Lower ball joint replacement

I took my 2013 tacoma for an oil change this morning as I plan going on a cross country road trip in about a week. The guys working were a bit sketch, and told me I needed to replace the driver's side lower ball joing and arm. I haven't felt any shaking, haven't heard any knocks, or any deviation while driving down the road or on bumps so I'm a bit skeptical.
I took some pictures and noticed a bit of a tear of the rubber surrounding it. Anyone with any experience? Should I just play it safe and replace it? They wanted to charge 550 for it.

 

They are fine for a road trip...just a little leaking.

 

Thank you, Anthony. I know the first gens were known for ball joint issues so it scared me a bit. When do you think would be a good time for replacement?

 

And honestly when it comes down to changing them out, it is actually cheaper just to buy a whole new Lower Control Arm with the Ball Joint already in it.

 

Same thing happened to my passenger side this past summer. Luckily My tacoma was still under warranty. According to the he invoice it was about $900 to for them to replace. It took them about 4 hours to do it since it requires an alignment afterwards.

Apparently you’re fine for a while since it’s just leaking grease, but eventually you’ll have to replace th entire assembly. But in the meantime, just clean the area and pump in some grease.

 

First gens tacos / 3rd gen 4 runner / 1st gen tundra all had the same style of LBJ that was in tension (being pulled apart) by the weight of the vehicle and thus why old ones would catastrophically fail oftenish.

2nd / 3rd gen tacos / 4th n 5th gen 4 runner and latest tundra have a front suspension setup that opposite where the LBJ is in compression (ball being pushed into the cup) so failures wont be nearly as bad.


That stated, your LBJ's look fine, a lil grease weeping but nothing major.

 

Really appreciate the responses