HtownBlue

So the bushings on my lower control arms went bad recently. You could tell by looking at them the rubber had torn and there was no longer the support needed for the cross bolt.

Why do I write this you ask? Well, sit right back and I will tell you a tale of the moron who thought: its just 3 bolts and the lower ball joint to remove. In case you are wondering, that moron would be me.

I guess when I ordered the control arms and ball joints I forgot that the engine mounts (right and left) are directly in front of one of the control arm support bolts. Why is this an issue? Because you cannot get the dang stupid odd shaped dumb a** engineered control arm bolts our without removing the entire engine mount.
What do you have to do to get those engine mounts out you ask? You have to find a way to drop the entire sub frame about an inch or more AND raise the engine with a tranny jack etc.
Why is that a big deal you ask? Because its not just four large bolts to loosen to drop the sub frame like in many cars. You have to remove the front engine mount, tranny mount, and support brackets for the sub frame in order for it to lower.

So I finaly got the sub frame to drop, side engine mounts out, control arm bolts out, ball joint castle nuts out, and replaced accordingly after 2 hours.

Moral of this story.....
When you think a job will be simple, you find more to do. When you find more to do, you get frustrated. When you get frustrated, you bust your knuckles trying to break free a control arm bolt. When you bust your knuckles trying to free a control arm bolt, you drop your large 1/2 inch drive breaker bar. When you drop your large 1/2 drive breaker bar, it falls on your toes. And when it falls on your toes, you jump up and down in pain and your wife laughs at you.
Don't jump up and down in pain and let your wife laugh at you, get a Lexus Certified Mechanic to fix your car!

Bottom line, is if your control arm bushings go bad, and you can afford to have them replaced for you, it is money well spent. I had the money, just not the brains to realize I should have spent it and sipped a wonderful southern Iced Tea wile some other jamoke was wrestling with it. HA!!!

RX330inFL

Great story. Did you price out the job prior to your work or did you just jump in to the abyss?

thomas1

Yep been there done that...those bolts are a b@@@@cth On toyota nation the highlander folks were complaining...The old RX300 didnt have any obstacles, just a lot of grunt work... Wish I had your money, I hate doing these kind of repairs...

HtownBlue

I didn't price the job before hand, as I simply figured it was an easy enough job to do. It's not skill or difficulty that was the problem, just more hassle than I wanted to deal with for a stupid repair. My guess is the job probably pays 2-3 hours at a shop which is about 250-300 bucks plus parts. Just a guess though.
It's just a job that shouldn't have been designed to be that hard.

Jumper73

Don't tackle lower control arm bushing replacement - Check.

Thanks for sharing your tale. I had no idea that replacing a control arm bushing could be this much work.

HtownBlue

Yeah it wasn't that it was a complicated job really, just a LOT more than I had expected to have to do. It was more the shock of having to do so much work when it was not expected. It's possible to do for most people here, just a ton of extra work to accomplish this task.

lexusrxrx

Thanks for sharing your story on the control arm for the lexus rx 330. How long should a control arm on a lexus rx 330 last(assuming no accidents)?

How long should it take for a lexus mechanic to replace front control arms for cracked bushings?

Any advice would be appreciated, thanks!