I bought a 2000 GS 300 about two months ago and replaced the brakes and rotors. I noticed one of the tires was wearing abnormally. My trusted mechanic showed me I need two lower ball joints on the car. It only has 70K on it and I found this very unusual for a Lexus. Does it sound like this car has been abused? I already spent a bit on brakes and rotors I hate to keep spending money on a car that will continue to have problems. It looks clean but these small problems appear to keep appearing. Thanks.

Ryan

 

Nope, not abnormal. Go to the suspension section and there is a post on some new Daizen bushings that are being released. When I was getting my car aligned I noticed the cracking of mine. Very normal for the GS cars on here.

 

I wonder if the ball joint problem is more likely to occure on lowered suspension and oversized wheels/low-profile tires....or this occurs just as often on the stock GS.

 

very common on gs with 60k and up. Also check your control arms, castor arms and tie rods.
new bushing kit is out so you may want to try using the "AMAZING SEARCH TOOL"

 

On my 98 gs3 after some time the balljoints, lost grease being that they're sealed from the factory i thought this strange, 15 dollars later and grease added problem was fixed... Allthough my problem was the popping (metal on metal ehh, ehh, ehh, ehh) not the same issue but to someone curious about their balljoints, this could be put tp use. Tends to happen after long highway drives and setting after-cooler weather doesnt help.