Ball joint!! Happy Friggen New Year to me!! Ugh

It's weird though. We had some banter about this in the Lunch Table thread over the months/years.

Like, one of their three websites has a deeper discount, but doesn't take the FREESHIP coupon, so it makes more sense for small parts that don't cost much to ship. Another one of their three sites has higher rates, but takes the coupon for $75+ orders, which makes sense for really heavy stuff. I just can't ever remember which is which.

 

Toyota didn't always offer the "FREESHIP" coupon, it used to be only around the Holidays etc. But for the last year or so they've continued to offer it.

McGeorge has consistent service in my experience, so I like them. But I always would compare prices between the two (or three) sites before making the final purchase.

 

I can just about guarantee it was not an OEM balljoint. Call it a hunch.

 

For people that have not been wrenching on their cars for the past 10-15 years, they probably don't realize just how far down the toilet aftermarket quality has fallen. OP, regardless if it was duralast, moog, dorman, or any of the dozen other suppliers, please change this LBJ out with an OEM unit in the next 25k miles. Lots of people think "if the original lasted 100k, even a crappy aftermarket should make it 75k." But that's just not the case anymore. Cheena quality control does not care about you and your family zooming down the interstate at 75mph when that LBJ give out and flings your wheel across the road.

 

Neither does flaky mechanic, nor does his son, who is learning to follow in flaky mechanic's footsteps.

The reality is, if the part fails again, and the truck is totaled, or you get totaled with it, he can easily fall back on "defective part - it happens - sue the manuf'er". And they're not wrong on that, non-OEM for this specific part is inferior 90% of the time. There's at least one brand that's proven to hold up, the XRF. More info on that here: https://www.tundras.com/threads/1st-gen-lunch-table-general-discussion.60450/page-1250#post-2923028

 

Yes!! Super stoked he charged me a very reasonable rate…especially for doing it in my driveway! He put a MOOG LBJ in…just on the driver’s side. He bought it local….after I asked him to use OEM after I learned about OEM on here. He did say MOOG are the best …for what it’s worth, & he is an old school gear head known for building stock cars.

 

Just read the above and sounds like the MOOG should be replaced w OEM. Fully understood!! Thank you!!

 

Now it sounds like I need to go with this million mile warranty…

 

I mean, @RUSTYNUTS is stamping his approval on the XRF ones from what I gather.

Don't get me wrong, if it breaks before a million miles, and you total your truck, they can still send you a new balljoint for your totaled truck and be legally in the clear.

I'd just make sure the mechanic at least installed OEM so you don't find yourself in the same position in less than 20k miles.

 

Gotchya Shifty!! Thanks!!

 

Dude we told you this like 10 times. You basically ignored every piece of advice in this thread.

Your best bet would be to replace both lower ball joints with OEM ball joints in the next 5k miles.

And find another mechanic.

 

Don't thank me. Just do yourself a favor and ask where they got the LBJ.

We have seen it time, and time, and time, and time, and time again. Someone opts not to go OEM, and it absolutely snaps. There's hundreds of pictures of it between the 1st Gen Tundra forums, and on the Tundras FB group. It's almost always aftermarket LBJs. It's probably what happened to your last LBJ, actually.

Always OEM LBJ.
Always new bolts.

 

Read post #97. He already said that Jim Bob the mechanic went with Moog.

 

Oh crap, I missed that.

Oh crap, and Moog had that recall last year or year before last on all their '04-'06 Tundra lower ball joints due to failures. (link)

Hopefully that was the only Moog product with issues, and not the one this mech used

Moog is not the company it was 20 years ago.

​

 

aye. beefy good. moog bad

 

Lmfao!!

I imagine this is just a truck friendly joke…

but please don’t quote what I didn’t say…or cut and paste anything I said to make it appear differently from what I said.

 

Moog WAS the best. I was a die-hard user of their products until about 10-15 years ago mostly because of how heavily invested they were in avionics parts, "if it's good enough for airplanes it's good enough for my vehicle!" is what my Grandpa would say. And back then, in the good 'ol days, when American manufacturing still existed, before we let the the lawmakers export all our jobs and domestic manufacturing to China, it was true.

The quality of their automotive parts gradually went down the shitter due to globalization/outsourcing. To save $$ and appease shareholders/C-level salaries & bonuses, they started having other companies manufacture certain parts, which they just re-branded or re-box another manuf'ers parts in your box, like this. Reality is, the Moog LBJ you just had installed, unless explicitly stamped or cast with "Moog" somewhere on the part, likely isn't even made by Moog, or w/Moog oversight. The last person that came on here with LBJ probs and a Moog LBJ had no "Moog" stamped on it, just some casting numbers, which they use to ID who made it and when.

Need proof? This pic below from the recall I just posted. Moog apparently contracted some company called "Tenneco" (aka Federal Mogul, aka TRW if I'm not mistaken) to make the LBJ which was nationally recalled due to failures for an entire year's production from 2020-2021. See for yourself!

