I just purchased a 97 LS400 and both UCA's need replaced, with a little bit of feedback I ordered the APX versions of these. The fact that StevieA has been running on them for 6 months and the pictures from Rey, which I may say do show them to be quite nice looking, I feel confident they will work. I will also post my results as they are expected around monday and will put them on ASAP.

I may even do a video of the install as I have not found one yet. I also will be installing the lower EGR Pipe, which has already been ordered. a shame no one has started making aftermarket ones of these as common as they are to needing replaced.

 

you can buy ARNOTT UCAs, but as soon as you get them change the ball joint boot. i took them out and replace them with my old OEM. Their is a wire clip just pull it out slowly so you dont stretch it out. My OEM boot seems to last forever but arnott did not last a year.

 

You have rattling with the arnotts ones? I have a popping that recently came up over pot holes and bumps, its a fast popping like chopping vegtables almost...i also feel and hear this when im braking and creaking or lurching over dips in the road but not speed bumps...however i just thought this was the strut bar bushing.

I wrecked my oem UCA boots with my pickle fork so i couldnt reuse them. Is there any other option like wrapping them in carbon tape or fiberglass tape?

 

sound like strut bar bushing aka strut rod

 

APX upper control arms were $211 shipped for both left & right.... Cheapest I found any other one was about that much per uca. With others having used them and not had any problems to this point, if APX uca's only lasted 2 years, then I could buy another set and get 4 years of use out of them and be about the same cost if not cheaper than others available. Sure a little time to swap them out, but very little time. If this was a very hard task then I might ponder buying more expensive ones. I expect the APX to last just showing cost examples.

 

Arnotts in for about 6 months now, no issues...

 

Sorry my post wasn't clear.

I had rattling, had LCAs replaced with OEM a year ago, helped a bit but still rattled. Then Wednesday I had the UCAs replaced with Arnotts. They sound much better at low speed bumps as far as rattle goes but there is still just a bit of rattle left. It appears struts is the final piece to the front suspension which could be causing this? My mechanic, who I trust, says my shocks are good. (175K mi).

 

The type of rattle that you are describing is normally caused by the strut bars. There is a cushion/bushing that goes at the very end of it and bolts to the subframe of he car. Is connected from the LCA to the subframe in the front. Normally that bushing/cushion goes bad and the rattle that you are hearing is that part. For the first gens,,that part is NOT cheap(cheapest I found was $130 PER SIDE),,ordered mine just a few days ago. For the second gens and above, the price is much more reasonable however will be worth the replace.

 

i need to return my arnott ucas because the tapered section was too thin. I contacted the apx seller when i noticed the problem with the arnotts to ask about the diameter of their tapers and it sounded smaller than my stock uca.

 

I received my APX uca's today... they are actually DMA Goodpoint brand uca's. I am very impressed with the workmanship of the units. I will probably take on this project tomorrow or so and replace my old ones. So far I would recommend the APX or DMA uca's to anyone looking. items are very heavy and sturdy no weak points on the metal that I can find. The joints all look very good also.

Will let everyone know my experience with installing them soon.

 

Arnott control arms just have the wrong ball joint in them. The Ball joint is too thin, allowing the steering knuckle to slide all the way up, squeezing the boot real bad. This makes them wear out within 3 months and tears the boot to shreds.

Here is a picture of the stock ones compared to arnotts. I tore the boots off so you could see what I mean.

 

I need to replace my 93 LS upper control arms and possibly lower ball joints too.

What's the latest word on Arnott and APX upper control arms? The OEM is still so expensive ($515 each at www.parts.com)

I also see a German brand called Meyle on ebay, each UCA is around $200. Anyone have any experience with Meyle?

If you know anything about these products, please give us a quick status. Thanks to everyone in advance.

 

Thank you for the picture. We can clearly see why the Arnott ball joint area is no good because of the missiing/broken stop.

I can no longer find the APX arm on ebay that other CL members wrote about.

What choices do we have besides OEM? ($515 at www.parts.com) I read somewhere OEM dealer cost may be around $330 or so. So, is anyone out there selling this item with a 10%-20% market up? ... say, under $400? These OEM prices are so crazy.

 

I got mine from NAPA. Same ball joint design as OEM.

 

The UCA from NAPA, are you able to tell who was the maker? I posted the following on another thread today, I will paste here again:

Dorman UCA is sold on Amazon by Amazon.

We can see here on CL that Arnott is no good. I am not sure about APX. APX is just a reseller and they source the arm from DMA Goodpoint. I called DMA Goodpoint and they no longer sell the arms (as of two months ago).

My guess is Arnott, APX, DMA Goodpoint, are all resellers. They all sell the same crap from China with the bad ball joint. If you go on Alibaba.com you will find you can buy these arms by the 100s or 1000s for very very cheap. My guess is all those arms on ebay are from this source in China. All crap.

Dorman may be different and better, but I am not certain at this point.

I searched and have not seen feedback from CL members about Dorman UCA. This is strange because the OEM is so expensive ($600) and I thought by now we would have some feedbacks about Dorman.

I called Dorman tech support directly today 800-523-2492 www.dormanproducts.com (1/9/2012). The man on the phone told me they design and engineer this part and they are manufactured in Taiwan.

http://www.dormanproducts.com/p-2213...2520Suspension


The fact I got a real tech support person to tell me this gives me some comfort.

I will probably buy one Dorman arm and try it out. At $195 I think I am will to give them a try. (And Amazon.com will take it back if I tell them it's crap.) This product is also sold on rockauto.com.

Dorman part no. 520-459 and 520-460 (L and R upper control arm for first gen LS)

If you know anything about these Dorman UCA please share your knowledge with us.