Same thing happen to me pulling in my driveway. They just gave out. The lower ball joint gave out and landed on the inside of my rim. Could not move the car. Really sucked. Had 130k on my car.

Same for me, slightly less miles. Pulled into a driveway to make a u-turn, turned wheel all the way left, and pop, onto the rim and drove maybe a quarter turn, so can clearly see the inner groove mark it left. Then waited 2 hours for a tow.

Hey CL. I have a 2001 GS 430. it hs roughly right now about 84,529 miles to be exact. I sometimes hear this kind of rusty knocking noise in the front. its random. Sometimes parked, sometimes turning at a corner, etc. I'm meticulous when it comes to this car. I need advice non which lower ball joints and outer tie rods I should buy. Should I get it from Sewell Lexus parts or get the aftermarket MOOG brand from my local AAP? Please, can someone give me some advice. I heardvery good things about MOOG. I know its not OEM quality but I've used them on my Honda and its been almost 4 years. No probs at all. On the other hand,I was reading about Lexus bll joints in a thread a few moths back, and the guy suggested using MOOG and that Lexus ball joints have a tendency to mess up early. :-/. Please, any advice? I wanna do this ASAP just not sure what o go with....


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I have a 2000 GS300 with 181,000k miles on it ..Question, I need to replace my upper control arms, price about $1500, compression rod, etc, no failure yet.... Is it worth it to fix it with that many miles?

1st. Lower ***** (Joint) make sure it still intached LOL, 2nd. Caster Arms (also known as lower control arm #2 or S-arms) and 3rd. spend sometime skimming thru the forum. Lot of info in here. And lastly (4th), welcome to the clunker club

Noelee. search for Moog aftermarket. I heard they are pretty good and am thinking going with this route. Lower ball joinst and S-arm should be OEM parts. Other can be aftermarket, etc ROCA-USA control arm can be found on Ebay. (Moog made in Japan, 555)

@GS714 thanks for the warm welcome, lol! Yes, my neighbor works for infinity, and will do the work, for no labor charge thank gosh. We did put my car up and didn't notice the lower control arms, it was the uppers that seemed to be bad, and looking at all the posts, looks a if I should do both upper and lower, any way..So is it worth it to fix with that many miles, or, time to get a new car?

I saw car like us can last to and over 300K miles EZ on cars.com. It is your call.

@GS714 you still selling yours?

I too hear a knocking sound when i turn my wheel to the right and also when i slow down to a stop. Would this be the ball joints you guys are refering too? By the way, the GS has over 200k miles so I def need to change them out.

Yep ball joints and definitely the lower #2 control arm bushings! Fix them ASAP or god forbid they break on you.
BTW: dont forget the inner/outer tire rods, steering rack bushings, and sway bar end links

Just went thru this, heard some weird noises and put it up on the jacks in the garage, pry bar under the tire definitely showed movement... 2004 gs430 with 120k miles.... I went and replaced the entire A-Arms with all new connection points, it was a little more than just buying all the parts, but it was easier to do the whole piece rather then pull and press everything in WOW, it's like a new car! Since around 10k miles there was always a bit of wandering on the highway.... dealer said it's fine... !@#$%^&*(().... Know i'm a bit pissed at them... but what a ya gonna do...

Glad to hear all went well with your car. It's amazing what new parts do for our cars makes you have the giddy felling of when you buy a new car all over again right?...

im getting a lot of noise out of my ball joints...was thinking about just getting new outters with ball joints from auto zone (duralast) .....just curious if this is a good way to go, and whether i should replace anything else...i have a 03 GS300 with 107k on it....im gonna take the front wheels off and look around to see if there is any other signs of wear...but i really want to get rid of this cracking noise so i dont break them....anybody who can chime in thank you...ive read the ***** out of this thread but i want some reassurance...thanks boys

Most likely going to be your tie rod ends or lower ball joints. Don't wait, very dangerous to drive that way. I just replaced my driver side tie rod end bought from auto zone. Way cheaper than dealer and the warranty it for life. I didnt buy through deal because of all the problem with these cars I figured I get the same problem again. Good luck

Glad I took to looking at this thread. My wife has a 2000 GS400 with 155,000 miles. Off this coming week, so I am getting the timing belt replaced before it goes out!! Local shop will do it for $800 bucks, incl. water pump. And I might as well go ahead and take a look at her front suspension, as we seem to hear creaks and cracking noises when we drive it. Clunks as well!!