Does anyone know the torque values for the rear upper and lower control arms. Going to break and retorque after i cycle the rear height control. Hopefully this fixes my stiff ride. Seems like every morning now i have to cycle the rear height to get it to ride smoother.

 

Don't know the value, but I tried doing this and ran out of steam pretty quickly once I realized how bloody tight those bolts are. I need to go get a bigger wrench. Have you tried breaking one loose?

 

i read on a 4runner forum that its 96ftlbs of torque. i was hoping someone would chime in and confirm this. put a cheater pipe on your wrench. i have a breaker bar.

 

Chris for the GX Control Arm for the Upper it is 59Ft Lbf and the Lower are 96Ft Lbf.

 

Mann, do you know if they're single-use bolts? I know manuf's are pretty commonly using bolts these days that can only be accurately torqued once...
Thanks.

 

Stiles, yes ur right.

 

thanks mann

 

I did this over the weekend. I was especially curious because my lower control arms were replaced as part of the clunk TSB (quite a while ago), and the ride has been poor ever since.

They cranked up the ride height after the job, so I lowered it to a more appropriate level & that helped a bit. But, it was still "brittle", and felt like other cars I've worked on where I didn't settle the suspension before torquing things. This led me to think that perhaps the techs had been lazy when they replaced my control arms, and torqued them on the lift.

The job was relatively easy. I backed up on ramps and put the rear suspension on "high" to give me a bit more room to work. I bought a nice 1/2" breaker bar, which helped quite a bit. I saw at least one of the bushings "release" when I loosened the bolt.

I loosened all 4 attachment points to the point where I had a few threads showing on each nut, then started the truck and cycled through high/low a few times -- jumping on the rear bumper for good measure.

I then torqued everything back to 95lb-ft. I'm going to take the risk and hope that the single-torque bolts will deal OK w/another torquing.

I spent about 4 hours in the truck today in varied driving and it feels better. Not the silky smooth I remember from when it was new, but far less "bouncy", and more comfortable. Might be placebo, but I'm happy w/the change.

FWIW, I didn't touch the upper links because a) they're a PITA to get to, and b) they weren't replaced when the "clunk fix" was done. I did notice some wear on the bushings, though. Something to keep an eye on for future maintenance.

Just thought I'd report-back. YMMV.

 

i have to cycle the rear height every time i get in after it sits the whole day. seems like it isnt doing this on start up on its own like it does on shut down when you get out. will do the retorque tomorrow.

 

My opinion: if you can "fix" your ride by cycling the air suspension, then your issue isn't the control arms. If they're "binding", then they'd manifest in something that feels like a higher spring rate for the rear suspension all the time.

But, curious to hear how it works out. I assume you've checked your ride height, and ensured you're not bouncing off of the bump stops?