How to check lower ball join play

hello friend how is it going welcome back to toyota maintenance youtube channel new customer new truck 2005 toyota tacoma she's a four-wheel drive and has approximately 180 000 miles she's also new to the owner i believe the story is he just purchased her he bought it out of the state it's a new truck to him she had all worn tires he just purchased a couple days ago brand new these michelin defenders i saw the receipt in the glove box he said there's bunch of service history i can go through it so these four tires were incredible 1200 bucks i can't believe what's happening with the prices in this industry and he wanted align that when i did a test drive the vehicle pulls very slightly to the right in my opinion so he wanted alignment from the same tire company here locally and they said sir we can't align it we find out that the front left ball joint the lower ball joint is bad so here is the quote for replacement and that needs to be done before the alignment he already had appointment with me so didn't replace it yet and that gives us excellent opportunity to show people how they can verify if it's true if somebody tells you you need a replacement or you just wanna check your vehicle even as it sits in your driveway you wanna make sure there's no play there's no possible upper or lower ball joint or wheel bearing and so on so let's go and look at it together and this is what anybody can do in their driveway without having a jack jack stands whatever special tools if this lower ball joint as they claim is bad i need to feel when i will grab it and start moving that wheel i need to feel some give they need to be clicked they need to be clunk or something there need to be some play which won't be normally there we can compare it with the other side so i already tried without you and yes there is a play there is a giver it gives a little bit it's not very obvious but it's there so i will show you what you can do leave your own ego and then as i'm rocking it there and back there is a gift that there is some kind of play not very bad but it's there here you can see the engine he had the mice and there is still nice stuff right there in that one grf he had the nice chunks of my stuff he had no idea it was everywhere look at this that was in the cabin air filter the pipe this pipe was basically plucked with that mice activity it was on the back of this i vacuum it but i looked through and there are holes in it that was really crazy nice house this truck let's go look on this side and i will do it here and you can do the same you can compare the sides i tell you my friend as i'm rocking it here it's soul this there's no play there's absolutely nothing whatever i grab it here right but it's supposed to be here in the 6 and 12 position there will be wheel bearing upper ball joint lower ball joint if you are doing this this is a steering i will be feeling for steering we are not doing it in this video so right here rocking it and as i feel that tire there's no give let's go lift her up and see if they are correct if a lower ball joint diagnosis so i lift her up grab the wheel in two different positions i'm surprised they were not bothered by this i grabbed it first as we said up and down and there's no weight on it so i cannot really move it but listen to this listen how much play is in the steering i will put you completely to it listen just for the noise do you hear that this is holding it three and nine there's a huge play in this direction i will redo it we were also hearing the lock on the steering wheel so i remove that i will grab it again three and nine and listen to that banging [Laughter] i hope the camera can hear it record it for you because we will do the same here absolutely tight there's no any problem on the passenger side so so far i definitely can see huge play in the steering we will see if it's an outer or inner tie rod and that could be bearing but if it's a bearing i will grab it 6 and 12 and it will do the same banging if it's a bearing i look at it there's absolutely no any movement once again so you see both hands no click right right here large play so now you can finally see behind the tire behind the wheel this is outer tie rod and with its ball joint right here where the nut is that's for adjustment of the also alignment it continues as a inner third round this part in center of the screen is the inner tire to end that is connected to an entire underneath that dust boot that's connected to the steering rack we need to find out if it's the outer thyroid and or inner thigh rod end so i have set up the light i put you here inside and you will tell me what is bad i will be wiggling their wheel outside standing outside and you tell me is it the outer thyroid and bad in the ball joint or is it the inner one which is making that banging on the steering rack well let's go my friend you watch it i cannot see through the tire so where is it if i grab it i can feel that click right here in that steering part and since the play it's super large let's go and remove the tire i will not need the extra leverage of that tire we will make more space for camera i want to show you a little detail how it's moving there and back i will wiggle it again keep hearing that sound right and this whole thing keeps moving down there under that boot because of that we just diagnosed together that it's not play in outer thyroid end but it's play in the inner tie rod end so we confirmed we have a tie rod play in the steering but what's about a ball joint with some tire company diagnosed when i had it on the ground i could feel some play but right now it was small right this is beginning if it has a play it just started this is one it's not moving for me why is it not moving for me well it's because the whole suspension system is not under the load just hangs here right now but it's not under the load when it was on the ground the tire was everything was pushed up the spring was compressed everything was in the opposite state so if i wanna replicate it right here in the air i have to put that suspension under the load to release the tension from that one front suspension i use these four ramps which i made long time ago for my vehicles and that will help me to show you that play on that ball joint so the wheel on the ramps now let me show you using a large pry bar the movement in that lower ball joint we will carefully put it there not to rip normally you don't want to have a rip that rubber dust protection but this will be uh this will need a replacement if there is a play right that's what the other shop said so let's see if they are correct if we have a play in it right now i will carefully start prying on it with my largest prepper and you will see if it's moving up and down up and down i hope you see it now when the suspension is compressed it's way easier for me to show it to you that there is actually a play in that lower ball joint and that's the reason why i felt it a little bit when the vehicle was on the ground but then when it was in the air i couldn't really duplicate it because it's not a large play there is actually it's not a large play it just started but hopefully you can see it that already that ball joint has a play and it's moving what two millimeters three millimeters up and down and that's what i felt when the vehicle was on the ground so i hope you can see it the camera will not go closer unfortunately there's a bunch of stuff in the way but here we go we discovered or confirmed that shop was not playing that customer they were right there is a slight plate play in this lower ball joint and i definitely got around i'm getting way behind with filming these details for you i didn't expect filming it i promised the results of that detailed inspection hour ago it's no big deal but i really have to keep moving so i hope you enjoy that extra effort so i showed you what is happening here if you like it give a thumb up please and be subscribe i have way more coming your way soon i will catch you in the next video bye

Channel: Toyota Maintenance

Views: 35,241

Keywords: Toyota, Toyotamaintenance, Maintenance, Service, Repair, Fix, Toyota-Maintenance, Toyota Service

Id: VbtXgOx2eUQ

Length: 14min 20sec (860 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 21 2022