Toyota Dealer:~ ball joint leaking grease, requires immediate attention!

Just judging from the picture, that does not look to be "salted" with something like WD40; looks like a slow seepage that attracted grit/dust.

 

Beyond my knowledge level (duffer).

 

Replace individually as needed (no requirement to do both sides etc)

Very common to see right side fail first in any make/model (USA, that's the curb side with more potholes)

$300 isn't unreasonable at a dealer, but a ball joint is generic 70s tech, any neighborhood garage can do that and most of them have lower overhead than a Toyota dealer. Shop around.

I tend to go by noise but the other factor is alignments. Sometimes you just can't align the car, it keeps drifting out minutes later until somebody realizes how sloppy the ball joint is. That can also show up in extra tire wear in very bad cases.

Doesn't look like an emergency to me, but a static photo is only half the picture. The real test is when you lay a prybar across it and pull and wiggle. A good one won't move, a bad one shows play. With yours the seal boot has clearly failed, the grease is out, the joint will go bad on an accelerated timeline now, but you might not be there yet.

Good luck!

 

No emergency there that's a doing your side yard job with basic hand tools and a hammer but if we're not into that any job shop should do it I wouldn't think they would charge you $300 but that depends on location here where I am in North Carolina I could get somebody to do that for a hundred bucks maybe a buck 50.

 

It appears to be weeping. As grease ages, the oil separates from the solids and moves past the rubber contact boundry with the metal part of the ball joint's housing. The joint is still lubricated by the remaining solids. That is nornmal with ball joint seals that old. I'd clean the area and monitor it. If it doesn't wiggle when a Channellock plier is applied to it, I wouldn't worry about it and inspect them again at 6 months intervals.

 

Have the joint inspected for looseness maybe once a year. Replace only if there is wear and looseness. Otherwise ignore it.

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

The oil in the grease has separated and is weeping out. The solids of the grease is still lubricating the joint and preventing metal to metal contact.

The metal that you see is not the wear surfaces or working contact surfaces of the ball joint. You will not see the contacting surfaces exposed.

 

There's nothing in the photo to support this. In fact there's no reasonable way to take a picture to support that claim.

I'd write it off to dramatic interpretation and let it go. How long are you going to own this car? In a practical sense the calendar for replacing that part just changed from "maybe never" to "within 24 months" based on the torn boot/grease leak by itself.

EDIT: in Mass? ok maybe only 12-18 months as you have both annual inspections and salty winters.

 

It's a sales technique to lighten your wallet.

 

Where in Mass?
Cape, North Shore, South Shore?
Fwiw, people that live "smell distance" away from the ocean, do often experience "rather accelerated" deterioration of parts.
If you can smell the salt in the air, then..... there's salt in the air , and that salt is also beating the crud out of everything on your property.


Imho, 90% of the dealerships in Mass Suck *******.
Fwiw, in America, now ??~80%?? of the dealerships are actually owned by conglomerates. Similar to how Jordan's Furniture is now owned by a conglomerate.
At a dealership, often the Service Department provides ~~70%-85% of a dealership's profits.
Since most dealerships are owned by conglomerates, getting service, and buying a car, can suck.

But, that's not saying that any independent, or National chain, is going to be better. :-|

If you're near Boston, then, I suggest Wellsley Toyota. They are still person/family owned, and very customer oriented.
Fwiw, they are also in a Niche position, because there in the highest average income area in Mass, and have a lot of rather well off clients, who buy new cars often, and get regular service/checks.
Still, they treat everyone the same. They prosper through their reputation.


A very good video to watch is below:
Btw, there is some other video on youtube, where there was a bad ball joint on a Toyota car (?~180K miles?). So, Toyota car ball joints do go bad - just very rarely.

Toyota Steering and Suspension Guide Part 2 : Control arms and Ball joints
Aug 28, 2020
The Car Care Nut
Start at ~12:30

Code:

https://youtu.be/GSMIWrNuKsk?t=750
Toyota Steering and Suspension Guide Part 2 : Control arms and Ball joints
Aug 28, 2020
The Car Care Nut

Good Luck!

 

I'm just outside the city of medicine Durham North Carolina home of Duke University. Come on down y'all we'll fix your right up matter of fact the part sitting right here on the floor brand new in the box no kidding

 

......

 

Yeah I know they asked. I'm not scared everybody knows where I am. No biggie at all

 

I have wetlands behind my house, and it's not uncommon for my backyard to be soaked in the Spring.
My cars can see similar/worse damage than the cars owned by friends and family eyesight away from the ocean.
Imho, GM cars are the worse.

When I was in school, I was fortunate to have friends/family in small businesses. Such as a local service garage, national chain service garage, local pharmacy, and national chain pharmacy.
That's why people will see my both brutally bash companies/professionals, and massively defend companies/professionals.

Most dealer mechanics are very good. But, most is not all. Plus, the mechanics can be aggressively pushed by management to push things like the scam ball-joint replacements. Of course, local management is very aggressively pushed by the conglomerate execs to push things like ball joint replacements, and to increase profit from the Service Center. Again, the Service Center is often over 75% of the profits.

Many local companies try to survive by being very customer oriented, and having a good reputation.
Imho, it fails more often than it works. So, local companies can result in being bigger scam artists - just to survive.

When I have time, I try to respond to some harder/non-black/white threads. Especially when there can be other not so obvious factors - like location/use/etc.


Thanks for the info on the shop in Lawrence!
Weaselly is closer to where I live and work. But, it's good to know of a good non-dealership (Cheaper! ), in case of a big/expensive non-warranty repair.