So I'm driving home from work, going about 65mph when my front passenger side drops with a loud bang, my '97 Taco (2 wheel drive v6) tugs to the right, and I see sparks and smoke flying from the wheel well. I pull over as quickly and safely as I can, thinking I blew a tire. I get out, ready to swap the wheel with my spare, when I see this:


That's... Not normal. Also, I noticed the lugnuts are still all in place, so the wheel didn't just fall off, there's something else going on here. I peek behind the wheel and see this:


Now I'm no mechanic. I honestly have no clue what I'm looking at, but I can tell that it isn't what your average American driver would call "good".

Now this is a relatively new-to-me truck. I bought her back in October with only about 80k miles on her odometer. I've put about 16k on her since, with a few oil changes thrown in there and a new set of tires back in December, but that's it for what work I've done. The truck has a good maintenance record and the only major modification is a 1.5 (I think) inch lift at some point. The truck has only been driven on clean, salt-free California roads its entire life, and I had it inspected for rust shortly after I bought it, which came back clean.

So my questions to the very able folks here are:
1) What the hell happened?
2) Is it fixable and how much will it cost?
3) How do I keep this from happening again?

 

Wow! Looks like the upper or lower ball joint failed and took the other one with it.
is it stock suspension?
definitely fixable. You will probably want to replace ball joints on the driver’s side before they fail.

 

Hard to say for sure, but 90% (to make up a number) chance the lower ball joint failed, taking out the upper. Google or search this site for lower ball joint failure. It's a serious flaw in how the first couple generations of Tacomas were built. First thing I did when I bought my truck was replace the lower ball joints. Definitely replace the lower ball joint on the other side.

 

Not sure about the suspension. Like I mentioned, at some point a slight lift was added, but I'm not sure what sort of work that entails.

​​​​​​​The tow driver did mention seeing this before, but usually only in the 4wd models though. I'll definitely look into replacing all the ball joints though!

 

Sadly lower ball joint failure is a common weak point on these trucks. It is a poor design that has the joint under tension and separates away when it fails as opposed to failing into capture.

most of us have now put LBJs on a maintenance regimen at the 60-80k mile mark.

 

Happened to both front wheels (several years apart) on my 2000 4wd. Fortunately it was moving very slowly each time.

 

Sorry about that O.P. There is a recall on certain years.

Found this on NHTSA site:
https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/rcl/200...5V225-6542.pdf
"During the manufacturing process, there is a possibility that the surface of the ball portion of the Front Suspension Ball Joint in your vehicle may have been scratched. "
THIS^^^ exact statement is B.S. The root cause of this problem is the design that puts the LBJ under tension as shown below
Scratches may cause looseness and play but if LBJ were under compression like other designs, it will not PULL APART.
Therefore, the recall should not only apply to certain years but to all vehicles where the LBJ is under tension.

Did ball pull out of the socket or did the stud break?

THIS^^^
Unfortunately, Toyota downplayed this problem, and obviously did a poor job informing customers, that's why many are not aware of this until it happens. Its recall blamed it on "scratches during manufacture". When in fact it is bad design where LBJ is under pulling forces, that's why it was changed back to ball-joint under compression on next gen.
To clarify:
On earlier gens with torsion bar, upper ball joint that supports most of vehicle weight is under compression. IF it wears, it would have play but is not likely to pull apart.


On first-gen Tacoma, 3rd-gen 4Runners (the "Swoosh" generation) and other models of that era, LBJ that supports most of vehicle weight is under tension; Forces pulling it apart. Lip could fail and ball falls out of socket or the main stud itself breaks.


On succeeding models, lower ball joint now is under compression, like gens with torsion bar:



Cross-section:

O.P. Did ball pull out of socket or did stud break?

 

Sadly, mine is too old for that. The recall is only for 2000-2004, I believe.

I didn't get a good look before it got towed off, but based on the pictures I took, I'd say the stud broke. I'll ask the mechanic tomorrow when I pick it up.

 

In the photos it does look like the stud broke.

My truck had 189,000 miles when I bought it, and replaced the lower joints. I'm at 275,000 now. Guess it's time to start thinking about this again.

 

Common ball joint failure on these years

 

Thanks @RAD4runner, this is incredibly useful info. I have nearly 200k on my 99 4Runner with oversized tires and now plan to replace the ball joints even though they seem to have held up fine all this time.

 

This has happened to my 4wd, 2000 Tacoma TWICE. Each time the truck was moving pretty slowly in a remote area without cell signal. The second time, I'd had a mechanic check the ball joints only 10,000 miles prior to the failure. The most recent time it cost me about $1,100 to get back on the road again.

 

Is this like, 4 times now?

J/K

 

I'll have to pay more attention to what I've said in the past. Fortunately I didn't change my story. LOL

 

It's OK, one of the posts was probably your clone.

 

are the ball joint sets from 1a auto any good? a set only costs $65, whereas a oem set would be triple that

 

With anything as critical as the lower ball joints on these trucks, I would only use Genuine Toyota Parts.

 

My life, others', and my truck are worth more than $130 plus tax and shipping.

 

I would not recommend 1A Auto parts. I bought a front end set for my charger and within 5k miles the lower control arm bushings had tears and separated from the metal. They are cheap knock offs.

 

Good for you asking about brand reliability. Price isn't exactly the deciding factor, unless you're looking at prices from the same distributor.

A lot of people like Moog, which is what I used to rebuild my front end. Currently on my '98 4x4 the prices are:

MOOG K90255 Ball Joint (upper, both) $26.48 (Amazon) $24.79 (RockAuto) $54.99 (O'Reilly)
MOOG K90258 Ball Joint (lower, left ) $49.20 (Amazon) $45.79 (RockAuto) $79.88 (O'Reilly)
MOOG K90259 Ball Joint (lower right ) $49.19 (Amazon) $46.79 (RockAuto) - Apparently O'Reilly won't sell this one

Of course, if you let a mechanic buy it for you, expect a 25%-75+% markup on the parts price (even though they get a discount from their distributor)