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Are all 8 in the front end or front and rear combined?
I need to do mine but not sure how what I need. I'm not in warranty on my 08. My local shop said 4 lower front n rear (not rear on the car). Never said there were upper.
There's 8 in the front...4 upper and four lowers. The uppers usually are the ones that fail the easiest.
I only did 6 of mine, but the lower rears didn't look all that great either when I got in there, so I'll probably do them maybe next year. Right now the car feels like new after replacing 6 of them.
Everyone:
My apologies for this taking so long, but I wanted to go ahead and post some photos of my original OEM UCA's, the cracking that can be seen, but in some cases, easier seen once the arm's are removed, as well as a few photos of the new revised UCA's installed and the indexing marks the mechanic used upon the install.
Im only posting in an attempt to further help fellow members.
The original OEM UCA's
This is the driver's-forward facing CA.<br/>Notice the lovely tear in the rubber on the underside of the bolt sleeve.
Driver's-rear facing CA. Crack is worse here.
Passenger side-forward facing.
Passenger side-rear facing
Below are a few photos of the new revised UCA's installed.
Both photos were taken on the passenger side and of the rear facing UCA.
Hopes this helps in providing a visual to the "crisis" entitled:
The Saga of the LS 460 Control Arms
Very nice. I took my LS a few weeks ago into Lexus and the tech went around the corners with pry bar didnt see any excess movement and said they looked good. I was with him when he did it. I told them at upper highway speeds 70+ i felt a vibration. Its not bad. I doubt i will have them replaced least at the dealership since it has over 105 k when i bought it from a private seller.
Very nice. I took my LS a few weeks ago into Lexus and the tech went around the corners with pry bar didnt see any excess movement and said they looked good. I was with him when he did it. I told them at upper highway speeds 70+ i felt a vibration. Its not bad. I doubt i will have them replaced least at the dealership since it has over 105 k when i bought it from a private seller.
Interestingly, the same held true for my '08: visually AND with the use of a pry bar, the control arms looked good. Upon removal, it became evident that the bushings were junk!
I share this for what it may be worth, since your situation is different from a vehicle age/mileage/warranty perspective (my "story" took place when the car had 40k and was 3.5 years old). I can't imagine that they are actually ok at this age and mileage.
Very nice. I took my LS a few weeks ago into Lexus and the tech went around the corners with pry bar didnt see any excess movement and said they looked good. I was with him when he did it. I told them at upper highway speeds 70+ i felt a vibration. Its not bad. I doubt i will have them replaced least at the dealership since it has over 105 k when i bought it from a private seller.
I was going to comment on this, but caha beat me to it.
Earlier in this thread, I made mention of a similar "walk around pry bar inspection" that I did with my trusted indy mechanic.
My UCA's didn't have much play and the tears that were visible weren't bad at all.
If you take a look at when I posted that post, you'll see where caha made mention of his experience in much better detail.
Here is the thing:
Even when I had my UCA's replaced (I had mine done at Lexus and our fellow forum runner Doublebase did his in his own garage), Double's UCA's and the OEM's I had replaced weren't really in that bad of condition. But none the less, they were worn.
The biggest immediate improvement I experienced with my repair was the steering become a bit more stout; tighter and my braking approaching stop lights/stop signs was much smoother. I experienced other benefactors from this repair (which I also mentioned earlier in this thread), but it was after a 4-wheel alignment, tire rotation and RFB.
I still have a slight vibration at the 76-80mph, and I attribute this to the older LCA's, and perhaps tires that are older but still is great condition.
I have seen my LCA's and the exterior wear value isn't present, however, they are over 8 years old with over 70K miles on them.
I had a slight vibration before the repair, and after the repair the vibration was lessened, but not all the way gone.
Something to also keep in mind is that, as Doublebase has previously pointed out, when the CA's are bad, due to the way in which the suspension on the LS in incorporated, it does place strain on the wheel bearings and there's been mention by another member that they replaced their tie rods due to CA failure.
I would suggest to be mindful and be very attentive to how your car behaves over the next several thousand miles, but as I stated, the condition wont get better and the probability for other parts to fail will increase.
Its not entirely a safety issue, as its not the arms cracking, breaking or failing, rather its the deterioration of the rubber bushings, but within that, though not a safety issue, you're now dealing with the integrity of a very important feature of the car.
I took over 5 months to have my issue addressed, but I figured I had time, my symptoms weren't that bad, and I, at the time, wasn't driving it much.
The good news is that you have choices and if you decide to go the non-OEM route regarding parts, you can save yourself a bunch of money.
Good luck with your decision.
Interestingly, the same held true for my '08: visually AND with the use of a pry bar, the control arms looked good. Upon removal, it became evident that the bushings were junk!
I share this for what it may be worth, since your situation is different from a vehicle age/mileage/warranty perspective (my "story" took place when the car had 40k and was 3.5 years old). I can't imagine that they are actually ok at this age and mileage.
Upon my initial drive, like, pulling out of the Lexus bay after the repair was complete, it was marginally smoother and the steering was a little bit tighter, and I mean a LITTLE BIT.
The largest difference was that, before the repair, I had a slight shimmy in my braking at low speeds.
After the UCA repair, that completely disappeared.
I actually didn't feel a great driving difference until I had the 4 wheel alignment, tire rotation and RFB of the wheels.
Thanks for the feedback.. I probably will replace them at some point will have to see if after market is the way to go or buy OEM. Right now i have no real complaints just a once and awhile thump on the front right side.
Thats why i had the dealership check them out. I think the tech was just trying to avoid me spending money on it now. The service rep lady didnt know a whole lot about it so she just went with what the tech said.