And that's is my beef: When you buy Moog parts these days, you're NOT getting Moog parts. At "best" you're getting Federal Mogul or TRW parts, and those guys are probably sub-contracting out to other places just the same. It's all being made overseas, chances are, made using pot metal and/or have no QA/QC testing in place.

I get it. Humans get religious about brands. We all do it! Moog is what my Grandfather swore by, and Dad too. Grandpa passed, but Dad and I stopped using their parts, because we're not sheep, not hardheaded, we've seen and know globalization and profit hunger killed what made Moog the special, bulletproof manufacturer it was. They've grown way to f'n big for their britches, and can't be bothered to manufacture their own products anymore, or manage their manufacturing.

This is straight out of the recall document, showing the actual manufacturer of the failed Tundra/Sequoia replacement LBJ, if you look 'em up, is Federal Mogul, not Moog. The fact they've already had one recall for the '04-'07 Tundra/Sequoia LBJ should be cause for concern:

​

 

Wow!! Thanks for the detailed information!! It’s a shame our country, politicians, business owners sold out to China. Heard my dad and grandpa talk bout it as a kid and now realize how bad it is and say the same stuff to my kids!!

 

That's literally what you said tho.

All joking aside; did you ask your mechanic to use OEM, and then he installed Moog regardless? However you wanna phrase it, that is unacceptable, and you still need new LBJ's.

 

Na…u cut and pasted my quote…w rolling laughing emojis in a negative light towards me…like u said all joking aside…don’t cut n pasted someone’s post. And…like I said …my mechanic bought the part prior to me telling him bout what I learned on here to use OEM. I will speak w him installing OEMs.

 

What's going to happen with the Moog after you get an OEM in?

 

Keep it in the truck as a spare I guess…or weights for my spread of duck decoys. Lol

 

We cut and paste on here to indicate what comment we’re answering. It’s actually how the forum was designed to work. Otherwise, it’d be like standing in a crowded party and everyone making random comments that don’t relate to each other flying around. The quote feature helps organize online conversations. No point in being offended. While we’re at it, the multi-quote option is like entering a party late, hearing snippets of conversations, and adding your thoughts all at once— sometimes it restarts one or more conversations; sometimes you just said your piece.

As for his laughing… we were many of us laughing along, but in a friendly, gotta find a way to help this guy understand why, even though his mechanic probably thinks this job is done, it isn’t. Rusty and Shifty and I— most everyone here that frequents the 1st gen threads— are pretty much buddies. So if you think of these threads as house parties, picture the same people showing up most of the time. That familiarity builds camaraderie, and camaraderie includes some joking around. That makes the regulars want to hang around giving advice to newcomers. So you may get mad, but it’d be a better choice to accept that Rusty’s joking helped invite Shifty’s taking extra time to present detailed research to illustrate what everyone in here’s been directing you to do.

 

Gotchya. No offense taken and appreciate everyone’s help! This forum is a good group of guys! I look forward to become a regular as I plan to get my 01 shaped up and my kids 00 shaped us as well. Thanks for taking the time for your input!!

 

Sorry for the dumb question(s) . . .
Figure it's better to ask here than start a new thread and draw more attention to my idiot self.
Are the LBJ's that need replacing on both 2WD and 4WD models?
I'm at 70K miles on a 2006 2WD DC that has spent its life on city pavement, but I don't want to be another statistic.
I'm assuming that I don't need to get an alignment after replacement.
TIA.

 

You shouldn't need an alignment for a LBJ since it doesn't change the steering geometry or the camber, caster or toe adjustment hardware. At least I've never done it.

 

Yes even 2WD ball joints should be replaced. They are a wear item on any vehicle. New bolts too.

 

I mean, you're on OEM parts, I wouldn't be be deeply concerned at this point in time, unless you're seeing some signs of BJ failure. Don't be sweating bullets.

The low-mile failures only seem to be happening - the majority - on aftermarket units. Toyota @ OEM level knew the LBJ would be a high-stress (thus high-fail) point and over-engineered their LBJs to compensate for it and then some. Most aftermarket manuf'ers don't do that, because over-engineering the way Toyota did costs extra money, extra design, extra labor, extra steel, and in general, the aftermarket producer's M.O. is: Achieve with bare minimum what you can sell at the highest logical price point.

Toyota wants product longevity to protect their reputation, because their reputation drives their profit.

Aftermarket wants to protect revenue by providing compatible, legally-safe solutions that'll work for what they feel is a "reasonable" amount of time.

That clear misalignment of goals combined with the natural human interest in paying less money for a "compatible" product is why this warning we must rais this warning so frequently.

(unfortunately, the definition of "reasonable" varies manuf'er to manuf'er and rarely manages to meet, much less exceed, the OEM's/Toyota's specifications)