Lower ball joint bolts fell off 2000 Tacoma 3.4L

Sorry I didn’t take any pictures. So I went out to run to the store this morning jumped on the highway and notice a light scraping noise like I had a pebble or sand in my brakes but very quiet.

I felt some play in the steering on the highway that didn’t feel right but wasn’t super bad or noticeable.

I pulled back into town off the highway after the store and was going 20mph and the whole front end on the passenger side dropped a few inches with a loud bang.

I jumped out and the front passenger tire was tilted in at the top and how lucky I was to be 1 block from an autozone “the wrong part store” and off the highway where I was going 75mph.

When i got the tire off it was apparent what had happened, all four bolts on the lower ball joint were missing. I checked the driver side and all four bolts were loose.

I bought a new passenger ball joint cause autozone didn’t have any bolts and a new ball join comes with bolts. I put them on and torqued them to spec just to get home.

What are your thoughts? I’ve only driven 3000 miles since I replaced the ball joints/my mechanic friend installed them. Did he not torque them to spec is he an a hole. I’m going to replace the passenger ball joint just for good measure but man that was scary and could have been really bad.

 

Should have been torqued to spec along with some lock tite put on the threads to keep from backing out or vibrating lose.

 

Just fix them both , move on and find a new mechanic .

 

He prob. forgot to go back and torque them.

Precisely why I don't torque. Less chance to mess up.

 

This must be a problem where things don`t rust .

I have a habit of putting Never Seize on every thing.

Might have been they got distracted never finished getting that side tight this tends to happen with wheels quite often

 

say what now??

 

Stay with OEM parts for this area, new bolts, lock tite, torque, you will be good

 

I had an alignment shop not torque my passenger side lower control arm cam alignment nuts. The front nut went missing and the rear one was super loose. The only thing keeping the front bolt and the control arm in place was my skid plate.

All this happened in Mexico 700 miles from the nearest Toyota dealer. and the US/MX border. I found a new nut at an agricultural supply store and bought two. I used one as a normal bolt and the other as to lock the 1st one. My alignment was so bad I had to rotate my tires after 300 miles and they were destroyed after 700.

My lesson is I routinely check all my bolts with a torque wrench and I always use thread locker. Before I'd usually use thread locker and torque once when I put a bolt in. Funny thing is I do all my own wrenching except alignment.

 

Right??? I don’t understand that one.

 

Thanks that’s the plan thanks. I’m picking up OEM ball joints today and some red lock tight lol.

 

If you used an AutoZone ball joint setup then I would swap that out for OEM ball joints as soon as you can. Those AutoZone ones are trash and you'll end up in the same predicament (lower ball joint falling apart) in much less time than before.

Those parts stores LBJs are good to have as spares if you need to get yourself home but long term I would only use OEM.

Also, I think it's unlikely that a mechanic forgot to tighten the lower ball joints. The torque spec for LBJs is something like 57 ft/lbs which isn't that much, even if he did it by hand he probably would have put more than enough torque on them.

The bolts are known to break on lesser quality ball joint setups (non-OEM) so if he put in something aftermarket then that could be why they failed. Or maybe he didn't put locktite on them like is suggested.

 

happened to me with my rear diff drain plug, got lucky I finger threaded it on and realized it a couple days later, only lost a little bit of gear oil.

 

three ugga duggas

 

Yeah not much rust in CO and AZ but I moved to California a year and a half ago and surface rust is everywhere. I just orders a bunch of Eastwood rust prevention and sealant treatment to get on top of it.

That’s what I’m thinking he just got distracted all the bolts were loose. I’m gonna locktight everything down and torque spect tighten the whole front end today to check.

 

The old ones are OEM new ones will be too. What do you mean 555?

 

I think I remember when this happened to you. You posted it here (a little over a year ago) if I'm not mistaken.

Or someone else did... It's the reason I have a spare set of alignment bolts in ny truck box.

 

I really wouldn't suggest red locktite... Blue is the way to go with these. I guess red wouldn't hurt persé, but red requires heating up for removal.

 

ya I've always used blue when reinstalling the LBJ bolts after changing out the CV axles, never had any issue with the bolts. Torque to 60 ft/lbs and done

 

Ok, I'm all for not using Auto Zone ball joints, but the bolts falling out doesn't sound like it has anything to do with them not being OEM quality. Unless the autozone bolts were ALL completely defective, which is doubtful, even with auto zone quality...

I did have an issue with bolts that were too short (that was on me), and the 1st thread or so in the spindle stripped out. I was able to clean the threads, get proper length bolts and reinstall to torque no problem.

OP: did the bolts break off, or were they completely missing? I would inspect the threads in your spindles, too.

If the bolts broke, there'd be remnants in the spindle.

 

555 is a "brand" made in Japan. 555 is the closest to being the same quality as OEM as you can get without being OEM. Pretty much everything on a 555 lower ball joint is the same as OEM except inside the actual ball/joint.

The actual joint doesn't seem to last as long as OEM but they are a reasonably safe alternative to OEM as long as you perform proper maintenence to your vehicle.

http://www.lowrangeoffroad.com/1995-5-2004-toyota-tacoma-4x4-lower-ball-joints-made-in-japan.html



Edit... I'm saying "OEM" meaning "actual Toyota part"