Lately, i have been noticing some slight poping while back im backing up. Its just started to show up. I checked the steering ends and they are tight without any play. I went out and looked at things again and noticed the drivers side ball joint is leaking grease, so i jacked up the tire to check for play. There is not any in any direction. Is it anything i need to worry about? How hard is this to fix. The PO had the ball joint replaced warrenty or recall all i know is they were replaced back in july 206. Here are a couple pics, drivers side and passenger.

Driver

Pass

 

27 bucks a pop at toyota of dallas, you can rent a tool at autozone to get them out. thats what i am going to be doing sometime soon.

 

alright so it is shot and needs to be replaced. How long can i go without fixing it? Can it wait till January?

 

Just because the boot is leaking, doesn't necessarily mean that the balljoint is shot. It depends how long it's been leaking, whether or not there's still grease in there, whether dirt or water got in there, etc... If the joint is still tight, then you should be fine until January. What I'm getting at is that's not necessarily the source of your noise... it could be, but maybe not. See if you can get a grease gun (with a needle tip) to put some more grease in the joint, and see if the noise goes away. Might be a good test for you to do.

If the PO had balljoints replaced due to a recall, it was probably the lower balljoints... not the upper ones. I don't remember any upper balljoint recall on the 2002 4Runner. Good luck.