I'm relatively new to this Lexus Forum, so let me start by saying thank you for all the helpful posts regarding replacing the front control arms for the 4th gen LS460s.. Its one of the best forums for Lexus owners that I've found.

I purchased my 2007 LS460L from a relative who lives in Las Vegas. I live in Cleveland, OH and the roads here take way more abuse due to the weather and are typically relatively bumpy.

Since I've purchased my car, I've had several mechanics (two different dealerships) and three independent shops tell me that the rattling in the front of the car was due to 1) the 4 upper control arms (dealer), 2) sway bar links (1st local mechanic) and finally 3) the front struts (3rd local mechanic).

Dealership quote to replace just the four upper control arms was close to $5,800, which is too expensive. (I assumed the cause of the rattle was diagnosed correctly).

I started by getting a 2nd opinion/quote and had the sway bar links replaced by one of the independent mechanics I mentioned above considering that "it needed to be done immediately" per the mechanic. Within 1 month the passenger side link failed. I took it back to the shop and they replaced link for free, however they told me the lower passenger control arm was bad and needed to be replaced. I had them replace lower arm and replace bad passenger link. approx. $750

The car still rattled (only drove it from the shop to my garage), so I decided to bring it to the 2nd local mechanic to have upper control arms replace because i didn't trust the 1st local mechanic. The 4 upper control arms cost $2,600 to replace, which I thought was a decent price based on the posts I've read here on ClubLexus. The 2nd local mechanic after replacing the upper arms told me that the new sway bar links were never greased and that's why it STILL rattles. He recommend that I bring it back to 1st mechanic to get links replaced for the 2nd time.

The last independent mechanic (Ryan) works for the lexus dealership and repairs cars on the side at home. My wife and I use to bring our Volvo S60 to him. He's a great mechanic and knows his stuff. He told me that both front struts need to be replaced on the lexus and it would cost $1200.

I love the look, driving experience, comfort level, etc of my LS, however I am so frustrated with my LS I am considering trading it in. I've had 5 different mechanics inspect my car and everyone keeps telling me a different reason why it's rattling.

Has anyone experienced a rattle in the front end of their LS460?

 

others will weigh in here knowing more than I but I can say a couple of things

I have an 07 460 with 115k miles still with all original suspension components and knowing I will someday have to replace everything I have been doing research

i have learned that all 8 upper and lower control arms can be bought for less than $600 and labor to install all 8 is around 5 hours or some $500 so total maybe $1200

this of course assumes one goes to a trusted local mechanic and not a dealer, really the installation I am told is quite simple and straightforward

all four struts or shocks can be bought for less than $200 each and the install again is easy and done is a couple of hours

I got this information from doing a forum search on "control arms", lots of threads of this

the quotes you are getting are just gouging

now the experts should check in with a lot more help

 

I had an 2007 LS460 with 100,000 miles on it - no issues ever with the control arm bushings. I now have a 2014 LS460 and all of the bushings on one side had to be replaced at 40,000 miles(?!) No damage ever to the car that could have caused that through impact (eg with kerb or pot hole). Fortunately, I had a CPO/Extended warranty so the $2500 dealer cost was covered, but that was quite a surprize to me.

Yes, the problem with "parts swapper mechanics" is that it's alway on your dime. Might be time to take it back to the dealer, tell them what you've done, and ask them what the !@#$%& is going on.

 

Thanks sktn77a.

I called the dealership (Lexus of Akron in Ohio) and they told me that because I didn't have them do the work that the other mechanic could have done something incorrectly. This is so frustrating because the mechanic who did the work is a Lexus Certified Mechanic and works at the MetroLexus in Cleveland! He did the work on the side.

I'm just tired of going to mechanic to mechanic and each one blaming the other and not correctly diagnosing the problem. I believe my initial mistake was bringing the car to several different mechanics to have each provide their own diagnostic and recommendation. Of course the reason I did this was because of the outrageous repair quote received from both dealerships.

 

The parts were OEM, after reading several posts on decided to buy OEM parts.

 

I had the rattle once and no one was able to figure it out. I read somewhere that sometimes the brake hardware can cause rattles. So I changed it out and the rattle is now gone. It's cheap enough to try. So no harm done if it wasnt the issue.

 

Have a similar rattle coupled with an intermittent "POP" from the front when turning at very slow speeds (pulling into/out of parking spots).

Just got a quote of $1300 for new struts and strut mounts... they said that's the issue. I'm hesitant and looking into it.

 

To check for brake rattle, ride over something’s that makes the rattle, now do it again, but with the brakes on a bit. Rattle the same? If no rattle, then likely the brakes are the issue. This isn’t a perfect test because the braking will change the loading on the control arms and therefore could also stop the rattle.