I'm hearing a clicking noises when I turn right or left in my LX450. Axel issue, suspension, or bearing issue? Also, does the LX450 have ball joints? If so, could they need replacing, as the seal appears to be wearing in that area.

Last, I hear it's a ton of work to replace ball joints, due to the tedious nature of the work. Does anyone have an experience in this area?

Could be your one or both of your Birfields, which is basically the CV joint at the left and right ends of the front axle. The Birfield has five steel balls inside of it that roll inside of the birfield cage. If the grease inside the knuckle housing is not maintained properly, the balls will wear grooves on the inside surface of the birfield, and when you turn the balls pop across this groove and cause a clicking sound.

This problem usually occurs from one of two things. If grease is not put into the knuckle housing periodically, the area goes dry causing the grooves to wear in there. The other is, the inner axle seal fails over time, and allows gear oil from the axle, into the knuckle cavity which will wash the grease out and you will get a nasty mix of gear oil and grease coming out around the knuckle housing. This "birf soup" would be very noticeble around the axle ball. For these reasons, most people do a full axle service every 75k or so.

If this is your problem, there's not much you can do but replace the birfields ($$). You can probably ride it out, but you wouldn't want to be doing any heavy wheeling, because under heavy load the birfield will break and lock up which can cause a variety of other problems (more $$).

axle need replacement