Front UCA's Upper Control Arms
 

Need right & left UCA's for my '93 they have play up and down in the ball joint & the pssgr side "knocks" over small bumps.

Now the question - most here know the price of OEM UCA's is unreal - for me to get them (both sides) to my door in Canada with taxes looking at near $1,200 - that's unreal.

So on Ebay the cheapest aftermarket I can find is $130/side USD before tax & shipping.

My local junk dealer where I bought the car has some used off '94 rated "grade A" for $125 CAD each.

Would anyone buy used?

Opinions on the aftermarkets off ebay?

Thanks

search the topics, theres plenty info about aftermarker UCA. BTW, as I remember, not all of the are good (I guess some have problems with ARNOTT UCAs).
I got mine from UK, because I´m from Europe. But one thing I wouldnt do is buying used UCA!!

good luck!

I'd buy used control arms, but only if the ball joint is in great great shape and the bushings as well.

If you know enough about those kinds of things, can't hurt to take a look.

Otherwise there are Arnotts. Not the greatest but when the boot goes, send them back. Lifetime warranty.

Thanks guys, getting better at using the search engine here, learned some more after posting the above. Going to go with the one's on Ebay from APX. Leary of used called the guy who has them he says if they "look" good they put them for sale. A "little bit" of play in the ball joint is too much for me - just going to quickly lead to more. I find it hard to believe if they're used that they aren't worn some..........

Installed the APX UCA's today. $130 each. So far so good, nice fit, front end is tighter & no more knocks:thumbup:

Update
 

Had a couple inquiries lately so here's an update on the APX control arms

All good :-)

Been about 6 mths and 5,000kms so far. We happend to have them off last weekend when installing new shocks and they looked good - tightly seated and no tears in the rubber covers

I was one of those inquiries.... I iwll be ordering mine via ebay tonight and look forward to installing them ASAP.

Thanks StevieA!!!

had mine done about 10 000 miles ago, they were from arnotts suspension. looks and feels like OEM but drives tighter :). I would suggest buying these because they claim, look and feel like oem and are alot cheaper.

Be VERY careful of them. SEVERAL of our members have bought from them and are reporting poor long term performance as well as ill placed fitment. Yes they DO fit, but they do NOT fit 100% within spec range. There is a thread about them. Short term,,you can roll with them,,long term,,you will end up buying them again to replace as they wear ALOT faster.

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/ls4...nott-ucas.html

Put Arnott UCAs on my 93 today. Clunk is gone. From what I'm reading it may only last a fraction of the originals but I'm ok with that based on the price difference and age of the car.

That linked thread indicates torn boots. I'll have to have them inspected a few months from now and see how they're holding up.

BTW, is there any value in the old Lexus UCAs? The threaded bolts on the ball joints are torn up from being hard to remove and of course they're worn (175k miles).

Ouch, can you point me in this thread direction where the arnotts were listed. I guess i should spray some white lithium grease to keep the bushings. How long are we talking here that they are expected to last?

Torn bots are the leading cause of bll joint failure,since moisture is alowed to enter into the grease sealed compartment. Sine the uppers are part of the etire control arm, and you will have to replace it with another arm to solve the problem, I am just giving the heads up based on what some others have experienced and documented. Also check post Number 11 in that same thread. Taper on the upper balljoint stud is diferent and causing problems getting the proper torque to tighten.

The ENTIRE thread that was linked is about the Arnott's.

My mechanic said they were a ***** to put on and mentioned something being slightly different. Maybe that was it.

The rattle was driving me nuts. I hope to get two more years out of this car. If the arms don't get clunky in that time I'll be satisfied.

Trust and believe that I know the pain of having to shell out the dough to replace this highly overngineered part. I hated to do iwhn I had to do so, but that's what hookups were for (goodness I missthem now). Not saying, at all, that the arnotts are junk. Am sure they are ok, and for the purpose needed, when needed as well as the cost of them, they seem to do fine. We, on this forum, do try to warm/inform or members of experiences both good and bad. Just so that YOU, the potential buyer, is armed with the info and cn make/weigh the infomation for yourself. Short term, you should be ok. However, if you start to hear the same telltale again, you will immediatly know where to start looking.

I recently installed APX uca's from ebay as well. Theyre working fine so far. I just need to spray them with some grease cause theyre kinda squeaky. Here are some pics of OEM vs APX.

http://img708.imageshack.us/img708/9802/dsc01648mn.jpg
http://img717.imageshack.us/img717/986/dsc01649d.jpg
http://img689.imageshack.us/img689/3403/dsc01651ha.jpg
http://img42.imageshack.us/img42/1709/dsc01652xy.jpg