Are you sure it's coming from the ball joint and not leaking Onto the ball joint?

 

good question, ill have to check! I do have an oil leak.. but it does look like grease coloring in the middle... the ball joint itself is still working ok

 

Replacement OEM parts are not expensive

 

Easy and inexpensive to replace.

 

I exchanged mine on my 1995 with OEM after 100k miles. They were actually in ok shape with no slop after 20 years.
But... If you are really safety concious the lower ball joint are scary if they go. Not certain that you get much warning. I have seen scary slop that was not obvious when driving.
And ***** on other car makes that had snapped straight of probably due to earlier curb encounter weakening it.
When it is exchanged.. Rubber boot slides against the lower suspension arm with a rubber lip when you turn steering wheel.
I made mating surface smoth and clean and well greased when I put in the new parts to not wear the lip down quickly.

 

I paid 140 w/ tax for both of mine from Bell Lexus in Scottsdale, they also have an online eBay store with some of the best prices for OE parts....worth it to me for such a critical suspension part.

 

So I guess OEM then maybe second moog? What about beck arnley LBJ, anyone have any luck w/those? I had horrible luck w/the upper ball joint from Beck Arnley, went bad after 5000 miles, got a warranty replacement but threw it in the closet, and got a junk yard one in good shape.

 

The important thing to also consider is the quality of the rubber they use for the boot. I bought my 97' in Oct 2015 w/ 253k and even 18 years later, the OEM Lexus rubber boots were still sealed, holding in the grease that was packed in there. They were only worn out with about a 1/4-1/2" of vertical play/slop in the joint which warranted replacement and were noticeably sagged compared to the new OEM LBJs. Not to mention, you'll still retain all your factory hardware and sizes of the nuts. That part frustrates me the most when aftermarket companies use SAE sized nuts/bolt on an originally Metric sized fastener.

 

Yah I guess nothing beats OEM for a ball joint. I'm going to start buying a few OEM ones to store when I find them cheap , getting harder to find oem parts as these cars age.