Ok guys I have searched for hours and have come up with what I think my problem and solution is. My car has 165k miles on it and it really drifts a lot at high speeds or even when it hits bumps and such that the steering wheel really jerks hard. I am assuming that this is because of the front lower control arm bushings. I am scared to drive the car at night because I am worried that cops are going to pull me over thinking I'm drunk!!

I am debating whether or not to replace just the bushings with OEM Lexus ones or pay the extra and get the full Supra LCA's. Its at least a $200 difference.

My question is, while I have seen lots of guys on here say they replaced the bushings or LCA's, I have not read many people say this directly solved the drifting and steering wheel jerking problem. Basically I want some feedback on what happened after they did the replacement.

Any help is appreciated.

 

I have this very same symptom and I plan to fix it this weekend. I went to TMEngineering and got a set of DST bushings from Todd (super-cool guy) and this supposedly will solve the problem we have. I know this because when you said you had a fear the cops would think you're drunk I've had that exact same thought when I drive my car because of how it'll jerk and I'll try to correct it and it gives my car the appearance that I'm not all there. I also plan to change one of my steering rack bushings, the one which suffers the most stress, and that will also help stability issues.

I may have a rack bushing left over so if you're interested in it shoot me a pm and we can work something out. Peace man.

Oh yeah, read this: https://www.clublexus.com/forums/sho...t=lca+bushings

 

Thanks Mike, I read that thread before and it was very helpful.

I thought I read before that you said that you would only use the OEM stuff and not the Daizen?



You have a PM!

 

I made some solid bushings when I realized that mine were shot, I discovered this right after installing new tires , Everything was great for about a year, then the drifting began gradually, I thought I was losing my ability to drive.
I then discovered that the balljoints had worn to the point that the alignment was affected, I added some more toe-in until I could find a decent deal on the new control arms.

 

Changing my LCA bushing solved like 5 of my problems, so I was as happy as can be.

Tommy

 

PM replied good buddy

And yeah, At one point I was strictly OEM because of the potential squeaking issue with the Daizens, but after about a year of waiting and reading I hadn't seen anyone report that they were experiencing problems with DST's poly bushings so I decided I might give them a try. I priced the OEM bushings, OEM control arms, Daizen bushings, and Supra arms all to see which fit my need the best as well as my budget. I got a great price on the Daizen's from Todd at TMEngineering so I decided to give them a try (mainly because I could drive to Todd and pick them up same day as opposed to ordering the O***s from the dealer and waiting for them to arrive), if I didn't like them I could always get the Supra arms. But it's been about a day and a half so far and the Daizens seem fine, I had them professionally installed so I could byatch to someone if they squeaked later on.

As far as price and availability, Daizen is the way to go with these bushings

If that changes I'll report back.

 

I ordered the Daizan kit from TMM engineering after non fitment of some OEM replacement bushings. I ordrered them at 10pm last thursday and had them at noon the following day.
i didnt get my car back til monday. But it seems like most of my steering and shaking issues are gone from what i can tell, but i havnt had the alignment done yet, plan is for 2 morrow. So will give a better review after that.

 

don't get the daizen bushings. I have them and they are rough as hell. Unless that's what ur looking for...

 

people who are looking for performance and get the daizens shouldnt complain because of ride harshness, you were going for performance, not comfort. if you want comfort go oem. if you want to maintain oem ride quality get oem parts, not aftermarket parts designed to enhace the performance of your vehicle. sorry but it just bugs me when people buy performance suspension components and then complain that the ride is to harsh, with suspension you get one or the other, performance or comfort, theres really no in between

 

In general i agree with you that if you make performan ce upgrades, especially suspension that you should know youre making a sacrifice in comfort. But in this area its a matter of availability and options. Most of us are just trying to deal with this production flaw quite frankly as cheap as we can. And the Daizan bushings are permanant supposedly, while the OEM are gonna be bad again after 60 K miles .
Also Lexus hasnt really made this particular problem any easier on us. They designed these cars intentionally to be serviced by Lexus techs and no one else. And dont want you to rpair parts, they want us to replace them.Theyre still wanting you to buy a pair of $500 parts to fix this design flaw . that is fixed with rubber peices that should cost $20 if that. And it is a design flaw. Dont get me wrong , Lexus has made a great product and i love these cars and reliability and dependability of the engine is as good as any. But the suspension on the early SCs..... pain in the @ss!-----now ill get off my soapbox!

 

I have to agree with you. I did my 99sc4 and man this is a pain @SS! I started on sartuday and did the uper control arms first and then started and LCA to find out I was going to have to stop and wait untill monday so that I could order the camber bolts, washers,and nuts. Lucky for me they happen tp have most of what I needed to finish the job. And I had good help from a mechanic friend that has a shop. Word of advise this is the type of job that requires time and good tool. As for the DST LCA&UCA kit the ride will be a bit hard but the performance gain makes -up for it. I took my car to get an alignment this mornig and the car drives great .
For you guys looking to do the LCA and UCA you need to read as much as you can on the DST .
The car drives great to TMengeeniring & DST.

 

I've been reading on the threads for the past two hours regarding LCA's and just wanted to confirm something:

If I want to replace my REAR LCA, would I have to buy OEM SC300 rear LCA's?

I know that Supra FRONT LCA's will fit our cars but not the rears because Supra LCA's are shorter in dimension. I would like to replace the whole control arm instead of just the bushings because my rear balljoints might be going out soon.

TIA!

 

NVM! I found out the answer
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/sho...light=rear+lca

now i gotta find some cheap LCAs for the rears.
LEXUS PART # 48069-29165

 

I have the same problem too. Its bad to the point where I try to avoid driving on the freeway as much as possible for safety reasons. I hope by the problem would be resolved by replacing the lca or the bushings