liquidsilver

I know this has been discussed before but here is my expeience so far.

Installed Daizen Control arm bushing kit as well as sway bar bushing kit. Mechanic took only 4-5 hours max and I paid him $350 CDN.....thats roughly about $300 US give or take. Now I have no idea how the Lexus dealers or other tuning shops could charge so much and complain about how it takes such a long time and what not. By the way I have Ltuned shocks and spring combo. For people from Michigan, you guys should get it done there. (The shop is in Windsor)

Anyways here are the pros.....
1. The steering is tighter in the city and highway driving. It feels more secure.
2.Handles much better with flatter cornering.
3. Feels much more stable overall.
4. I no longer get that highspeed wandering (side to side) It tracks straight and tight.
5.I guess the key word is tighter and flatter....and more solid feeling.
6. Car no longer wobbles side to side in the city after making a quick turn.
7.GS feels like a lighter car for some reason.....as if its wearing running shoes.

Here's the downside.
1.It's hard to describe this feeling but the ride is somewhat harsher. It's not rough by any means but you feel more of "JOLTS" from the suspension which slightly intrudes into the cabin. Kinda very light kicking feel to it. My factory bushings were actually in OK condition.....visually anyways. I guess I was expecting torn and worn bushings.

Kharizma

iTrader: (6)

hmm.. so the ride comfort gets worse? i would've thought the ride comfort would get better with the daizen set up.. i was about to get this set up from my dealership soon too... how much did the set up cost you? did you get the Sway Bars and the new Control Arms or just the bushings?

JeffTsai

iTrader: (1)

Lexus designed their cars for isolation, quiet, and a smooth ride. To achieve these results usually and unfortunately means worse handling. Now, since these Daizen busings are much tighter/harder and higher spec, this translates into more road feeling into the car. I guess this is what all the BMW owners like or are used to. When they drive a lexus they usually say that there is a lack of feeling. Now that you have the 'feeling' ....how do you feel about it?

BTW: Getting those busings pushed in for $300, while a lot....seems relavtively cheap from what I have been reading on these forums. I seen some people paying up to 1K just to have those bushings installed! Your tone seems like you were complaining, or were you praising them?

I just had my Tein Type Flex suspension installed yesterday and the handling is absolutely amazing. The side effect is that many more of the bumps in the road can be felt...such as change in road texture, small bumps, and the potholes make you jump sometimes. However, I like the stiffer feel and would never go back to stock. I don't know about the rest of you though.
Or another reason is that I'm still young

liquidsilver

It cost me $130 just for the control arm and sway bar bushings plus $300 for the install. No no, I'm not complaining about what I paid for the install. Actually I'm very happy about it. I'm just making remarks about how some other installers (such as tuners or the dealer) charges anywhere from $450 to over $1000 when it actually takes only about 4hours to do the job? I just dont get it. Im sure they are good at what they do but come on.

As you mentioned, the ride is kinda like the 3series BMW now.

RMMGS4

iTrader: (5)

Great review.

Pretty much in line with others who have done the install. For those reading all these driving impressions, you need to take into account that the older the car the more the bushings are worn and the more you will notice a difference when this change is made.

I did this swap on my car with under 50k miles, my bushing were not worn and I still felt an improvement across the board, probably just not as significant as others with more milage.



You just said it took your dealer up to 5 hours to do the install. This is the correct amount of labor time to charge from an experienced shop. This is in line with what Todd charges in LA for labor time and he is the distributor of Daizen in the US so it doesn't get any better than that.

Now as far as the labor charge, the labor rates vary within the states let alone you are in Canada, so it's not appropriate to only compare by your $300 price conversion. That is an apples to oranges comparison.

In California an average labor rate is around $90 an hour for an independent and an easy $120 an hour for a dealer.

So take your honest 5 hours of labor time and that equates to $450 independent or $600 dealer.

These are fair prices for the given labor rate in a given area and with 5 hours labor time.

My local dealer here in NorCal had a special discount coupon offer recently and he charged around $360 labor.

b1gredek

this isnt an easy job though,,,,,, seen my buddy do it,,,,, he had to pull everything out,,,, pull all the bushings out,,,,,, it's a lot of labor,,, so i can see how shops charge 500,,,,,,,, luckily i got it done for 350 which includes an alignment,,,,, and i think he undercharged me

RMMGS4

iTrader: (5)

You've seen it so you know.

That's exactly my concern over people saying what price is too much or how easy it is.

If a shop does it in 3 hours then they are a great shop . Give em credit, but don't assume it was easy.

