New LBJ (yes oem)

Hey all. I got some new suspension parts and was looking at doing a rebuild. So far I did the lbj and ubj, both oem, 4k miles ago. (Yes im doing the links, i have them already.)
Upon inspecting my suspension to see what other parts I need to order, i see grease all over my lbj. Really bad as you can see in the photo. Should I go to toyota for a warranty? What else should I check as far as leaking? Like I said, oem lbj are only 4 thousand miles in.

 

Is there any damage to the LBJ boot? That would be my first thing to check to see where the grease is coming from. Seems some boot damage and leaking grease is most likely culprit, but youd have to examine boot first. Looks like 2WD so no CV boot to leak.

 

Let us know how the warranty works out. Toyota usually provides a 1 year warranty on parts. I’m not sure how they handle it if you installed it yourself. They MAY want to charge you to have one of their techs look at it. I’m not sure and I certainly don’t hope so.

 

With Subaru (my only experience) go to your local dealer, present the receipt of purchase of the part with the failed part in hand. Tell them you don't have a shop repair order because you installed it yourself. They will have their service department write a repair order (part only, no labor) and then swap your failed part for the new one. After that, the repair order is closed under warranty so that the dealer is reimbursed and you get to install the warrantied part.

 

Thanks. I will try that and let you guys know how it goes. I'll make sure to get new bolts too to not chance possible failure again.

 

I actually called the dealership I got them from. They said they have no way of knowing miles so I have 1 year date of purchase. They will inspect them and see whether or not they can switch them out. As long as I bring my receipt I should be good. So that's a relief.

I guess that brings my next question, if I wanted to replace my lower control arm in the future, is it okay to re-use my lower ball joints if im just removing and putting them back on?

 

That’s good to know. I know my local dealer wants to get paid for evaluation.

Yes, I’ve done it twice myself.

 

Is the boot torn?

 

Should be no problem reusing the LBJ but if it were me I would get new bolts, they're cheap enough. Just my $.02.

 

You appear to have the longer bolts (black bolts) which are mainly supposed to be used with the ball joint cover which you don't have, this is fine as long as there's no issues with the bolts bottoming out in any of the holes. If you do get new bolts it would be best to either install covers or just get the shorter bolts. The bolts you have are only supposed to be torqued to 37 ft-lbs.

LINK to the ball joints and bolt part numbers.

 

Good eye...good catch.

 

oh man, thanks for catching that. When you say cover, do you mean the dust cover for the lbj? Does not using the dust cover increase the chances of bottoming out even if I use the dust cover and the correct bolts? Honestly it seems the dust cover is not even expensive so I think ill just grab that too along with the bolts.

 

Toyota calls it a protector (dust cover) and introduced it midway in the 2001 model year and fully across your model year (2002). This required a longer bolt which also changed the torque spec which resulted in lower torque values than the shorter bolt used in LBJs without the ball joint protector.

This is off the top of my head, so grain of salt and all.

 

Sounds spot on to me.

 

This "looks" off to me. if this is truly an uneven gap, is it the longer bolts pushing the bottom of the joint down?

 

Looks like the inner bolts by the dust shield broke off.

 

Could explain the issue. And if you're right, holy shit. You may've just saved @808basswolf 's truck.