How many miles on car, not just the new control arms? There are other suspension components that wear and clunk. Ball joints, motor mounts, sway bar bushings, shocks and more. Unless the mobile mechanic lifted the car, it's unlikely he could check components for movement/wear by applying a pry bar. I'll repeat my advice, take it to a shop that knows Lexus and pay to have it "properly" checked. You did ask what's next. let us know what the inspection reveals.

 

~32k on the car. Found a good shop, but it's far.. Just gotta find some time to get it there. Will do!

 

What does it do if you punch it going around a corner ?

 

Every 12 months? Wow, that has to cost a fortune. If they go bad that often, I'd just go aftermarket to save money. I don't think I could handle dealing with that routine expensive repair.

 

It costs $285 with aftermarket bushings, aftermarket front lower forward control arms and alignment. I do the labor.

 

My 460 now has 20k miles on Delphi parts thanks to my wife using it as a daily since the 430 has been gone, no issues with them at all. I will test the warranty when they need to be changed out again

 

My gosh, that must seem like a normal replacement part to you by now! That would drive me batty, my LS460 would be a garage queen if I had to do that since I'd buy a sacrificial car in that case. So you must have gotten pretty fast at changing those front end parts, are they lubed with grease for fast replacement and the mounting bolts replaced by wing nuts? lol...

Seriously, not to make light of your problem, since to a Lexus owner bad roads are no joke! I was just thinking, years ago when my 2002 Camry was newer I thought it was an inconvenience to park on my rental property's steep driveway every night (I blocked the rear wheels with wooden blocks just to take the strain off the transmission...it must have served its purpose because 17 years later I still drive the same car). But that is literally nothing compared to your issue.

 

With all gear new, it takes little time to replace the parts. It does bother me that parts have such short life span. However, it is my daily and drive it on any roads and in any weather conditions. It is interesting that when looking at the failed control arms, it didn't look like it was anything wrong with it. It had just a little tearing but it is enough to cause clanking. It made me think that it was something wrong with OEM air ride. I even replaced it with regular coils. But clanking came back, so I have now a spare set of regular coils.

 

Interesting to hear this since you're extremely knowledgeable about these cars, just from me reading your posts. I've read that you go OEM or plan on changing these yearly; also that you lose the Lexus ride quality. I've watched YouTube videos on replacing them; I suppose I could do them myself, but they look like a hassle--the tops not so much, but the lowers do. Some use a press and just replace the bushings, some buy aftermarket arm assemblies, and some just go OEM and be done with it. After tons of wrenching on 2 project cars I just sold (89 and 95 Taurus SHOs), I am tired of working on cars--learned a great deal of repair skills working on those, but it ruined the fun and became aggravating when I fixed 1 thing and 3 others broke afterward. I've had nothing but issues with aftermarket parts, including premature failures, window motors and calipers bad right out of the box, among other things.

I'd love to have a poll where people could post when and how often theirs failed, the mileage, and if they used aftermarket or OEM parts. I know there are are too many variables involved, such as the type of roads driven on (as stated before), whether the car is an L, AWD, etc. I know the 2012 revisions helped the lowers with the reinforcement on the bushing, but how much they helped is the question and did it prolong the life any?

 

I have been noticing this irritating thing too - the quality of non-OEM auto parts has dropped from what it once was even back in the 1990's. I started wrenching around 1977 when my Dad gave me his 1964 Plymouth Fury that needed a valve job and told me "If you want a car, fix this one, I'll pay for the parts." My previous experience with auto repair was none, and it was a steep learning curve fixing that old Plymouth, but somehow I did it. And after that I just started fixing the cars of everybody I knew just to learn how. (Now if you go and do something dumb, like go around telling people you'll fix their cars for free, you might be surprised at how often people will bring their cars to you but that's how I learned).
Anyway, back then auto parts were dead reliable, when you bought a starter or alternator it worked first time every time and rarely did you get one bad out of the box. Whereas nowadays you want to have them test the part before you even leave the auto parts with it, since we know from bitter experience the odds are maybe 50/50 whether the new part will work out of the box or not. And the main reason why nobody in their right mind buys most auto parts online sight unseen, especially if it has any moving parts.

I think that's a good idea. I'd also like to know things like how many miles, past and current cars owned, what motor oil and why, etc. and often a poll is the perfect way to get such information. Personally I'd be more than willing to answer polls pertaining to car issues since I always seem to learn something from the results of such polls anyway. And before I buy a used car, or auto parts like tires and batteries, I always try to find information from a forum first because they are one of the few sources I figure I can (mostly) trust. Unbiased advice about cars and parts, from people whom you are reasonably sure have no hidden agenda, is more valuable to making an expensive decision than almost any other source there is.