Devh

Since it's seems like wide spread problem I can see third party manufactures ready to tool replacement control arms with bushings in them.

Even the E60 BMW had known front bushing issues but that was the least of it's problems.

roadfrog

Amen Devh!

Even the Brake Actuator issue I see within this forum, is trivial by comparison to the BMW issues I had.

vampiece

Vvman, great post. I'm in sg as well and am having the same problem. Can you forward the contact to your workshop? Thanks!

randomwalk

Vman,
where did you source your parts? Thanks.

Vvman

The parts are available on ebay, randomwalk.

Tee

Vvman, great write up with pics and follow up of members questions!

I added this thread to the FAQ sticky, thank you for posting this informative contribution to the LS460 community.

Vvman

Thank you Tee.

Its been my pleasure to share information on this forum. I do not wish to claim any credit as I have also benefitted a great deal from the vast amount of information here.

Just happy to be a part of this passionate CL community.

Cheers.

zalymann

Hi Vvman,

Am new to this post but was wondering how the ride is now?

I had some squeaking noise from my rear passenger wheel and the dealer said I had to change my rear upper and lower arm assembly because the bushings have worn out. He said that there were shops who could swap the bushings but it could affect the tire thread wear.

Do you know if this is a possibility?

Am interested to replace the bushings also but am worried about tyre wear as well.

Any suggestions?

Vvman

Hello zalymann

Welcome to CL.

It has been a few weeks since I have the bushings replaced, they are absolutely awesome, no noise, everything nice n tight, just the way they should be.

I assume you have a 07-12 LS460. I have 104k km on the car and my rear control arm bushings are just fine, these are more durable than the ones on the front.

Unfortunately there is no known bushing replacement/fix for the rear, other than swapping out the entire arms AFAIK. All front control arm bushings are available on ebay but I have yet come across any for the rear.

I am not questioning the professionalism of your dealer but I just don't see how putting new good condition bushings/or arms can adversely affect tire wear?? If that is true, wouldn't all cars fresh from the factory suffer from excessive tire wear?

I do know for a fact that if you have free play due to loose suspension parts, (worn bushings or otherwise) that would throw your alignment out of specs, toe angles being the biggest culprit and consequently induce uneven and excessive tire wear.

Get the rear bushings replaced (whole arms if necessary), do a wheel alignment after that, your tires will be fine.

Good luck.

randomwalk

Vvman,

I saw on eBay they sell both upper and lower control arms with the new bushing. However, looking at the pictures, and comparing to the lower bushing kits, the kits seems to have more bushings than on the lower control arm...where does the rest of the lower control arm bushings in the kit go?

Here is the front lower bushing kit:



Here is the whole front lower control arm:



So looking at the lower front control arm above, only one is used/mounted on the lower control arm. Where do the other two go? (four left in the 1st picture -- two on each side)

randomwalk

I see it now...the lower control arms actually, there are four arms (two black and two silver)...

robert1408

Looks to me like the top pair are the lateral (main) lower control arm, the middle pair for the shock/spring unit lower mount in that main arm and the bottom pair for the forward (compliance) lower arm.

Vvman

Randomwalk

There are 2 lower arms per side on our rides, yes, the black pairs as shown in your 2nd pic and another silver coloured pairs.

The middle pairs in your 1st pic (not to scale, they are actually much larger than the other 2 pairs) will fit into the black colored arms.

And the small bushings on left side of the silver control arms (pic below) is where the shock absorbers actually sits.

randomwalk

Thanks vvman

I believe the other side (back) of front wheel has another set of the silver arm with bushings ?
Also there are more bushings on the rear wheel too (didn't check)

Vvman

Hi Randomwalk

I have attached a photo of the arms/linkages of the right front wheel before the bushings replacement. Notice the tear on the bushings in red circle.

The arm that is highlighted here in yellow (behind the silver lower control arm that runs laterally) is actually the anti-roll bar. Yes, the arb has a bushing on each side and they look quite durable. The arb link which connects the arb to the lower control arm does not have a bushing though.

There are quite a number of bushings at the rear, and unfortunately, as I have mentioned earlier, there is no known replacement bushings available on the market today. Guess will have to swap the entire arm if something breaks there.