Parts system are free shipping on orders over $75, up to $XXXX in shipping fees (I think it caps at covering up to $200 in shipping or something).

There are a few outliers, like Toyota Parts Overstock, Ourisman/McGeorge, but if you go to the national site @ https://autoparts.toyota.com and start your order there, you should get the free shipping when ordering over $75. When you use the link I just gave, you can't add anything to your cart without first selecting a dealership from their list - they'll give you a short list of participating dealers near you when you get to the specific item page, you click on one and it takes you to their sub-site in the Parts system, you see what their price is (each has its own discount %), and if you don't like it, tap the BACK button in your browser and look at the next, rinse-repeat this until you find the best deal. (I assume you know this, putting it there more for public info)

What I'll say about Serra - their Birmingham dealership, NOT their Decatur dealership which is staffed by clowns/assholes thanks to Eric's piss-poor management and inability to take ownership on problems - Serra Birmingham is nice to shop with b/c they don't charge tax and the discounts are more-substantial than 80-90% of the other participating dealers I've found. McGeorge and others may beat them in price, but when you factor in the no-tax, it almost evens out, and when you factor in free shipping, I typically beat others' pricing. I don't know if this is just an Alabama thing, the no-tax on internet purchases for people living out-of-state, but it's a nice little perk that knocks off another 7-8% at least, I reckon? Well, for me at least, living an hour west of AL.

Yup, I've mentioned the "probably not if you're in AL" thing on tax previously in other threads. It used to be that you never had to pay sales tax on internet purchases if you were out of state, and/or the company you're buying from has no B&M location or corporate presence in the state you're purchasing from. I was sad to see that go away 10-15 years ago or whenever it was...

And you may be right, that VJmarsh could use the parts link I provided above, and potentially get the parts at or below MSRP, then walk into the dealership quoting him $500+, and walk out with them for, like, $380 or something. But it's only if his local dealership is participating, and even then, some dealerships set the buy-online-discount to 0%. Average seems to be closer to 10-15% in my experience, on most parts, and that may be a default amount. The national system may also discount based on part type, like they let dealers offer 25% off for consumables/maintenance items, and 10% off on major parts, I really don't know. I'd actually love to work for them on the back-end for a few months to better understand the system, but I seriously doubt I could find my way into that job.

(I mean, I have the professional experience and skillset, but I can't imagine finding the right connections to get in their line of sight as an applicant)

Typically speaking, over here in ATL at least, all local dealerships are sourcing their parts from a central warehouse, it's not something they keep in stock. If they don't have the part in-hand in their parts closet, they can call the local warehouse and have it in hand usually by next morning. Now, it could just be that Atlanta, having the 3rd largest airport in the world, is a major warehousing hub for Toyota parts, and it's different for me. But at worst, I'd expect there to be a similar warehousing hub up in B-ham that would supply you with parts just the same, and with the same there-in-24h service.

My rule of thumb: If it's 10% or less in savings, and it'd help to have it in-hand sooner, I'll just order for local pickup. Like, if a part is $275 onlye and it's only $25 more for me to pick it up in person, I'll order locally and grab it for $300 and call it a day. Everyone's line is different. But if I were in VL's situation where the dealer is charging 2x, or even if they were charging 1.5x, I sure as hell would order online. The only other case is if I wasn't 100% certain about the part number being correct, I'd use the local dealership, that way I have an option to reject the part at the counter if it's clearly not correct.

 

Perfect timing on this. I'm about to order my my ball joints and bolts for my 04 DC 4Wd

 

Part numbers may be different, 04 is a crossover year. Verify before ordering.