yeah, i was trying to find the Sewell discount code, but couldnt find it anymore. and the old one hasnt been working in a long long time.

 

There's no special Sewell discount code you have to enter. You just have to sign up/register on their website and select Club Lexus forum member. That will ensure that you get the CL discount when you purchase items from Sewell.

 

just got my ball joints replaced....one thing I noticed is that the steering wheel is much smoother to operate. Especially when I come out of a turn, the steering wheel smoothly goes back into position, where as before, I had to literally force it back into position. Going to get the tension rods installed this weekend, then go for the alignment

 

The steering wheel not going back to center by itself is what began to happen on my old gs about 2 weeks before the ball joint finally gave.

 

noticed a creeking/clicking sound as i was turning out of the parking lot. funny thing is it only lasted for about 15 minutes then i could'nt duplicate the issue. having read all the close calls that some of you have experienced, i was pretty nervous since i do have three small children on board at times so i had the ball joints, outer tie rods, and rack and pinion (steering rack) bushings replaced for peace of mind. so glad i had it done! steering response is much quicker and tighter with little to no vibration at all... thankfully, car still drives straight and steering wheel appears to be in-line so no alignment needed...

 

Are all replacement ball joints created equal? Which are the best and which should I stay away from?

 

Man mine clunk when backing up out of my driveway, i need to replace them theyre just sitting in my tool box.

 

You usually get what you pay for but I wouldn't go as far as buying from the dealer. Get Moog and you'll be fine.
You better get on it before you end up having to waste money on a tow. If you have the right tools, it's not that hard.

 

Definitely going to get on it in a day or two max. My tires are perfectly balanced and im getting vibes and wheel drift left and right. Those suckers and my tie rods are loose.

 

My car collapsed as I was making a u-turn and having turned the wheel all the way left, was stranded for 4 hours and had to get it towed fairly far back home to my mechanic.

More importantly, I had 2 children in the back and am questioning the integrity of my car once fixed.

I changed both lower ball joins 2 years ago! Is this a 2 year thing now? wtf.

pics to come shortly, once I figure out how to upload them here

pic1

 

I may be in the same fix as you so I ordered new lower ball joints, tie rods and polyurethane steering rack bushings from Sewell Lexus. ANyone here change that stuff in your garage? Special tools/skills/advise needed? I am good with wrenches and sockets.

 

Wheew awesome info on the joints! GS4 With 85k I'm changing mine asap.. Thanks guys!

 

X2

plus 2 months ago (20000km) my alignment shop told me everything looked new nice and tight no worries.

I have 230000 km, looked like a lexus original but the 1 previous owner before me always had work done at the dealer.

I was lucky that mine gave out in my inlaws drive way. For those that have this pop out somewhere where you can take the wheel off with out other cars hitting you, like a parking lot, its not that hard to save towing. I jacked the car up, took the wheel off. popped the baljoint back in place in its hole. took a chain around the lower and upper arms which passes easy without obstruction. I tightend the two links with a bolt nut and 2 washers so it was not loose. put the wheel and lowered the car. You can turn the wheels easy and I drove it away taking it easy. I can post pics if nessary and someone interested.

I wouldn't recomend going very far or very fast but probably would get you too the next garage or home.

changing the ball joint took 20 min to get old one out. I'll have the new one from carquest for 95$ with a grease nipple and garenteed for life later today.

 

I didn't read through the whole thread, so I'm not sure if this has been asked already.

If it's the OEM balljoint that fails, if you replace it with OEM won't it also break catastrophically in time? I guess I want to know if other brands of balljoints would suffer the same fate. I kinda want to pinpoint whether it's only the OEM balljoint that does this. If so, then it wouldn't make sense for me to use OEM balljoints. I know that some people would chime in saying that parts break down thru time. But I just don't accept that a part breaks so catastrophically. I would think that if there is a part on or in our cars that breaks like this and the car maker knew about it, that they would put a warning or a bulletin to ensure that the balljoints get replaced within a certain time frame.

Just wanted to share my thoughts as I'm contemplating using non-OEM brand.

 

please go back and read through the thread man.....