I've read several discussions concerning control arm bushings for the SC400. My car (93 400) is starting to show her age. The lower control arm pops when I back up and hit the brakes. There finally seems to be some bushing kits out now by whiteline and 185 Performance. Has anyone installed either of these? How are they ridewise? I refuse to drop $350 for the control arm when I only need to replace the bushings. Any feedback would be appreciated.

 

This may not answer your question, but...
I'm about a month away from ordering 2 'sway-bar links'. Supposedly, we can't replace just the bushings. It's 1 piece; a small bar, or rod, with the bushings molded on to it. This may be dealer B.S. and I would love to be proven wrong.

Fortunately, it's not a safety issue. Just a big annoyance. And I can tell you it will just get worse. Chicago streets suck big-time and I get rattles on every imperfection.

Good luck, Marty

 

dale88,

There's seems to be a bushes problem with older Soarers/SC's (Series 1). Here in Australia there are now replacement bushes for all models. I guess you have "clunky" suspension? (e.g. over bumpe, speed humps etc)?

 

I had to replace a sway bar link when I changed my shocks. You have to be careful with those as they are easy to break. The bushings are filled with some type of grease and are easy to puncture because of the weird bracket they use. I do not believe you can just change the bushings in that case. However, the control arm bushings are a different story. The dealer wants you to replace the whole control arm if the bushings are bad. I'm not dropping over $300 just for new bushings. Somebody is using the bushings as they are out of stock on one of the sites that sells them. Just curious as to whether they are good quality and actually fit correctly.

 

dale, contact TM Engineering, Taizen urethane ctrl arm bushing kit for 99 bucks, that's about as good as it's gonna get....

 

That's funny. My problem started when I replaced my shocks.

 

Where can we get the Australia bushings? I believe they are polyurethane.

 

ALSC (Australian Lexus Soarer Club)
Whiteline should have them too

 

Hey guys, I replaced mine with the ones from Australia (very well made) and it was a pain in the ***. I would strongly recommend you get the original replacements, find the cheapest price around. The ride is not the same anymore, you feel every bump. Also, just to save you the hell I went through if you decide to be cheap, one of the bolts would not come out it was stuck in there and I mean STUCK. I ended up just taking the a-frame off and torching it, trust me this will save you lots of time and aggravation. If I could do it over I would pay the price and get ripped off just for the ride quality, just one more thing, you get new ball joints too.

 

I found new bushes to be more "sporting"... Depends how you look at it. There's definitely more control than shagged out bushes and it gets rid of 90% of the creaks. Maybe because I have a GT the suspension is originally pretty hard with the TEMS set on stiff as well so it dont notice the ride quality difference, but there is definitely more control when you oppylock around a bend.

Anyone else here have new bushes installed ?

 

New lower front bushes from Oz (Blue Nolothane type) and full geometry settings done, it transformed the steering and just like Toan I have a GT so cant comment on ride quality but now I have another issue - Castor, because my car has been lowered (more so to the rear) they cannot get the castor within spec so went for what they could get (4deg instead of 2.55).

So which way should we approach the geometry on a non-standard suspension setup, go for the factory settings at the current ride height, temporarily lift the car up and do the adjustments or compensate for the new ride height, any solid ideas?

 

Maybe your ball joints are worn out. That may be why the caster is not in spec.