ball joint failure on passenger side 97 4runner

well long story short, driving to work yesterday my ball joints failed me, i was coming out of a turn and once i got up to speed my truck jumped up over my front tire and my tire went rolling down the street along with my broken tie rod and part of my cv axle, i couldnt quite tell but i figure the lower control arm is bent to hell. id heard stories of 3rd gens having this problem but to have it actually happen... needless to say im pretty bummed out the 3rd gen is my daily, i thought id hop on these forums and ask a few questions, the shop that towed it hasnt given me a price on how much itll cost to get her rollin again but i was hoping to get an idea on here??
im pretty broke rn so i am considering doing it myself, or just selling it which id hate to do i love this runner

 

There's no way to know how much that will be. I think it'll probably still be worth fixing though. You can post the estimate and we can see if it's reasonable.

This is a warning to others. Get those ball joints INSPECTED every time you put on a new set of tires. Specifically tell the tire shop to check them out. It takes YEARS of wear to get to a point of failure.

Personally, my old ones were fine but I still replaced them at 250k miles.

 

So how do you test them? Jack up the wheel and check for play? Or oil seepage from the seal?

 

Both. Plenty of YouTube vids.

https://youtu.be/VbtXgOx2eUQ?feature=shared

 

[QUOTE="This is a warning to others. Get those ball joints INSPECTED every time you put on a new set of tires. Specifically tell the tire shop to check them out. It takes YEARS of wear to get to a point of failure.[/QUOTE]

Is there a difference between failure rate of 2WD and 4WD ? On-road vs. off-road use ? Climate conditions (wet or dry areas, road salt areas) ? Or is failure mostly time-related ?

 

Is there a difference between failure rate of 2WD and 4WD ? On-road vs. off-road use ? Climate conditions (wet or dry areas, road salt areas) ? Or is failure mostly time-related ?[/QUOTE]

If questionable, just change it.

Lower ball joints are wear items like tires or batteries.

Just cause it hasn't broken doesn't mean it doesn't warrant replacing.

Buy OEM, that's it. Simple 15 mins to replace.