What's a good way to understand the condition of my lower and upper ball joints?

The truck is new to me and I've read about the notorious lower ball joint issue on here quite a bit. I checked my lowers and they don't seem like they are in bad shape. the uppers have broken boots and some grease has escaped. Neither of them are making any strange noises. I do have the typical front end squeak but I believe that is from my control arm bushings and possible sway bar bushings.

How can I assess the condition of my ball joints? Previous owner says they were replaced. I checked the VIN and saw the LBJ recall was performed by a dealer at 40,530 miles. I don't know if they were replaced again while in the previous owners possession or the previous owner to him.

Service record shows:
RECALL CAMPAIGN ~|~CUSTOMER STATES THEY RECEIVED THE OPEN RECALL LETTER FOR THE 50J BALL JOINT REPLACEMENT. PLEASE PERFORM. ~|~SERVICE CAMPAIGN. ~|~REPLACED LOWER BALLJOINTS I.A.W. SSC 50J

 

If you are in doubt, just replace them. I’m sure you’re going to see another ball joint oem vs non-oem war, but just get what you feel fits your budget and gives you piece of mind.

Oems considered the “best”, but IMO the jury is still out on if they are really that much better (for the cost) than a high quality aftermarket like moog or 555. I ran moogs for 6 years and they were fine. Currently running 555’s. Just don’t get the $20 store brand... lol

 

Mine look fine, the previous owner just replied to me saying he changed them. So they probably have no more than 60000 miles on them. The uppers are in seemingly good shape besides the boot.

 

555 is the worst, I put some on my truck and I died. If I had went with OEM, I'd still be alive right now.

But seriously, just replace them if you suspect them. Moogs are ~$40 ea on rock auto, OEM's are $100 ea through camelback. OEM's are better and last longer, but how much better and how much longer is debatable, whether they are worth the cost is up to you.

Oh, also, the way to check them is to jack the truck up, wedge a prybar between the tire and the ground, and lift it up. If there is any movement in the joint, they are bad. Here's a video illustrating it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62bVn7E8gyk

 

I guess that's my issue. I don't suspect the lowers, and the uppers just have a small crack that some grease leaked out of. So really I don't suspect anything I really just want to understand the signs of a ball joint wearing out so I can know what to look for.

 

Unfortunately, there is no practical metric to tell if the ball joint itself is wearing out. The specified maximum allowable movement in an OEM joint is 0.020", which you will barely be able to see with the naked eye. Using the method shown in the video above will not give you an accurate idea of play in the joint unless you are very lucky and catch it just before it's about to go anyway.
The best thing you can do is check the four M10x1.25 bolts holding the joint to the knuckle on a periodic basis (59 ft-lbs with loctite), and replace the joint every 100k. Whether or not you use an OEM replacement is up you, personally the peace of mind is worth the added cost to me.

 

For the lowers the method MagicMexican mentioned is good.
For the uppers you can just grab the top of the tire and rock in toward the engine and then away pretty hard. Flexing in the tire and the suspension is normal, but if you feel a loose knocking that feels almost like a ball joint hitting opposite sides of a socket (because that's what it is), then that's bad.
I replaced mine at 150K just to be safe.

 

Definitely an 'aha' or 'hmmmm...' moment for me when I read the first half of this. I live in the DC area where we have god awful roads. I try to keep an eye on my front end components. Recently, I've had this clunking up front, and it's driving my crazy because I've done the ball joint test demonstrated in the video (tire rod under the tire and lever up to check for clunking) many times and my front end has always acted innocent!
I think you're pretty accurate with the "unless you're lucky and catch it right before it fails" point. The one in the video was beyond scary.
What do you mean about "check the four bolts" btw? The bolts aren't related to the actual ball joint, they just hold it in place. Are these bolts expected to loosen themselves over time?

 

If you're not beating on your truck and they were torqued to spec possibly with blue thread locker they shouldn't go anywhere. Desert and trail guys will have stuff like this happen, but if you're not in the rust belt or doing serious off roading then they shouldn't be backing themselves out. If the truck is new to you then it's worth a going through with a torque wrench for sure though.

 

And for anyone that wants a good read on these:

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/ball-joints.266989/page-3

 

The bolts that hold the ball joint assembly to the knuckle are also a known point of failure, as they go through constant cyclic loading the same way the joint itself does. As @Dalandser said above, generally that's more of an issue if you wheel your truck, but definitely worth checking.

 

Thanks for the video, VERY informative!

 

Keep in mind, that video is a Ford Ranger, which has a slightly different design. The Tacoma design doesn't have the bottom part, so they won't get as bad, they'll just fall out. That's why fast5speed said the one in the video is beyond scary. Some vehicles will let it get that bad, you'll just get clunking and janky steering as it gets worse and worse, but it won't fail catastrophically. That's why some people says 'oh, my old XXXX vehicle had a bad lower ball joint, and I drove it like that for years!' And then you have people who say 'my Tacoma felt fine then suddenly one day it fell out and I'm so thankful I wasn't on the highway'

 

How's the underworld?

Do they have WiFi down there?

 

Oh, I'm good. I had all the ball joints replaced, when the I lifted my truck and had SPC UCA's installed.

 

I watched a guy on the interstate by me lose his lower ball joint on the drivers side of his 1st gen... scary stuff, definitely reminded me I'm getting close to due for swapping mine out

 

Have an assistant rock the steering wheel back and forth with engine off, while you watch & feel the joints.