Hi all,
I need to replace all 4 ball joints on my '00 4Runner. I'd like to buy them wholesale online but I've noticed that there are some big price differences. Does anyone know what brand the OEM ball joints are? I don't want to waste money on poor quality parts. Any help is greatly appreciated.

they are made by toyota.

you need ball joints already on an 00? are you hard on the truck?

No kidding you must be tough on that truck....I just did all four of mine on a 95 4runner @ 179 K miles.

I purchased the ball joints from Toyota.

That grocery getter '99 I picked up needed the BJ's replaced on it at 179K, and I had picked up the truck with 160K on it. Am guessing the hardware was all OEM before I tore into it.

Not a fun job BTW. A press is a must.

Well it has 184,505 miles on it and it's been lifted since 44K so I think it's done pretty good. Rear axle seal and bearings need to be replaced as well. I figure after 140,500 miles of lifted susp. and 9 years it's time something needed to be replaced on it.

I see. I diddnt read your sig Makes sense now.

Do you know you have play in these bearings? I had about 150K miles on mine (almost all of which were lifted miles) when I changed my ball joints, tie rods, etc. I did it while trying to eliminate some annoying play somewhere and knowing I had a lot of hard miles on all of it. I really don't think my upper and lower ball joints were that worn but I did find that the pivot points of my front lower control arms had a lot of play. If/when you change the lower ball joints, you should also dig a little deeper and see if you have play at the lower control arms. That's where the mystery wear was for me that caused alignment shops to complain to me that there's something loose in the system. Unfortunately you have to replace the entire lower control arms since those bushings are not considered replaceable by themselves. Also, the steering rack needs to be partially removed to get to the bolts that hold the lower control arms in place, which can potentially be a PITA. One of the nuts for a steering rack bolt that was factory-welded inside the frame broke off when I tried to remove my original steering rack. Fun fun.

Getting the rear axle bearings replaced wasn't much fun either because the "experienced" shop I took them to pressed one side on too far, which didn't allow the axle seal to properly touch the ring that gets pressed onto the axle last. If you have ABS, before you start the bearing replacement process, take out the ABS sensors on the back side of the rear axle and make a mental note of where the ABS tone ring is visible through that hole (side to side where it's positioned). After you get the bearings replaced and pressed back on the axle, make sure it is roughly in the same place as before so you know they didn't mess up by not pressing it on far enough or too far.

Thank you very much for that info. I have a LOT of play both front (won't align properly)and rear. Hopefully the experienced shop that's gonna do the rear axle truly knows what they are doing. I'm also going to replace the lower rear links as the bushings seem to be shot. Once I get the front end taken down for the ball joint replacement I will inspect the lower control arm bushings. Hopefully they are still OK but I have a feeling they aren't.

Regarding the rear lower links, there's a possibility of a different problem (from my experience there). I have a rather unique set of custom links now, but even for the stock links the primary source of play of the rear axle was due to the holes in the frame mount wallowing out over time. That is, the 14mm bolt that goes through the links on each end of the bushings for the lower links gets mashed forward and back every time you accelerate and brake. After lots of miles, those round holes gradually become oblong. That allows the bolts and links to slam forward/backward and create play. With more wear, it gets worse.

Unfortunately with the stock bushings, the bushings still have to rotate within the frame mounts so there's a reasonable limit to how tight you can crank them down. I do recommend grease in the contact area at the ends of the bushings. The best solution I have used is to take those M14 bolts into a large hardware store and find the thickest and tightest fitting washers that you can find (either English or Metric washers). Then have a shop weld on those washers on each side of the frame or axle mounts to eliminate the movement of the bolts. You might need new bolts if they show wear as well. (Definitely get grade 10.9 or better of metric bolts if you have to replace them).

All of that may or may not apply to you, but I'm guessing it's the first place to look for play in the rear.

On only one end of my custom lower links I have large heim joints, so I can crank down the bolt really tight and it doesn't affect the rotation of the joint at all. But I still have the stock bushings on the other end.

(I have not had any problems with the upper links and haven't messed with them or the panhard rod).

Thanks, I'll take a look at those holes when I replace the lower links. I've got a friend with a welder I can use if I need to weld on washers and I just might replace the bolts for the heck of it.