I'm replacing the lower control arms (plus lower ball joints, end bar links) on my 2003 LS 430. I've done plenty of reading on this forum and also watched a handful of youtube videos. Seems very straightforward.

Working on the driver side today, the lower strut bolt was very difficult to remove...as if the strut was pushing down on the LCA. I managed to get the bolt out but the strut is still under a pretty good amount of downward pressure, pushing on the LCA and making the front bushing bolt tough to remove.

I can't really find any info on this. Does anyone know what's happening here? Of the youtube videos I've seen, once the lower strut bolt is removed, everything seems to be loose. That isn't the case here.

 

 

That's just bushing pre-load tension, use a large pry to manipulate the arm downward.

 

Ah, ok. I got the rear bushing bolts loose with no problem. The front bushing bolt/nut is stuck on pretty good. I sprayed it down with WD-40 before quittin for the day and I'll get at it tomorrow and try to pry it down a bit. Thank you

 

Did you get the shock out? What LCA and LBJ are you using?

 

Yes, I got the lower control arm out by prying it down a bit. And spraying the bolts with WD40 helped a lot. The driver’s side was a pain. The passenger side was a breeze. Overall the project was very doable.

I ordered Lexus parts including lower front control arms, front lower ball joints and sway bar end links, all from Bell Lexus. The OEM lower control arms don’t include the rear bushing (I was unaware) so I picked up the IS bushings from local Lexus dealer. There are several threads stating that the IS bushings are a decent substitute and no pressing is required.

Got the car aligned after and all is good now.

 

Today I went to re-torque the front bushing bolts on my lower control arms and noticed that the nut on the right side is just spinning on the bolt and not going up or down the bolt. It's as if the nut is stripped on the bolt and it just spins. I can pick up a new bolt/nut from my Lexus dealer but any ideas on how to get the nut off?

The reason I'm re-torquing these bolts is because the guy at the alignment shop couldn't tell me what he torqued the bolts to...he said he put them on "tight". Neither bolt was torqued to 127lb.

 

Isn't that a camber bolt?

You torque it from the front, I think.

 

Yes, the nut pictured is the front nut. The nut just spins and doesn't go up or down the bolt. I've never seen that before. The bolt is not moving and the nut can be turned in either direction but does not advance either way on the bolt. I'm getting the idea that this nut is a one time use part and I should have replaced it? Especially when torquing to 127lb?

 

This video helped me a ton when I replaced my LCA too.


Look at around the 12:20 mark for an explanation of the camber bolt.

 

Thanks for sharing. I referenced that video too.

To be clear, my question is not how to torque the but on the bolt but rather the nut has failed.

How to I remove a nut that is just spinning on a bolt?

 

Ah gotcha. Hmm that didn't happened to me. I used two wrenches like the video shows and didn't have any issues with torquening it down.

 

Update: I got the nut off. Surprisingly there aren't really any tutorials for this sort of problem online. I used a dremel to cut the nut lengthwise just enough for the threads to catch and allow me to screw the nut off. I stopped my my alignment shop this morning and they quoted 1-2 hours of labor to cut it off, depending on what kind of angle they had and if they had to remove parts to access the nut. Glad I saved myself that labor.

 

Good job! So do you think the alignment shop messed it up or it was installation error?

 

Not sure, the bolt threads were thrashed. Likely from destroying the nut and backing it out. I spent $50 in parts between the bolt, nut and camber washer. I was able to line the washer back up so no need to have it realigned.