What’s up with my upper front suspension?

How bad is this? It looks like a thread or something is sticking out of the bushing. My truck has always squeaked but it has gotten worse this year. 366k now and learning to repair and replace as I go. Need y’all’s opinion!

 

If no wheel play, I’d clean it off and watch it for a couple weeks. If it leaks again, time to change it.

Also, if not obvious, change both sides if you need to replace at least one.

 

My opinion? You best be fucking careful. Squeak with suspension articulation is often metal-on-metal and you need to be worried about your lower ball joints first and foremost. And NEVER use anything except OEM lower ball joints with fresh bolts.

You're familiar with how to test, right? If not, read this post in reply #10, and follow the bullet points in the middle of the reply.

If you know for a fact the LBJs haven't been replaced in the last 100k-150k miles, OR they were replaced with non-OEM 10k+ miles ago, replace with OEM proactively.

There's almost no force/tension/weight on the upper balljoint. A massive amount lives on the LBJ. It's why it's the Achilles heel of this generation of Tundra.

 

Been waiting to find some cheaper possibly 2nd hand OEM LBJs @shifty` I’m ball jointing on a budget. Will be calling my mechanic buddy.

 

Not a great place to cut corners.

but by 'thread' do you mean the wire tying the ubj boot on? The wire was oem. Found it on both of mine.

 

While I agree on having budgets, this is not a great place to cheap out. Your life could literally depend on it.

 

There is NO budget safe LBJ, take that bullshit somewhere else. OEM only. And they're not that expensive that you can't do it right and be good for another 150k miles. I was out the door for $275 for both OEM LBJ and 8 new bolts from an online dealership, and yours may very well be cheaper with the earlier year model. Took me an hour to install on both sides with basic tools plus a pitman arm puller.

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But in all seriousness, why ask if you're going to refuse the advice with weak, BS excuses about budget? what the fuck good does saving money do if your truck looks like this tomorrow, and will cost you a grand or two, losing the the truck totally, or losing the truck and being mired in medical bills, or losing the truck and your life? Don't be these fools: , , link, link, link, link, link, link, link

Take the necessary steps to check what's wrong. And avoid non-OEM parts. Here's why you don't want to use aftermarket, not only is it not designed to address Toyota's design flaw with the suspension, OEM uses all metal, typically no platics. Don't let a mechanic convince you otherwise. And change your own LBJ, it is really not hard to do.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQWwTB8w2Hk​

 

Shifty does not approve.

 

So your photo shows the upper ball joint. That's a boot, not a bushing. The boot holds in grease and keeps out dirt. There's metal wire wrapped around the boot holding it in place. That's an OEM upper ball joint. The fact that it's leaking is something to be concerned with, but not necessarily a problem. Just check it for play. The upper ball joints on these, if they fail, would mean the tire coming off, but it's a very rare failure. Whereas lower ball joints are just as serious and far more common. Your upper ball joints are in far better shape, visually, than mine. My boots are completely cracked open, no more grease left. I can't feel any play and there's no noise, but I have some new ones ready to install all the same, hopefully next weekend. When they're visually torn like mine, it's just not something to ignore.

Squeaking/creaking can be from a few different things, some fairly harmless. But some not so harmless. Figure out what's squeaking. It's not necessarily a lower ball joint. But, regardless of any visual or mechanical issues or play, lower ball joints should be regularly replaced. If it's been more than 100,000 miles, replace them, with nothing but OEM. Soon.

 

The boot on your upper ball joint is torn and is allowing grease to escape. The metal wire you see is OEM and normal. When OEM upper ball joints are installed, the wire is wrapped around the base of the boot and then twisted together in order to keep the boot in place and hold the grease in.

While the upper ball joint is important, the lower ball joint is more important and is a more common fail point.

 

Ourisman Toyota of Richmond (Google them) sell OEM parts at pretty much the lowest prices you'll find. Look above for the part numbers that @shifty` was kind enough to provide. Then pull up the parts on Ourisman's website. Don't buy there, just go to your local Toyota dealer and ask them to price match Ourisman's prices.

This will be the cheapest way to get OEM lower ball joints. Don't mess around with aftermarket (as everyone else already said), and don't mess around with "2nd hand OEM" either. Don't reuse old lower ball joint bolts either.