Is It Possible To Replace Dust Caps On 2001 Yaris Front Suspension Low

[chiselman306]

Last year I replaced both front lower suspension arms on my wife's 2001 Yaris. The work was done privately by a long serving Toyota mechanic. About 3 months after this work was done the car passed the MOT, however, advisories were "both near side and offside lower arm balljoint dust covers split"! I challenged the mechanic and needless to say he denied all knowledge. My question is, is it possible to replace the dust caps without replacing the arm. Look forward to replies. Chisel an 306

[chiselman306]

Hello Everyone

Yes, you can replace the dust covers(rubbers) on the front lower suspension ball joint. I have just replaced both, bought the dust cover rubber kits on eBay for £4.20 incl of VAT and Postage. The procedure I used: jack up the front end of the car and place axle stands appropriately, remove wheels. If fitted, remove the clip or split pin from the ball joint securing nut and remove the nut and split the ball joint. I split the ball joints with a big hammer, you could use a pickle fork as it is almost impossible to get a scissor type splitter onto the ball joint arm because of the proximity of the drive shaft gaiter. Perhaps I could have used a different design of scissor splitter! Next, undo the bottom fixing on the drop links to enable pushing down the control arm to get the ball joint clear of the hub, remove the damaged dust covers. Now for the fun bit, fitting the new rubbers; ensure there is plenty of grease in the ball joint, Two tips: 1. put the top o ring onto the rubber before sliding it onto the arm 2. bend about 3 mm of both ends of the large o ring at right angles, this will make it a great deal easier to grip to get the large o ring into place, you will have gathered that the o rings supplies with my kits were metal! Try not to get grease on the outer surface of the dust cap, (difficult enough to get into place without being slippery!! This where it would be helpful if a second person could push down hard on the rubber whilst the first person gets the bottom of the rubber over the 'lip'. By pushing down hard on the rubber, I found that it stayed put on the spline, I then used a very small screwdriver with a rounded end to run around the bottom of the rubber to get it over the lip and into place. Now get the large o ring onto the rubber and using the two 'lugs' you made on the o ring, pull the o ring apart(takes quite a bit of pulling to get it over the widest part of the rubber). With a fair bit of patience and a bit of luck you will get the o ring in place; hooray. Reassembly: get the ball joint back into the hub, you may have to do a bit of wiggling and pushing but it will go, start the nut but do not tighten yet. Reconnect the drop links, you may have to undo the top nut a fair bit to get the lower end through the hole enough to get washers on and the nut started, do up the lower and top nut on the drop link and then tighten the securing nut on the ball joint and fit clip or split pin. Job done. Hope all the above makes sense and not too long winded. Happy motoring to one and all. David W

[Cyker]

Also double check that they are actually split; I had the same report 2 MOT's ago, but when my travelling mechanic had a look, he said there was nothing wrong with them, just a bit of oil/grease that had gotten onto them from somewhere.

He reckoned they just assumed that had come from split rubbers leaking grease, when they were in fact fine!

We wiped them down and on my last MOT, didn't get a repeat advisory.

[chiselman306]

Thanks Cyker, good point, however the boots on my Yaris balljoints were wrecked!! Cheers David