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The bolt is really long. It basically stops right before it comes all the way out. I was running out of patience so I put it back. The aluminum one with the bolt you can see sticking out, that clears if you turn your wheel to the right. That shifts the rods and you'll be able to clear it. My arm was so shot that the bar was moving around the rubber. You can see how far it moved forward from the pic below. It moves even further than this pic when you put enough force.
Yeah that's wiped out, I'm surprised you had so much trouble with the other arms, what year is your car? Mine is an 07, I wonder if they moved the rack forward an inch or so in later models?
What brand of control arms did you buy? I'll probably replace the aluminum ones in the spring, but I've got to say that replacing the ones I did made a sizeable difference...tighter, quiet...my steering has a slight pull on the highway, but it's better than it was. I'll check the alignment angles next week. And the noise I had while braking is gone. I just hope the arms I put in there hold up at least 70k miles.
Don't know if it's the right way or wrong way... but the way I removed the long bolt was have a friend start the car, turn the wheel all the way to the direction needed to remove. repeat on the same side. note: the friend has the hold the turn all the way through the process of removing that big bolt, with engine running.
This is awesome to see!
Really glad you had a chance to get in there and take care of your arms, and it's incredibly beneficial to many of us here that you've tackled the job and did a write up.
Not sure one exist and this should be added to the sticky.
I see you took a few photos of your old control arms...I'm out of town but when I get back home I'll take a photo of mine as well and post them.
I told Lexus to put my old arms in my trunk and though mine weren't that bad either, the cracks were visible.
In an effort to not be too redundant, I'll post more details in the thread I started a few months ago.
But this is awesome!
Great job!
This is awesome to see!
Really glad you had a chance to get in there and take care of your arms, and it's incredibly beneficial to many of us here that you've tackled the job and did a write up.
Not sure one exist and this should be added to the sticky.
I see you took a few photos of your old control arms...I'm out of town but when I get back home I'll take a photo of mine as well and post them.
I told Lexus to put my old arms in my trunk and though mine weren't that bad either, the cracks were visible.
In an effort to not be too redundant, I'll post more details in the thread I started a few months ago.
But this is awesome!
Great job!
That's awesome that you got your's done and you only had to pay for labor, how many hours did they get you for?
As for mine, I've driven about 200 miles since the repair...the ride is much quieter now...it has the new car sound, and it just feels so much tighter. I do still have a slight pull on the highway, but it seems to have improved a bit. I didn't replace the rearward facing lower arm, but it does look cracked/worn. What I might do is drive it for a good 10k miles and then maybe just replace the bushings in those particular arms (rather than the whole arm). You have to understand that on that particular arm,mthere is no ball stud to worry about, the arm just slips over a ball joint on the steering knuckle, so replacing the whole arm - when I can just easily press in new bushings - is a bit of a waste of money to me. I might replace the ball joints while I'm in there as well - they are $90 bucks for the pair.
I kind of agree on what the guy said about your alignment...I have thrown my car on the rack a few times and it has been dead on accurate in the green.
Amack, yeah so far so good. I only have 600 miles on them so far, but they seem good. I also replaced my wheel bearing with a Beck Arnley part and it looked high quality...spoke to some mechanic friends of mine and they all said they use Beck Arnely stuff regularly with great success, so I'd say they are a high quality replacement part.
And parts I get in the future I'll look to the BA stuff first, why not, price is right.
Just an update on the control arms (pictures above), at 10,000 miles they seem to be doing ok with a mixture of aftermarket parts (Beck Arnley and Mevotech). There is some slight surface cracking, I'd consider that some what normal at 10,000 miles (and seeing how they spent the majority of their lives driving this winter).
They are functioning normal...no noises or looseness.
The wheel bearing that I replaced failed (Beck Arnley part). The wheel bearing only lasted 6,000 miles, I replaced it with a Koyo, which was much more expensive and supposedly an OE replacement part.
Do you have any part numbers and where you purchased?
Thanks for the write-up. This is giving me the encouragement to tackle myself.
I don't have the part numbers, I bought them off Amazon. Just did a search for LS460 control arms, after that there was a section that asked for the year, make of your vehicle to see if they'd fit. There are 4 upper control arms and four lower control arms. It can get a little confusing ordering all those arms, so keep track of which arms you're selecting (making sure you get the forward and rearward facing arms, upper and lower).
All sorts of online vendors sell these arms, you can go anywhere...looked into rockauto, eBay, and several others. I went with Amazon because as an Amazon Prime member the shipping was free. Most of the shipping on eBay was free too. Rockauto didn't have the free shipping, otherwise I would have went with them, but the shipping added quite a bit more to the total. The thing I liked about Amazon was that people are so worried about their reputation on Amazon that vendors will respond quickly if there's a problem.
I don't have the part numbers, I bought them off Amazon. Just did a search for LS460 control arms, after that there was a section that asked for the year, make of your vehicle to see if they'd fit. There are 4 upper control arms and four lower control arms. It can get a little confusing ordering all those arms, so keep track of which arms you're selecting (making sure you get the forward and rearward facing arms, upper and lower).
All sorts of online vendors sell these arms, you can go anywhere...looked into rockauto, eBay, and several others. I went with Amazon because as an Amazon Prime member the shipping was free. Most of the shipping on eBay was free too. Rockauto didn't have the free shipping, otherwise I would have went with them, but the shipping added quite a bit more to the total. The thing I liked about Amazon was that people are so worried about their reputation on Amazon that vendors will respond quickly if there's a problem.
Just helped a friend do the lower rears today, and it was MUCH easier than the 1st time learning curve when I did it to mine. Few pointers:
- If the bolt holding the sway bar link spins, have a 6mm allen wrench to hold the bolt while using a pass-through socket or open wrench to loosen it.
- If you're still having trouble removing the long bolt near the inner tie rod, after having someone rotate the wheel all the way to the opposite direction, insert a medium length flathead or dowel and hammer it out. If done correctly, it won't abrade the boot and the long bolt pops right out.
- Get a cordless impact wrench rated at least 300 ft/lb. I had used mine out of curiosity and it shortened my work time to 30 mins each side. most of the time spent was getting the bottom bolt out of and into the control arm near the hub. Everything else was cake.
12-30-15, 01:24 PM
...good thing I joined this forum
