Busted ball joints at 20k miles?
#18
Lexus Test Driver
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Yea you can usually tell when the ball joint is done by wiggling the wheel in the 12 o’clock and 6 o’clock position. Testing play in the damn castor arm is nearly impossible. I actually realized it once as I was doing an oil change. The car was on ramps, I was under it, all of a sudden, clunk, and I saw the arm slide up a little. Needless to say, no more clunking.
#19
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I just replaced the front lower ball joints on my car on both sides. Even though the stock ones were still OK to drive on, I could feel a pretty big improvement with this new set of balljoints. The original ones didn't have any play or anything, but it made a pretty noticable difference when I put the new ones on my car. The whole car feels waay more stable and high speed turn-ins are much more precise now. Yes, as you all know I drive my car "hard"
and the stock balljoints were 50% trashed after only 20k miles! I think this is a maintenance item I'm gona do every two years lol.
Anyways, back to my original problem....the clunk is still there, but the frequency of it is much less now. I'm taking it into a shop tomorrow that will diagnose the problem for $40. If they can't figure it out, then they don't charge.
I'm still hoping it's a stupid problem like a loose bolt or something like that. If worse comes to worst, I can just buy the Daizen bushing kit and install the castor arm bushings.
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Anyways, back to my original problem....the clunk is still there, but the frequency of it is much less now. I'm taking it into a shop tomorrow that will diagnose the problem for $40. If they can't figure it out, then they don't charge.
I'm still hoping it's a stupid problem like a loose bolt or something like that. If worse comes to worst, I can just buy the Daizen bushing kit and install the castor arm bushings.
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doodoo
LS - 3rd Gen (2001-2006)
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08-13-14 09:47 AM