So a friend of mine is in Afghanistan, and in the four or five months he's been there, he's already broken four 4 Runners! From the pics it looks like a lower ball joint issue, but one way or another the front wheels keep falling off of these things! Identities have been concealed to protect the not-so-innocent.
Yeah they have a problem, it's called independent front suspension and it likes to break offroad. The earlier generations have a good reputation though, even though they share this poor design choice.
BTW, you can get the pickups with live axles front and back, but from the videos I've seen the terr'ists seem to own all the ones in the region 
He's doin' a good job of it, whatever he's doing.
Its a newer 4runner. There's the problem.
I thought the non US versions were still solid axle. Geuss Toyota went cheap there to.
One more and he's an Ace!!!!
You need to make him some kill stickers.
aircooled wrote: One more and he's an Ace!!!! You need to make him some kill stickers.
That's a great idea!
It wouldn't have anything to do with driving through the desert at high rates of speed, would it?
They're not old enough to have rusted into a pile of component atoms yet, so no, I don't know what's wrong with that particular batch of 4runners.
Are they owned by a governmant and driven by military personnel? Could possibly contribute...
Thats a relativity common problem(lower ball joint breaking off), my 99 4wd had one break with 200xxx miles on it and then break again after I sold it at 235xxx. I did offroad mine, it seems to make it go faster with bigger tires and/or lift, guess you figure in that type of thing when you modify our vehicle though.
Edit: mine was not foreign though...
Uncoiled wrote: Thats a relativity common problem(lower ball joint breaking off), my 99 4wd had one break with 200xxx miles on it and then break again after I sold it at 235xxx. I did offroad mine, it seems to make it go faster with bigger tires and/or lift, guess you figure in that type of thing when you modify our vehicle though. Edit: mine was not foreign though...
I guess it's not specifically a foreign market 4 Runner problem then. I haven't seen that happen yet here in the states, so I thought it might have been a problem specific to them.
Check this out, "Lower Uniball Conversion"
http://www.chaosfab.com/toyaccess_4wd.html
Needs moar straight axle.
Well, at least he's keeping it balanced.
MarkZ28 wrote: I thought the non US versions were still solid axle. Geuss Toyota went cheap there to.
Independent suspension is cheaper than live axle?
I would have thought it was a ride quality decision since most SUV's have gone upmarket now.
I'd suggest that its a combination of a not so great part that is already prone to failure, and the type and terrain of driving.
I spent a year in afghanistan going by convoy from one FOB to another. First off, you are driving FAST, you don't want to be a slow target. Second you are always in a convoy, the unarmored vehicles like that are in the middle to rear, so you have 2-10 MRAPS (the big armored thing in the picture) throwing up tons of dust. You want to stay right on the MRAPS rear, so you are basically just following the tail lights, doing 40-50 miles an hour. Besides the inevitable pot holes, you also have IED craters that you can run right into without ever seeing them because of all the dust. Doing that over and over again is enough to rip the wheels of dang near anything.
you'd think they would stop using 4-runners with that much failure.
I swapped our tacoma's for hi luxes when ever i could, they faired much better.
Also, short of an mrap or humvee there isn't much that doesn't have a weak link somewhere that will be exposed in those rough condition, and toyota parts are way more available than any other.
Aaaaaand he did it again. Number five.
That one appears to have the JDM YO fender mount mirror and extended fender flares (thanks to the wheel flying off).
Maybe MOOG balljoints would fix the issues?
Number six
I've seen some "heavy duty" balljoints on rockauto, those might hold up better (if he has any say in the matter).
Someone is probably getting pretty good/quick at this repair.
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