Squeaking when turning and driving.

When I turn my steering wheel I hear a very loud squeaking noise from the front. I have new ball joints upper and lower. Rack and pinion? Help please...

 

You're really going to need to post a video with sound of what you are hearing. Could be lots of things.

 

It’s usually ball joints. Are you sure the new ones have grease in them? Did you use OEM or aftermarket?

 

This. And are you lifted?

Do you hear the sound when the truck has both front wheels jacked up?

What torque spec did you use on the lower bolts, and did you use fresh bolts?

So many questions. And this thread explains very clearly why I’m asking…. https://www.tundras.com/threads/first-gen-lower-ball-joint-lbj-failures.141860/

 

I'll bet $ it's the rack bushings or tie rod ends. My truck made FUCK loads of clunks and squeaks u til I replaced the rack bushing w/ polyurethane ones.

the ones I pulled off looked good, but you could feel how squishy they were. My rack had about 1" to .5" of play. It now has ZERO movement when turning the wheel.

 

I'm not lifted and they are aftermarket ball joints. Importdirect from oriellyauto

 

Expect to take some grief for this. The truth is that this is one area where you don't want to use anything but OEM. May or may not be the source of your squeaking, but you're increasing your chances of failure by A LOT. You should seriously consider replacing with OEM. As @shifty` directed you to do, and if you haven't yet, you need to look at this. https://www.tundras.com/threads/first-gen-lower-ball-joint-lbj-failures.141860/

 

Beyond that @Drrkshox you may also want to catch this thread, so you can be aware of other things to watch out for, the other shit that's managed to kill other member's Tundras: https://www.tundras.com/threads/so-you-wanna-buy-just-bought-a-1st-gen-tundra-eh.115928/

Don't take this LBJ topic lightly bro. The internet is flooded with pics of dead Tundras from people that thought they knew better, and it sounds like you're one of the lucky ones where your truck is giving you advanced warning. I wouldn't be driving it until I installed new OEM LBJ with fresh bolts.

 

@Drrkshox I just noticed you PM'd to say they're not OEM LBJ. Traveling right now, so I'm on weird hours and not getting PMs.

Dude, I would be crazy suspicious this problem is your aftermarket LBJ's. The thread's been linked a few times now showing 45 pages worth of LBJ failures. There are very well known, major issues with aftermarket LBJ. Absurdly high failure rates. Catastrophic failure without warning. The warning signs, when someone gets lucky, are often what you're describing. Creaking. Difficulty turning. We had a guy as recently as last week have the EXACT issue. (here, in case you don't believe me)

Look, it's your truck. You do you. If it were me, I'd be buying 2 new OEM lower ball joints (one left, one right), 8 new mounting bolts (4 for each). If you buy individual OEM joints which come with their own nut and cotter (i.e. don't buy the recall kit, which they may not make for 2000 trucks, Toyota even made LBJs just as inadequate as aftermarket the 1st time, hence all the recalls). Either way though, you should buy indiviual bolts.

All the info you need to have for switching to OEM and which bolts to buy is in this thread: https://www.tundras.com/threads/lower-ball-joints-part-numbers.97100/

We had to make it a sticky thread because so many people were having failures with aftermarket and needed a solid source of information for what to avoid, how to do it right.

 

@Drrkshox I was experiencing similar sounds to you on my old worn out OEM ball joints. Metallic squeaking sounds from the front end while changing directions. Also had vague or loose steering, difficulty returning to center after low speed turns, and just a general sloppiness from the front end. This continued even after replacing rack bushings with poly.

Fearing the worst I got all new inner and outer tie rods, OEM lower ball joints and bolts, upper ball joints, and upper/lower control arm bushings.

I wanted to do the most critical first without spending a whole weekend wrenching, so I just knocked out the lower ball joints real quick. Took about an hour per side.

It made a world of difference. All my issues are seemingly resolved. And I still haven't replaced the other components I listed.

You can test your ball joints by removing the weight of the truck from the control arm. Jack it up and support it by the subframe where the wheel is drooping. Stick a pry bar between the lower control arm and ball joint and pry down. If you have excessive movement, you MUST replace the ball joint with OEM.

Here's a demonstration video.
https://youtu.be/tzi_FNC5hJw?feature=shared

 

Riverdale21 thank you for the information. Both lower and upper have been replaced about a year ago with oriellys import direct. Just replaced my rack and pinion and still have "metallic squeaking". So it must be my ball joints?

 

@Drrkshox - O’Reilly — living dangerously. Listen to me. Swap to OEM LBJs or risk Tundra death.

 

Yes, replace with new OEM lower ball joints. Before failure.

 

This is not a joke, you really need to get that Oreilly garbage out of there and go OEM, with new OEM bolts. Don’t be the next addition on page 45 or 46 of the aftermarket LBJ fail thread. I’ll be shocked if the issue isn’t the LBJ, and you’re exceedingly lucky you actually got some warning signs. But even if it isn’t, the stats don’t lie: aftermarket LBJ have a long running history of abrupt and imminent failure. Part life is usually less than 2-5 years or 5k-40k miles.

 

To piggy back on shifty, the problem is two-fold. Aftermarket parts not being what they used to, and the way a multi-year range of Toyota trucks and SUVs load their front lower ball joints.

There's tons of information and videos on here how aftermarket uses cheap plastic cups in their ball joints instead of metal. Etc. Etc. Secondly in a normal truck a lower ball joint going out isn't usually a catastrophic wheel-folding-under-your-frame failure.

The way some Toyota trucks load their lower ball joints is actually the reverse of a typical setup. On our 1st gens load is actually PULLING the ball away from the cup instead of PUSHING into the cup.

Since the weight of the front end of the truck is PULLING the joint from the cup, once that joint wears enough the ball joint will actually pull out of the cup, thus folding your wheel under. Another failure point is improperly torqued, weak, or re-used ball joint mounting bolts.

It's such a big issue to use OEM lower ball joints and new bolts, torqued to the CORRECT spec dependent upon year.

 

Someone posted a video explanation for why it's so important to use OEM. Worth the 10 minute watch.

https://www.tundras.com/threads/do-you-ever-meet-lbj-non-believers.148096/page-2#post-3736738

 

I just want to say thank you to you all. I appreciate everything.

 

I've been hearing a cluncking sound when I put my truck in reverse. Woke up to this.

 

I have zero rust under my truck I'm guessing this is factory. I have 278000+ miles on this truck and I'm wondering what is the best oem website for front suspension. Well for basically everything I need when something goes wrong.

 

It's fine. Just grease it up and send it. Hhahaha

 

https://www.tundras.com/threads/howto-use-the-toyota-parts-system-to-find-order-parts.113808/