Tundra front end work

[Desk Jockey]

My 2010 tundra has 175k miles.

I did Bilstein shocks and power stop brakes a couple of years ago. It needs pads and while I am at it I am having the shocks adjusted (lowered). anything else I should do while it is pulled apart?

someone suggested upper and lower ball joints (With oem parts).

any thoughts?

 

[highcountrymuley]

3 elk just did some front end work on my highlander! I was going so slow on the snowpacked road the airbags didn't deploy. Thank God. First one bounced off front to drivers side- clear. Second one -same. Third bashed into the passenger side front panel. No cell service and single digit temps- I felt extremely lucky to limp it home 20 more miles at 130am!

Sorry for hijacking your thread.

 

[WTFJohn]

My 2010 tundra has 175k miles.

I did Bilstein shocks and power stop brakes a couple of years ago. It needs pads and while I am at it I am having the shocks adjusted (lowered). anything else I should do while it is pulled apart?

someone suggested upper and lower ball joints (With oem parts).

any thoughts?

Upper & lower ball joints, new sway bar end links, new tie rod ends (look at all the rubber boots, check for tears/weeping grease from dry rot). Check your CV boots on both axle shafts as well. When you change your ride height with that shock setting you will need a new alignment too, might as well make it worth it with all new parts.

 

[Desk Jockey]

That’s my thinking. Would like to do whatever is worth doing while it is all pulled apart.

 

[CorbLand]

If your going to do an alignment, it wouldn’t hurt to replace everything but pads are pretty easy and it’s not like your tearing engine apart, so replacing things because you have the tire off is kind of a waste in my opinion.

Shake the front end down and if it’s solid, don’t touch it.

 

[Desk Jockey]

If your going to do an alignment, it wouldn’t hurt to replace everything but pads are pretty easy and it’s not like your tearing engine apart, so replacing things because you have the tire off is kind of a waste in my opinion.

Shake the front end down and if it’s solid, don’t touch it.

Fair point.

doing a little more than pads. The guy that put the billsteins in set them on the highest level. The camber is off and it is wearing the outside of the tires. I also don’t like the way it drives. Gonna have it dropped down to factory height.

as far as other work, I would like to keep the truck rolling for a few more years and figure while I am in there, a few hundred in parts is worth it if that means I never have to worry about the front end. I just don’t know how long those joints and tie rod ends hold up.

 

[CorbLand]

Fair point.

doing a little more than pads. The guy that put the billsteins in set them on the highest level. The camber is off and it is wearing the outside of the tires. I also don’t like the way it drives. Gonna have it dropped down to factory height.

as far as other work, I would like to keep the truck rolling for a few more years and figure while I am in there, a few hundred in parts is worth it if that means I never have to worry about the front end. I just don’t know how long those joints and tie rod ends hold up.

Depends on what your doing with the vehicle. They last longer on the highway than they do on trails.

It’s pretty rare that front ends have a catastrophic failure (unless it’s a first gen tundra) and it didn’t show signs it was going out well before.

If the front is so out of whack it’s wearing tires weird, definitely check the CVs.

Sounds like your having someone else do the work. They should be able to tell you if you need to replace something. I hate playing with front ends just because. My tundra drove like a dream, you could mob around on FS roads and it felt like a SxS. Things finally went out and I replaced the front end and shocks, upgraded over OEM and it’s never driven the same since.

But like WTF said, you would be getting the most of your alignment by replacing everything.

 

[Desk Jockey]

It’s a mix. For this, i dont have the tools to compress the shocks. A buddy owns a small shop and he will let me help And buy my own parts. He knows what he is doing but he isnt much for spending money on preventive maintenance, whereas I would rather do it and feel good that I won’t have an issue.

 

[180ls1]

VERY similar miles when I had to address front end stuff on my yota. I did a small lift at 180ish and then did other parts around 200. My tie rods are still good (inner and outer) but I did new lower and upper control arms and I forget what else.

It *may* be worth doing the whole thing depending what your time and peace of mind is worth. I didn't and am 230 now.

 

[TSAMP]

This seems like a troll. I've never owned one but seen in countless other threads that these trucks need nothing, ever.

 

[TaperPin]

If you plan on keeping it to 300k or more then the front end wear parts including cv joints and wheel bearings will need to be changed at some point - might as well be now.

However, if you are happy if it lasts 225k to 250k, I’d only replace the parts that are needed and just clean and regrease the cv joints. The exception are wheel bearings if it’s a unitized hub - either figure out if there is a way to get grease in there or replace them soon. For instance a 2006 f350 has the wheel speed sensor screwed into the hub on the inner side of the grease seals, so when the brake rotors are off I’ll put enough grease in the speed sensor hole to squish out the bearing seals slightly. Toyota support groups would know this.

OEM parts are expensive - a simple dial indicator on a magnetic base can be used to measure movement in wheel bearings, tie rod ends and anything that you would normally just shake by hand to see if there’s movement. The number might not mean anything now, but when both wheel bearings goes from .005” of play this year, to one developing .040” and the other is still .005”, something is going wrong and it might leave you stranded.

Above 175k miles everything/anything on the truck might need to be replaced at any time, so start a savings jar for repairs. An old time alternator shop could simply regrease the alternator bearings and you’d be good for another 100k there, but even alternator shops today probably only replace bearings now. Timing belts only last so long. Toyota is becoming famous for universal joints that aren’t greasable, so either press them apart, clean and add grease the hard way or be prepared with replacement parts - support bearing for two piece driveshaft is the same.

 

[87TT]

i was driving over a mountain pass road(more like a string of major potholes) and broke a lower control arm on my old Nissan Frontier. It had 210,000 miles on it. Didn't see that one big pothole. I replaced everything on both sides. It was a lot of work and a pain but it rides better now. New control arms came with ball joints in them, New shocks, one Cv axle (ripped boot that I'm not sure didn't happen when I broke down), some bolts, tie rod ends etc. And new tires with alignment.