415ua5

Well, i have had quite a ride with my lexus. I was foolish enough to buy the car with the front suspension noise as is. I bought the previous owners BS lie about it being bushings.


Basically whenever i go over a bump i get a pretty loud metal on metal noise from the front suspension.


I took it to my usual mechanic. He said Bushings were fine but i needed new shocks.


So i forked over almost $400 to have some koni yellows put in. The noise is still there didnt even change at all.

So i take it to my other mechanic. He says its control arms. Now before i go rush out and buy control arms and realize that it didnt fix nothing, are there any "quick fix" looks he can try before doing that? I read in other threads about retorking, or it just being a rubber ball joint that costs less than 100$


Anyways, i found some cheap UCA that are remanufactured that isnt too pricey. $200 for the UCA and my mechanic will probably install them for under $200. While hes under there are there any other cheap rubber parts i can fix that might help???
http://www.arnottindustries.com/part...46_gid421.html

415ua5

woops i didnt realize i am not on my regular screen name, which has my car in the sig.

I have a 1992 ls400 with 166k so most of the suspension parts are probably original.

JBrewster

When you replace the control arm you are replacing its bushings and ball joint too. Buy new Toyota parts from an online retailer. Did the mechanic say what part of the UCA was bad? The previous owner could be right and it's the bushings...

415ua5

ahhh so if i replace the UCA it replaces all the bushings along with it. cool thats what i wanted to know. Mechanic said both sides of the control arms looked worn, the replacement link i have above is both control arms for only 200 bucks.

Bali26

Not all bushings, Just UCA bushings. Make sure thats the problem though.

JBrewster

The link's not working for me, but you get what you pay for. For control arms I'd only buy Toyota.

blkstealthpaid4

I bet you it is not your UCA but rather your strutbar/strut rod
I have had 2 gens of these cars and I have changed rods on both cars with those symptoms you mentioned above.
Thank God I now have an impact gun to do some of the work in these bad tiomes and save mucho money.

415ua5

hmm, strut bar/strut rod??

i will have my mechanic look at that first before buying the UCA, thanks alot.

also, i am pretty confident the remanufactured will be alright. i dont intend on keeping this car for more than 10k miles, i just want the noise fixed so i can use it as a daily for a little while and sell the car.

415ua5

does the bar/rod need to be replaced or just re tightened/?

blkstealthpaid4

replaced.
My uncle did mine on my 95 but they are also the same symptom on the 90-94.I also had to replace mine on my 90.
$95 from carson totota and $131 from any import part store

415ua5

my mechanic looked over it and hes 100% certian its UCA, he even showed me the control arm and it definately needs replacing. i am going to order and install the part if it doesnt fix the noise than i will be quite certain its strust bars.