Was the Control Arm issue prevalent in '09
 

If so what is/was the fix? Was there a reason it affected some cars and not others?

When I try to research I wee '07-'08 but not '09 mentioned

Try this search or some variation of it (for example, substitute "re-design" for "2009") and report back your thoughts. Google search string (omit the single quotes at the beginning and end):

'site:clublexus.com/forums/ls460-ls460l-and-ls600h "control arms" 2009'

The forum search isn't particularly powerful.

will try, thank you

Had the issue in my 09

The consensus seems to be the redesign happened for 2011.

I just had all 8 arms done on my new-to-me 2008 with only 45k miles (and the rest of the car looks as if it had even less). Most of the bushings looked as if a rat had chewed them apart. I find it hard to believe after seeing my bushings that anyone with the old parts doesn't have any cracks.

Given the cost of the job (and at an indy, not a dealer, although I used the redesigned Lexus parts) I'm thinking maybe I wouldn't have paid much more if I had bought a 2011 in the first place.

You chose to use expensive Lexus parts instead of much less expensive Ebay parts. Not saying that was a wrong choice just more expensive than necessary. Not all eBay parts are chinese and not all chinese mfg. is inferior. Glad you're whole again.

The problem is the complete lack of any way to tell which parts are good and which are not. It's a crap shoot. The eBay sellers who sell these parts in high volume have middling reputations at best, and certainly are not averse to selling poor-quality parts some of the time.

I've seen many members on here report success immediately after replacing the shot stock control arms with eBay ones. I haven't seen any reports about long-term bushing performance, or even anything that reassures me the arm itself won't fail catastrophically because of metallurgical or manufacturing defects.

By contrast, the lack of control arm issues on '11+ cars makes me feel confident that the new Lexus parts will hold up over time. I found that peace of mind to be worth a couple thousand bucks in extra parts cost.

OEM part failed due to either design flaw or inferior choice of material or lack of QC at manufacturing process (or could combination of these). Lexus took at least 2-3 years (assuming its fixed in 2011 models) to fix this issue.

How does those ebay suppliers (or manufacturers) know the right way produce these parts (thus in turn avoiding the mistake that Toyota made)?. Has anyone driven with these parts for at least two years to make statement 'yeah - doing good even after x years or y thousands of miles'?. How do we know this issue won't reappear anytime sooner with ebay parts?.

well, on the brighter side, you could replace the Ebay parts ten times before approaching the cost of Lexus parts and labor to do it ONCE. FWIW, I've always had great luck with "inferior" Chinese versions of various items I've replaced on my other cars. Yes, you stand a chance of getting an inferior part, but the risk is low unless safety is involved. As others have stated, Chinese does not automatically mean inferior. Also, do you trust the "superior" Lexus parts when they have already demonstrated that they did not hold up over time?

I used indy labor which would have been the same with either set of parts. eBay parts would have been a little more than 1/4 the cost of the Lexus parts for all 8 arms. I paid $4.5k; with eBay parts the job would have cost a bit under $2k.

Safety is emphatically involved with control arms. Not so much with the bushings as the arms themselves -- if one were to fail catastrophically, you could lose steering control. The frontmost lower arms in particular are thin and I'd be very worried if they were made with incorrect materials.

As far as I can tell, the post-2011 parts (which are the ones you'll get if you order new parts for a 2008) are holding up over time. I've read every control arms post here and I haven't seen any reports of post-2011 cars having issues.

I agree with you roadfrog on the cost and multiple replacements. However, there is an inconvenience factor, unavailability of the car when needed, and more or so having the fear of how long that would last etc.

I never mention in my post about any country's product being inferior. What I was referring is non-OEM quality against OEM quality, let it be ebay, Auto zone doesn't matter.

Matter of fact, had to replace CV boots on my ES 6 months back, didn't get time to look for Toyota part. Thus went with Napa re-manufactured front axle. Guess what, it started leaking again. This time around, I went with Toyota part. Irony of this incident is, that was the first non-OEM part that I used on that car!..

As you said, China do produce some good quality product. I am a fan of Oppo players and own one. Designed and build in China. If anyone interested in good audio should look into that.

That being said, regardless of where the part is manufactured, in very rare cases non-OEM beats OEM in quality. Hard to believe small scale suppliers to match large corporations on R&D, QC and quality material souring and quality manufacturing process......

As I said earlier, there were one or many failures on Toyota side to produce inferior product - bushings. That could be attributed to my belief of Toyota's QC slip in mid 2000s.

My question is - how did ebay sellers (thus their suppliers) correct this issue?. What kind of tools and technologies do they have to fix this?.

In other words, if you assume ebay parts are superior to Toyota OEM, then Toyota should replace all their existing suppliers with ebay supplier and sell cars at low cost !!!!.

It was fixed in late 2010
 

The TSB has the VINs affected - mine is a late 2010 (built in September) and it is not affected. I think the cutoff is around July 2010.

The TSB is here: http://www.revbase.com/BBBMotor/TSb/...dPdf?id=173798

For a difference of nearly 5k dollars, I'm willing to be VERY inconvenienced... at least a couple of times. Then I'd relent to the fact that the Ebay parts were not worth the hassle. Besides, by the time the non oem parts failed that many times, I'd probably be into a new car by then.....and 4k dollars to put towards the down payment. ;)

Sorry do dig up this old thread but I'm curious to know something...with the original Lexus control arms that failed, was it an issue with the bushings going bad prematurely or the actual control arm breaking, cracking or failing in some way?

If it's simply the bushings that are going bad, then it's more of a comfort thing and less of a safety issue? Have actual control arms failed themselves, either OEM or aftermarket?