Control arm, ball joint or bushing failure on the 2005 Toyota Tundra
When control arm, ball joint or bushing failure gets reported
Owners of the 2005 Toyota Tundra report control arm, ball joint or bushing failure at a median of 125,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 60,000 miles and a quarter after 202,500 miles, from 29 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 108,000 miles. It is the 2nd most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 25,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 237,500 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 213,843 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
A spread this wide points at use rather than design. Towing, climate, service history and city mileage all move a failure like this, so the median is a weak guide to any individual car.
21% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24,157 miles | 60,000 miles | 125,000 miles | 202,000 miles | 238,000 miles |
Read the 10th percentile as “one report in ten arrived this early”. Exact figures are shown in this table because it is the table of record; everywhere else on the site they are rounded to the precision the sample can carry.
What a percentile can and cannot tell you here
These five numbers describe the readings owners gave, in order. The median is the middle one: half the reports arrived below it. The 10th and 90th are the edges of the bulk of the distribution, and the distance between them is the part worth reading. A tight spread — say 70,000 to 95,000 miles — points at something that wears out on a schedule, and the schedule is knowable. A wide one, 20,000 to 190,000, points at a fault that hits some cars and never troubles others, which means the mileage on the listing in front of you tells you very little about your odds.
What these figures are not is a survival curve. Every reading here comes from a car whose owner filed a complaint, so the sample contains only failures: it cannot say what share of the fleet made it past 150,000 miles untouched, because those owners had nothing to report. Nor is the mileage the moment of failure — it is the odometer reading as recalled at the time of filing, which may be weeks later and is sometimes rounded to the nearest ten thousand by the person typing it.
Percentiles are shown at all only once 8 readings exist for the vehicle and mode. Below that the middle of a handful of numbers is noise wearing a decimal point, so the figures are withheld rather than dressed up.
What happens, and what it costs
Putting it right typically runs $400–$2,200 at an independent US shop. That range is an editorial estimate held in this site's failure-mode catalogue, not a figure from NHTSA, and it is a repair cost rather than a diagnosis cost.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 10 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2007, at a median of 55,000 miles, and latest on the 2000 at 155,000 miles.
By volume the 2004 carries the most reports, with 74; the 2005 has 47. A mode that appears across most years of a model is usually a design choice rather than a bad batch.
If one year stands out to the left, that is the year to avoid; if the whole line sits at a similar mileage, this is wear rather than a defect in one production run.
Tick median reported mileage Solid middle half of reports Faint 10th to 90th percentile Colour how bad the failure is when it happens
What owners wrote
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The mileage is the one the owner gave.
I was driving in the local streets, and while making a right turn after stopping at a red light, the front passenger side of the vehicle suddenly collapsed with no warning. I was traveling at most 10 MPH. The vehicle has never showed any sign of failure or noise until that day. After I pulled over to the side of the road, I got out of the vehicle to inspect the car and found the ball joint in upper control arm had completely tear itself apart from the wheel hub. Fortunately for me, no serious damage to the car other than the failed components and worn tires due to my having to drag the car on the side of the tire to pull over to safety occurred. I was not injured in the incident, but had I been driving on the highway at the time of failure, I wouldn't be here typing this. Afterwards, we had aaa tow the car to a local dealership to see whether toyota will take responsibility of the failure of its part.*jb
Driving wb on hwy 4 near douglas flat, ca approx 55 MPH on two lane highway. The 2005 toyota tundra 4WD driver side front wheel detached, folding under front left side frame behind wheel well with the truck landing on the flat side of the wheel. I was then in a controlled skid on a straight part of the highway and held the steering wheel in that position. I did not apply the brakes as I did not want to alter the direction of the skid. The vehicle drifted slightly to the right after about a 150 foot skid. The wheel hub had separated from the upper and lower control arm, the ball joint had detached from the a-frame, and the wheel and tire (replaced two weeks prior) were damaged. The only thing apparently holding the wheel to the frame was the steering rod. Not being a mechanic or had the vehicle looked at by a mechanic as yet I am not sure of all damage sustained. Pictures of the scene show a single skid mark on the drivers side. I contacted my toyota dealer who didn't seem to interested since there were no injuries. This incident occurred with 72,000 miles on the truck meaning that the 36 month, 36,000 mile warranty would not cover…
Dt*: the contact stated while pulling out of the driveway at 2 MPH, the front left side of the vehicle dropped down to the ground without warning. The vehicle was towed to and authorized repair facility, who determined that the left front lower ball joint fractured and needed to be replaced. The manufacturer was alerted. Updated 1/19/2007 - *nm
Also reported on the 2005 Toyota Tundra
Other body or interior problem
Rust or structural corrosion
Airbag inflator rupture
Other suspension problem
Other powertrain problem
Other engine problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 47 is a floor and not a count of affected cars. Mileages are typed in by owners and cluster on round numbers. And the mode itself is assigned by software reading the complaint text, which is reliable in bulk and fallible one report at a time.
Questions this page answers
At what mileage does control arm, ball joint or bushing failure happen on the 2005 Toyota Tundra?
Across 29 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 125,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 60,000 miles and a quarter after 202,500 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is control arm, ball joint or bushing failure on the 2005 Toyota Tundra?
47 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.6 per 1,000 vehicles. Complaints are voluntary, so this is a floor rather than a count of affected cars.
What this is and is not. These are the mileages at which owners chose to complain to a federal agency, which is not the same as the mileage at which the part fails on every car. It skews toward failures that happened outside warranty, cost real money, or frightened someone. It is still the only public dataset that carries failure mileage at all, and the shape of a few hundred readings is informative even when a single one is not. Methodology · JSON · this failure on other cars
Source Owner complaints and recall records published by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, model years 1996–2027 Figures rebuilt Published by AtWhatMileage How every figure is computed