BayAreaLex

Yes, they need to be greased periodically. I try to hit them every 2 or 3 oil changes.

mate01

Whats the procedure as far as greasing them?

BayAreaLex

umm, they have zerk fittings and you hit them with a grease gun

sbagdon

In 33yrs of driving Toyota/Lexus (first was a '77 Corolla SR4 "fastback" in '83), I have never, ever, ever seen a catastrophic failure like this, and that's for at least one car approaching 400k miles. I've seen parts that were useless (sway bar links come to mind, that clunk more then do anything useful), yet a failure like this... ouch.

dreamcar88

iTrader: (1)

Same here and ive been in the business just as long. I am a service writer so i have seen many things. These have signs of wear . People are ignorant they just chose to ignore the signs of failure and this could happen after many miles of neglect. You should have your front end shaken down every oil change for play as well as check all your tires and tie rods etc.. People are car intelligent so just keep a look out for these things. Preventive maintenance goes a long way. The common is brake pads being no existantant or past that stage where the caliper is blown and they just drive around with nothing.. Never seen a ball joint fail and blow into the fender..

BayAreaLex

For the guys that aren't familiar with this, just look at these pics...

There is a reason why the first thing that this forum tells you to do when you buy a used 2GS Lexus is to replace the lower balljoints.

tiguy99

Ouch...that happened on my previous GS300 coming out of a gas station on my way to the shop to have them replaced a few years ago...it was a scary learning lesson.

Before I bought my GS400 this week I made sure the owners replaced the ball joints.

If the sellers had no idea what I was talking about I moved on quickly bc their GS is a nightmare waiting to happen

bruceb58

Why would that be an issue? Buy the car and then replace the ball joints. What am I missing here?

tiguy99

Not doing a back and fourth.
Meant every word I said

SpectraBlu

iTrader: (1)

I change mine once a year. It might be a little excessive, but $40 and a alignment sounds a lot better than a new wheel/tire, fender/fender liner, and possibly my life or someone else's.

sbagdon

Wow... impressive photos. Glad to learn something new today...!


Not sure what to do... a set of oem lower ball joints on eBay is about $135, while the upper control arms are $400+ each. Looks like you can't change the upper ball joint, it's part of the control arm.


There's some very inexpensive eBay auctions for very complete kits... upper, lower, links, etc, for around $200. Are you risking replacing those part in a year?

SpectraBlu

iTrader: (1)

Check out moog brand. You can find them at rockauto.com, Amazon, and a few other places for pretty cheap and they're beefier than oem. The upper control arms/ ball joints aren't as sketchy as the lowers, so you don't need to change them as often as the lower ball joints.

Mcon

iTrader: (1)

100% agree with you.
Chech post # 11. Those are moogs with grease fittings. That is what I use for like 3 or 4 years and I'm very happy with it.

bruceb58

I have no idea what that means.

dreamcar88

iTrader: (1)

ill check it out. thanks guys