DzaztrBUSE

So Im leaving work to head out to Bredemann Lexus to have my guy change the front ball joints and not even 10 ft out of the parking spot i go PLUNK! Front right side down. All the way down. Now he told me that they needed to be changed, hence me getting them prior to taking it to him, and called him and said its either the coil or ball joints. Told him that it grinded when I tried to move it and said it might be the knuckle grinding on either the wheel or something.

Questions: Anyone ever had this happen to them? I know its not the axle or anything because the wheel is still pretty much in place. My friend is bringing his tow truck tonight to take it to the shop. Any input is highly appreciated.

BLAZE

iTrader: (2)

Luckily u weren't going faster. Balljoint's ..............nothing else but u already know. You never know when they can let out. Luckily u weren't hurt.

mole

iTrader: (3)

I keep hearing about it happening lately. My guy told me that mine are fine, I'm only at 45K miles so I think I am safe, but I asked him to take another look this weekend since he'll be under there... i'm a bt paranoid.

I had the same experience once with an old CRX, I went to my mechanics shop on a saturday morrning to have the timing belt done, he flakes, and on the way home from somewhere else that day, the damn thing breaks. After much money trying to rebuild the engine, I traded it in barely running...

never went back to the guy ever again since he was such a flake...

JeffTsai

iTrader: (1)

With all of the 2GS ball joints going out on people that are approaching 100-120K miles. I don't think it will be long until something serious happens to someone. Especially someone oblivious to the cars inner workings and fails to replace the balljoints at the specified intervals. I think the GS is one of the few cars that has a balljoint design that will allow the car to hit the ground when it fails(I know people with Camry's that are driving 250k+ still running on original suspension!). Hopefully Lexus will release some kind of TSB or warning before that something bad happens to someone.

400 Degrez

Yea this happen to me almost a month ago I went ahead and replaced the tie rods and BJ when my car crashed to the ground I must have torn a wheel sensor or something because all of the vsc abs lights are on you need to jack the car up first... Personally if the car is in a lot where you can change them do them yourself I would do that.......When I had my car towed the guy had to jack my car up then kinda reassemble it then he pulled it.

StockGS400

Man that's crazy. . . hearing all these stories made me put in the order for the ball joints so I can get them changed out already

UberNoob

damn
lexus should do a recall on these things

would u guys recommend that these be replaced at 60k? or at 90k?

LazyAlex

is there a way to tell if your ball joints are going out? and how much are they to replace?

Lyrical

iTrader: (8)

I went to the dealer the other day and they said my ball joints were going out...
I than went to another shop and asked them to check out the suspension, specifically the ball joints. They said they were fine and I shouldn't worry about it.

Cars at 135k.

Should I get another opinion?

How can you tell if they're going bad??

GSteg

iTrader: (15)

It's your ABS sensor. I think Jefftsai had a DIY on how to fix it.

GSteg

iTrader: (15)

go to another dealer. The dealer should know the amount of play there should be (ideally zero) The maximum amount of play allowed is: 0.9mm (0.035inches). Test this yourself. Jack up your car and put it on jackstands. Take out the wheel and then lift up the rotor assembly (lexus says you need 66lbs of upward force to move it). If it moves quite a bit, then replace your joints. If it doesn't move, then you're fine. But bring it to the dealer. A local mechanic may not be able to measure the play.

LazyAlex

to make sure..these are the front LOWER ball joints?

UDel

It angers me hearing about all these ball joint failures and needing replacing with the GS, it is pretty much every day I see another story with lower ball joints problems on this site or on other sites with the 2nd Gen GS. Your lucky DzaztrBUSE that you were not driving faster and you were not injured or killed, hopefully it did not cause too much damage. It is a little odd that the day you go they fail after hearing the mechanic say they need replacing. I would take it somewhere else and see if there is any evidence they were tampered with. If I were you I would immediately call Lexus corporate and tell them about what happend as well as all the other people with ball joint problems and demand they do something about it.

Lexus needs to do more then just issue a TSB or warning about this. They need to re-engineer the lower ball joints so they are strong enough to last the life time of the car and replace them free of charge to 2nd Gen GS owners. This is not like door actuator failures which is another issue Lexus should address where it is more of an annoyance and the worst that can happen is your car getting broken into but something where someone is eventually going to get seriously injured or killed from a problem that is just being ignored. I can't believe they engineered the suspension so that if the lower ball joints fail then the car is no longer supported and the nose crashes down causing a accident and destroying suspension pieces and then the ball joints barely last 100K miles with some going out well before that. The worst thing is that alot of mechanics say the ball joints are fine from just looking at them or perform a test but when they are actually taken off for inspection they are found to be bad. Most mechanics do not want to take the ball joints off to inspect them and a few have told me you can end up damaging them by taking them off and then putting them back on so it is a difficult problem to diagnose.

We always put well over 100K miles on my families cars and we have never had any kind of ball joint problems, a few have had well over 200K miles and never needed ball joints or other suspension pieces replaced. I just read about a recent recall with the Tundra and Sequoa with the lower ball joints being defective so it seems Toyota is having a problem with their ball joints and is aware. This should not be happening to our GSs from a company like Lexus and they need to do the right thing and address the problem instead of ignoring it. I think I am going to give Lexus corporate a call and see if they are aware of this problem and what they are going to do about it and if they are not aware they need to check out web sites as well as talk to owners and mechanics.

DzaztrBUSE

Well I initially asked him about installing my coilovers (whenver I get the damn things) and asked if he would be able to do it. He asked if the suspension was already out and told him about a slight clunking noise i would hear. He said it might be the front ball joints. I can tell everyone this, my steering did feel ALOT stiffer. It almost feels as if your power steering is out. After a turning onto a street my steering wheel would not straighten itself out like it usually does.

GET THEM REPLACED. Im only at 105k or so. Youre better off paying the $130 or so for and either you or a mech installing then having this happen to you.

Yes sir.

Yeah I was probably going 1-2 mph. Literally riding the brake. It would have been alot worse if I would have gotten everybody in my car for a meeting earlier in the day than ride in my co-workers car.
As far as the tech I know him personally. When he was changing the fluids he told me "dude you should know that that sound youre hearing from might be the ball joints. They are known to go bad on these things." Inspects the ball joints "yeah yours are going real soon". He didnt fiddle with anything. I know what youre talking about though. I am dealing with the states atty because a shop has swindled my parents out of some loot. Got them to replace the enging on our mazda millenia at their cost. Good looking out though.

As far as a recall I doubt that would happen. Call corporate and see what they say. Maybe if we make enough noise we can start something. I dont know too much about that stuff though. Leep us posted.

Well I was hurt a little. Just feeling and hearing the knuckle ride the rim hurt me a lil.

I think by 90k they should be stressed. I think anyone with experience with these vehicles should be proactive and suggest they get replaced.

Below is a pic of her going to the clinic.

Black_GS

So, it's kinda like we (and families/relatives) are driving on a Baghdad street with IED's waiting to be exploded ...

I put the link here so that we all can email Lexus:
http://lexus2.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/l...nduser/ask.php

Put the link to this thread in your email so that they know how worried we are. If bad thing does happen to some of us (of course I hope not), then we have some grounds for legal purposes.