My point is 99.9% of the shops out there have not done GS bushings. Just because they did other cars, doesn't mean they can do the GS without some trouble. Just a reminder, even the dealer does not have expertise in changing these bushings, why? , because they were never designed to have the bushings replaced. The dealer just changes out the whole a-arm when the bushings are worn.

The next person that posts that this job is not that hard, they either didn't do it themselves or they are not mechanically qualified to make that conclusion.

I'm not here to slam people, just providing a reality check that not everyone can be a movie critic or a wine Connoisseur. So it goes that not everyone can be a good bushing install critic either.

I think I'll make that my sig.


Note 2- I'm not responding directly to liquidsilver when I say these things, but his post was a good excuse for me to make that general statement.

rominl

iTrader: (4)

the ride degrade you have there might be more of a firmer ride i would say? to me that's like less play in the steering wheel and more connected to the road

and i wonder what kind of suspension stup you got? just curious fi that makes a difference

nice review btw!

b1gredek

i so agree with you rmm,,,,, my mechanic said this was the worst job he has ever done,,,, because of how intense the labor was,, he didnt heat up the bushings with a torch like some people do,,,,,, he didnt recommend heating up the arms,,,,,,,, with this in mind,,,, how do u charge a five hour job,,,,, when the labor is so intense,,,,,,, compared to say putting an engine together,,,,, which is way more easy........ but pays more......

liquidsilver

Yes ur right about "less play in steering wheel and more connected to the road" It has about 20 to 30 percent less lean and I feel so confident now with the GS. I have the Ltuned shocks, springs combo as well.

Now I hope I didn't offend anyone by commenting on how expensive the labor rates are on other shops. Ok to be exact (and I dont really care where u live) the install on "SWAY BAR BUSHINGS AND CONTROL ARM BUSHINGS" both took 4 hours. I paid $300 USD. Why would I pay $400 or more for other mechanics that takes longer for the job? I dont care how labor intensive it is to do it but the fact is , it takes 4hours to do both jobs. $300 is right price IMO. BTW he did an awesome job on it. My mechanic just told me that its a fairly straight forward job as long as you have a press or something along that line. I work hard for my money just like most of you guys and $150 difference is big ....not matter what.

liquidsilver

BTW the mechanic did whine about the grease , how its gooey and so yucky.

lexforlife

iTrader: (7)

i guess mine was the cheapest of all a big fat zero did it myself ... i recently found a shop with a 20,000 lb hyd press and they were able to remove the bushing in 1 min flat per bushing..

once they removed bushing i did the clean up of the arms by rounding off all edges and smoothing out the inside then go back into the shop and they pop in the castor arm bushing in 30 sec..

if you guys that are on the fence have alittle mech knowledge, you can very easily with the proper tools remove the arms in 1 hr or less per side , bring them to a shop that has a real press have them remove the bushings and only one arm the castor arm needs to have the bushing pressed back in the rest and put back in by hand you can do this and save big money


as far as ride is concerned , no the ride did not get harsher , you just get more road feel and depending on if you are on stockers or 18,19 and 20in the road feel increases with size.. in my car it got tighter but yet i have bilstein coils sways and every brace known to man and i run 42lbs of air in bridgestone so3 and the ride is very compliant but road feel is there but steering response is immed almost go cart like but no shimmys ,vibrations nothing , just smooth driving .. down here in florida our roads have what they call crowns or crests , they all tlti off to the side for water run off , my car tends to follow the crowns more now but i attribute that to no flex in the arms now


all in all the dazien upgrade is a must have for those who have upgraded susp for better handling and for those tired of the on/off again vibrations and shimmies.. unless you swap out those mushy rubber bushings you will never obtain total control of your susp dynamics

LEXSOOS

All you said sounds very very Reasonable, for you

RMMGS4

iTrader: (5)

Ed,
did you have the 20K press available when you first did yours or are you saying that you recently found a shop with that strong of a press? What type of shop can you suggest that would support such a large press? This is sounding like the key element in whether a shop can do this job quickly or not, so what I am trying to discern is how easy is it to find such a shop.

Any tips?

lexforlife

iTrader: (7)

hey glenn hows it going bro

yes i just recently found a shop a old time shop down here that has every press know to man , they make drive shafts , press anything out of everything , they cut rotors, clutches , basically its a one stop place and they work cheap..

i replaced my castor arm bushings again ( thanks todd ) just to make sure everything was right.. i had a extra set of arms so i said what the heck seeing i used this place to press out my upper a arm bushing

glenn , it took him max 1 min to remove bushing and after i rounded off all edges and cleaned the insides up and smoothed everything out they pressed the daizen one in about 30 secs pressing from the bottom up

they charged me $20 for the work..


look for a machine shop that has a large hydraulic press and you are good to go for removing the arms is very simple