Symptoms: Shimmy at certain speed, inner edge of the tire wearing off and most telling sign is the side to side play of bushing.

Skill 3/10.
You will need breaker bar and heavy torque wrench along with 16" of extension rods and 6 point sockets 17mm & 19mm.
Penetrating fluid like PB Blaster or Liquid wrench.
Impact wrench is desirable, but not essential.
5lb hammer and 16" bar,

1. Order parts. I wish I could do OEM but they were too pricy. They are the same as 98 Camry.
You can order just the bushings, but then you have to extract the old and press in the new ones. Based on the condition of the lower ball joint, you may like to buy them too.
2. A day before working on the RX soak the three bolts that hold the LCA to the body. Use the 5lb hammer and the bar, give the bolts couple of jarrings blows.
3. Loosen the lug nuts with the RX on ground.
4. Jack up the RX and set it on Jack-stands and remove the wheels.
5. Loosen the 2 nuts and 1 bolt that hold the lower ball joint to LCA.
6. Loosen the two bolts that hold the LCA to the frame. This is where you will need the extension to clear the hub.
7. Lossen the vertical bolt at the trailing edge of the LCA. The nut has tab to prevent it from spinning.
8. Now go back and undo, the ball joint. and the frame bolts. Note that the front frame bolt is shorter and take pictures of the book end protector on the longer bolt. Due to torque on LCA the trailing bolt will not come out.
9. Swing out the LCA out .. you may have to gently move the ball joint out of the way and now the trailing bolt will practically fall out.

Reassembly is revers of the disassembly.

Wait till all nuts and bolts have been installed before torquing then to spec.

Review your work. Make sure there is nothing underneath the RX before you lower it to ground.

Torques:
Ball joint to LCA: 94 lb-ft
LCA to frame and trailing bolt 152 lb-ft
Lug nuts 76 lb ft

Note: There is no need to remove anything or loosen anything else. Ball joint can stay put (castle nut) and the struts can stay as is.

Salim
[special thanks to Thomas]

 

nice write up!

when you mention the parts are same as the 98 Camry, which are you referring to? 4cyl or v6. or are they identical as well?

i'd be interested at what milage other owners are noticing wear on these front control arm bushings as well.

 

Thanks for the DIY Salim!

@fastnoypi, I think it really depends on the type of roads driven and also partly how the driver deals with potholes, etc. For instance, my RX has 233k miles and the bushings have zero play, although they have been dry-rotted for quite some time (particularly the bushing with the vertical bolt). My Sienna with the same lower control arm design, needed them replaced at 143k miles due to serious play in the bushings. I ended up using a Dorman LCA, much cheaper. I believe for the RX the dorman's are around $50 a pop; Dorman in general doesn't have the greatest reputation, but for the price I'd take the gamble.

 

good points hypervish, on passenger cars you often have to get indirect feedback through tire wear and area noises to pinpoint bushing wear since they often use a softer durometer level of rubber in their bushings and suspension setup is soft for comfort. On sportscars its a different story that handling will often suffer and be more noticeable due to their crisp setup characteristics.

In the event I notice alot of bushing slop, I may just get a polyurethane bushing kit and press them in. I would have the peace of mind that the control arms are factory and have no geometry differences/variances that aftermarket offerings may have during production. The poly bushings average 120 per F/R set.

 

RX is my daily driver so there is no way I could tell that something is not just perfect, as the wear crept on me. Abnormal wear was the first clue and then I looked for the play.

Since I opted for after-market, the quality in cast is bit lacking in them. LCA in RX is a 3 point anchoring system. The tail and the body were right on ... to be fair there are slots in the middle anchor points. Lexus/Toyota sells the complete arm and I could not bring myself to parting that much money. It would have been an easy choice if Lexus would sell the bushings. By the way some precision is required to install these at the proper angle. For those who want to replace the bushings, please study the old and make proper marks, before pushing out the worn out one.

Once you start looking for bushings, it is not very obvious which is the right set. Quality and comfort and personal liking, finding the best compromise was too daunting for me.

Most Lexus owners do not like the feel of poly bushings. Exceptions are there.

Salim

 

Salim,

Did you ever change the lower ball joints, or just the lower control arms? I ordered control arms that also came with the ball joints attached, so I thought I might as well change them out if the ball joints have play. But the RX300 service manual makes it seem like the ball joints are a difficult job to do on the RX. I have only found videos of Camrys, and the ball joint change didn't require much beyond prying so the castle nut could be removed.

 

Lower ball joint is bolted on at one end and the other (castle nut end) needs a ball joint separator. [dont use the pickle fork].

Ball joints on my ex-vehicle were good and I had no reason to replace them.

Salim

 

I followed the shah's steps and got the job done. But I am an amateur and replacing one control arm took me six hours. I will supplement his instructions with advice for the dim-witted (I am no longer a member, I hope).

Here are some important tools. For the hard-to-get to 19mm bolt the totally best setup is an 1/2" breaker bar (pic), 18+" of matching extensions and a 19mm or 3/4" socket. An alternative might be some 3/8" stuff but be warned, if you get your tools at Harbor Freight, they can and will break on you, you are taking a risk.
You do need a regular 3/8" ratchet though, and a cheater, for the other bolts. Also get some pry bars (I got a set of 4 at HF for $9). I have an electric impact wrench but did not find it useful (on edit: when I did the other side the hard bolt just would not come undone, I tried the impact wrench and it came right off. So who knows?).

When you get the old arm out there will be a bracket over ear of the the hard-to-get bushing. Its function is to keep the bushing in place. The open side faces up but you will be able to figure that out yourself by seeing how it best fits into the depression in the frame. Also, on the end bushing do not lose the top nut by letting it slide backwards into the gap. It has a locking tab which I think it would be difficult to replace.

My biggest mistake was in threading the bolt up through the bushing into the locking tab nut. I kept ratcheting and ratcheting but the nut was not threaded properly. It got pushed up against the frame and got cross-threaded. grrrr. You have to be sure the nut is on the bolt before you start cranking 50 times! I spend an hour or two figuring out a re-threading solution. Also, rem you are upside down and it is easy to mix up which way is tighten vs loosen.

I would add one other tip on reassembly: after you lever the bushings into position, the control arm gets stuck on the ball joint castle nut. Realize that you can push the arm down quite a bit. That and a pry bar and maybe a block of wood will help you get it in position to receive the ball joint studs.

Salim gives the difficulty a 3 out of 5. Maybe that will hold true when I do the other side!

I did not get an alignment. The car reportedly now drives like a dream.

 

It took me about an hour for the first one and 30 min for the second one. A second pair of hands is very helpful in getting the ball joint bolts into the control arm.

I tested the original ball joints using a long pry bar under the tires while the front end was jacked up under the control arms and both were rock solid, so I left them alone.

Next job is replacing the front and rear stabilizer bar links. All four of the originals can be easily moved by hand.

Still debating on doing anything with the struts or strut mounts.

 

Quien como tu, Lexmex!

 

I am not the great Lexmex, but gracias señor!