So, I went to the shop (normally trustworthy, but starting to suspect not so great at complex stuff) and asked to do alignment. They said they couldn't as lower ball joints were bad. These had in fact been replaced by Toyota about 3000 miles previously (during steering rod recall), so I took it back to Toyota dealership, who looked it all over and said (at pain of owing me a lot of dough if anything goes wrong) all looked fine, and were stumped. Looks fine to me too. Any ideas? This all occurred after putting in new shocks, sway bars, bushings, tires, etc.

 

Why not just have the dealer do it?
I wouldn't trust that shop if they can't tell if a balljoint or anything else is good or bad. LOL

 

I'm with Gonzo, just have the dealer align and you should be good to go, unless we missed something. Is it pulling or drifting that you forgot to tell us.

 

Loose wheel bearings, caused by the spindle lock-nut backing off, will represent as a bad lower ball joint. If you have tools, it's not hard to check if that's the case. However, you'll need a spindle nut socket to tighten it back down. Torques are all specific, don't mess around there, either.

 

Well, the dealer was the one that gave it the re-once-over and swears all is fine with the ball joints, and aligned. What I was interested in is really represented by the last post - i.e. "other stuff" that might be presenting the same way.

 

I was told the same thing when I went for an inspection last year, but upon closer inspection it was indeed determined to be the bearing torque.

You can check the balljoints yourself by jacking the front end up, and holding the wheel at 12, and 6, and attempting to wiggle it. If it wiggles theres an issue.

 

Well, once the thermometer climbs above frozen-solid will check the spindle thingies. I had done the wheel wobble before and was not impressed...