Offroad-Express

Got the Surf looked over on it last service and it came back with a worn steering idler arm and some play in the lower ball joints. Can someone give me a idea of the cost to get these replaced, I won't be doing it myself so if you know a good mechanic let me know and I'll throw them some business. I'm out Rolleston way in ChCh. I did take to a local place out here but they dicked me round so on the hunt for a good mechanic.cheers

you might wanna go onto the toyota nz website about the idler arm as they had a big recall on those a couple of years back and u get it replaced for free, my truck hasnt had it done yet so im going to book it in in the next couple of weeks

am just checkin with a mate on costs.. he had the same issues for a while and got a mechanic to repair....

Aftermarket idler Arm assembly approx $120 and about a easy half hour to fit with the use of a ball joint separator

Lower ball joints approx $60 each , but can be a pig to replace requiring a large powerful puller and heat etc to seperate them from the lower wish bone .expect a fair amount of labour cost to do this job

do the bottom ball joints bolt on to bottom arm or are pressed in to it?

Lower ball joint bolts to the bottom of the steering knuckle and uses a taper shaft / nut into the bottom a-arm

vinceparts wrote:you might wanna go onto the toyota nz website about the idler arm as they had a big recall on those a couple of years back and u get it replaced for free, my truck hasnt had it done yet so im going to book it in in the next couple of weeks

Hey cheers vince, how did you get it confirmed? I've just filled out a form on the recall part of the the toyota site so just waiting to hear back from them. Is there some where that lists all the effected surfs?

Wicked cheers for all the replys guys. I'll let ya's know how I get on.

vinceparts wrote:you might wanna go onto the toyota nz website about the idler arm as they had a big recall on those a couple of years back and u get it replaced for free, my truck hasnt had it done yet so im going to book it in in the next couple of weeks

Was it the idler arm?

I'm 90% sure mine had the relay rod done as a recall.. been a few years now though.

As you were

smurf182 wrote:

vinceparts wrote:you might wanna go onto the toyota nz website about the idler arm as they had a big recall on those a couple of years back and u get it replaced for free, my truck hasnt had it done yet so im going to book it in in the next couple of weeks

Was it the idler arm?

I'm 90% sure mine had the relay rod done as a recall.. been a few years now though.

As you were

Yea the old posts I'm pulling up seems to be the relay rod that was recalled.

JimmyRabid wrote:

smurf182 wrote:

vinceparts wrote:you might wanna go onto the toyota nz website about the idler arm as they had a big recall on those a couple of years back and u get it replaced for free, my truck hasnt had it done yet so im going to book it in in the next couple of weeks

Was it the idler arm?

I'm 90% sure mine had the relay rod done as a recall.. been a few years now though.

As you were

Yea the old posts I'm pulling up seems to be the relay rod that was recalled.

Still, if this hasn't been done, and the free replacement is still available, then it is definately worth it for the peace of mind and the free wheel alignment

oops got mixed up there, yea it is the realy rod, my bad, but yea free relay rod and wheel alignment so id get all your parts replaced then go get that free wheel alignment, if your truck hasnt already had it done that is,

i got notified through email a couple of days after id rilled in the recall form on the net

if you are replacing the idler arm, spend a bit of extra cash and get a genuine one, i went through 3 in three months, not going real hard but was running 33's. kept bending the main shaft, think its due to the cheap ones having real crappy plastic bushes, and of course the extra leverage of big tires.

@ Vince yea seen from old posts it was the relay rod, all good tho mate toyota got back to me today and my was replaced back 07 so thats good to know. cheers again for the heads up.

if you need a hand to do it just let me know