Upper ball joints at 180k miles

The factory Toyota ball joints from my Tundra are about 180k miles. They're still very stiff to move in circle. Do they need to be replaced?

On average, how long can they last?

 

I’d do it 80k miles ago

 

I did mine at 250k on a 2006 2wd dbcb and they were still tight.

 

They should be stiff to move. It's when they're loose, that's a problem.

 

I just did mine on a 2004 double cab with 133k miles. The spectrum I have seen ranges from new (stiff) to completely done (worn out, loose and ball comes out of the socket with catastrophic failure)

Along this continuum it seems like a judgement call and personal preference. On mine I was able to move the ball around by hand with minimal pressure, but there was still grease inside the boot and absolutely no play. The new ones are very stiff - perhaps the handling will be a bit more precise - but it didn't seem worth the hassle and money to replace them for me at this time.

In the future I will replace when I can detect play in the joint or when the joint starts to make noise because the grease is all gone and it is metal on metal, or when I have the suspension apart for other repairs.