07 LS460 Upper & Lower control arm bushings replacement
Pole Position
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From: Ontario
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From: Texas
Take note of this website: https://www.febest.us
The upper control arms are the least expensive I have found and they make all the bushings for the arms. This includes the rear arms too! I am doing the eight control arm install myself this weekend. The parts appear to be of high quality. They did not have the lower control arms. Those arms were sourced through Rock Auto. For the lower arms I went with Beck Arnley, manufactured in Taiwan!
The upper control arms are the least expensive I have found and they make all the bushings for the arms. This includes the rear arms too! I am doing the eight control arm install myself this weekend. The parts appear to be of high quality. They did not have the lower control arms. Those arms were sourced through Rock Auto. For the lower arms I went with Beck Arnley, manufactured in Taiwan!
thanks. AMK3RD FTW
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From: Texas
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From: MA
Hey, Vvman! Did your mechanic tighten all those control arms in their frame mounts with the car at its normal ride height? The lower bushings look like the bolt sleeve through the middle can't rotate in the mount after tightening the nut on the long bolt that holds it. I can't tell if the upper bushings are that way but poly bushings are usually free to rotate.
I looked under my '07 LS after seeing your excellent pics. All the lower mounts are easy to get to the mounting bolts.
Nearly all modern control arms are not free to rotate in their mounts. Their movement twists the rubber. They will last lots longer if they are not under a twisting load at normal ride height. Such bushings should be tightened with the suspension at normal ride height. I hope your guy did that. If not it would be easy to loosen them, bounce the car a few times and re-tighten. Those poly uppers should be fine.
I hate to be a wet towel here but I saw so many replacement bushings/control arms prematurely fail from missing this important little detail. I almost don't want to post this...
I looked under my '07 LS after seeing your excellent pics. All the lower mounts are easy to get to the mounting bolts.
Nearly all modern control arms are not free to rotate in their mounts. Their movement twists the rubber. They will last lots longer if they are not under a twisting load at normal ride height. Such bushings should be tightened with the suspension at normal ride height. I hope your guy did that. If not it would be easy to loosen them, bounce the car a few times and re-tighten. Those poly uppers should be fine.
I hate to be a wet towel here but I saw so many replacement bushings/control arms prematurely fail from missing this important little detail. I almost don't want to post this...
I like the idea to loosen the bolt from bushing and re-tighten. This is the problem I have when I put the upper control arm while front wheel off. I had tighten before put back the wheel so I am not sure if they are under a twisting.
When you say bounce the car a few time before re-tighten, does this apply to Air Suspension?
Thanks
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Joined: Dec 2013
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From: tx
How is this holding up?? I am about to tackle this issue and was thinking about ordering all 8 from Mevotech and adding the bushings from figs engineering. Any issues since the install? Thank you for the help.
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From: tx
if my ball joints are good, I guess I will do this: for the front uppers I shall use FIGS bushings, the lower ones I shall use PSB, I do not ike the design of the upper ones from PSB and anything else not covered by those 2, I shall use febest, including maybe the rears. BUT with the febest bushings I am going to reinforce them with 3M window weld or maybe Liquid Nails polyurethane.. not decided yet.
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Joined: Sep 2004
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From: Arizona
jcromero. IMO, you are on the right track using the FIGS (SuperPro) bushings in the upper arms regardless of what brand of upper arm you ultimately go with. You also may want to consider using the updated OEM arms for the lower #2 arms as they appear to be much more robust than any of the aftermarket arms I have seen (I have not seen an aftermarket design that is similar to the updated OEM design) In addition to connecting to the knuckle, the lower arm #2 also supports the struts and tie in with the sway bar links and seem to be the most critical and the most prone to failure. You can get both of these arms from amayama for about $427 including shipping.
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From: tx
jcromero. IMO, you are on the right track using the FIGS (SuperPro) bushings in the upper arms regardless of what brand of upper arm you ultimately go with. You also may want to consider using the updated OEM arms for the lower #2 arms as they appear to be much more robust than any of the aftermarket arms I have seen (I have not seen an aftermarket design that is similar to the updated OEM design) In addition to connecting to the knuckle, the lower arm #2 also supports the struts and tie in with the sway bar links and seem to be the most critical and the most prone to failure. You can get both of these arms from amayama for about $427 including shipping.
Driver School Candidate
Joined: Dec 2013
Posts: 9
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From: tx
jcromero. IMO, you are on the right track using the FIGS (SuperPro) bushings in the upper arms regardless of what brand of upper arm you ultimately go with. You also may want to consider using the updated OEM arms for the lower #2 arms as they appear to be much more robust than any of the aftermarket arms I have seen (I have not seen an aftermarket design that is similar to the updated OEM design) In addition to connecting to the knuckle, the lower arm #2 also supports the struts and tie in with the sway bar links and seem to be the most critical and the most prone to failure. You can get both of these arms from amayama for about $427 including shipping.
Driver School Candidate
Joined: Dec 2013
Posts: 9
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From: tx
jcromero. IMO, you are on the right track using the FIGS (SuperPro) bushings in the upper arms regardless of what brand of upper arm you ultimately go with. You also may want to consider using the updated OEM arms for the lower #2 arms as they appear to be much more robust than any of the aftermarket arms I have seen (I have not seen an aftermarket design that is similar to the updated OEM design) In addition to connecting to the knuckle, the lower arm #2 also supports the struts and tie in with the sway bar links and seem to be the most critical and the most prone to failure. You can get both of these arms from amayama for about $427 including shipping.
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Joined: Sep 2017
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From: California
Thank you for the advice. How difficult was it to push the new bushings in to the uppers? If I buy mevotech uppers from Rock Auto plus figs bushings for $100 still way better price than $400 from Figs. I could also do the two oem upgraded lowers and the other 2 lowers from Rock Auto as well. Inner and outer tie rods for about $100 and I believe I have pretty much a new front suspension. I will post pictures of my list and see if I can get additional help. Thank you.
A thought. Mevotech control arms have life-time warranty to the original buyers. Is it worth replacing the bushings on the new Mevotech control arms thereby nullifying their life-time warranty or does it make more sense to leverage Movetech life-time warranty and replace the entire control arms at no cost under the warranty if the bushings go bad? In my experience, it only takes about 30 minutes or so to replace the upper control arms on one side, i.e., not too much work to replace the upper control arms if and when needed. Just a thought.
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Last edited by yyymmm31; Mar 12, 2021 at 09:40 AM. Reason: corrected typos
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From: Arizona
Thank you for the advice. How difficult was it to push the new bushings in to the uppers? If I buy mevotech uppers from Rock Auto plus figs bushings for $100 still way better price than $400 from Figs. I could also do the two oem upgraded lowers and the other 2 lowers from Rock Auto as well. Inner and outer tie rods for about $100 and I believe I have pretty much a new front suspension. I will post pictures of my list and see if I can get additional help. Thank you.