Originally Posted by skperformance

I have read so much on the front suspension issues for the GS . Unfortunately they have not been correct in many ways in people guessing and not technically knowing how the parts work together.
So here is my take on them.

I have an 03 GS430 with 150 000 KM on it.

Symptoms ,
wandering all over the road.
super light steering at any speed
strong vibration 100km/h and over
front tires howling at 70 km/h
clunking over bumps
clicking when driving or reversing from park (also can be caused by not replacing those small screws on the rotor hubs as they do have a purpose)
rapid tire wear with heavy feathering
some may have bald tires on the inside
Loud howling noise from front end tires
very poor emergency braking
poor gas milage

Fixes
It really starts with 1 as it is the problem that kills all the rest of components.
It is the front caster arm bushings.
When they die your alignment goes to **** .
The front wheels toe out and the caster goes negative . Causing all of the problems above from one part.
You can replace them with oem's rubber bushings but the suspension geometry is not the best for them and multiplies the pressure. This causes them to fail under hard braking fast as it does not take much. Replace these with urethane and you will be able to go hopefully forever without a repair again.
While you are at it you will have to change the ball joints as well as they will have been stressed by the caster arms unable to take the load and causing the ball joint to be pressed at an angle . They will break and it is not because the ball joints are weak . It is because the suspension is out of alignment and cannot compensate the load of the arms .While you are at it check the tie rods but they can handle the odd angles from the arms.

Once done the car will need to be aligned as well .

You will now have a front end that is rock solid.
If checked properly and nothing else is worn it will no longer wander on the highway .
The tires will wear properly .
The brakes alone is the biggest benefit as it feels like you added a BBK form the amount of grip .
The steering will feel real tight and not over powered . So the thread about unplugging the PS ecu is not needed and the car can be driven properly .
No more clunking over bumps as the ball joint is not taking the bump but the bushing is.
Vibrations gone as the wheels axis is straight and not sticking out which causes the vibrations.
Gas mileage goes up as the wheels are now pointed straight and you are not holding them like a shovel being pushed down the road .

All this from a daizen urethane front control arm kit $100 and a pair of OEM lower ball joints $180 plus alignment $60 .

I love driving my wife's car again and so does she.

I did not install the upper control arm or the lower arm that the ball joint sits on as they are fine and it will tighten up the front end more than i want.
Some people complain about it being to stiff but just doing the caster arm alone is all i needed. I could not care less about wasting the other bushings.

So good luck and stop blaming the ball joints or the power steering as problems when they are not. The cars just need some TLC .

added info.


I also forgot to add my mileage went up by 20% as i am no longer shoveling my wheels down the road.
I was getting 420km per tank and now get 500 (city/hwy) to 600km (more on the hwy) a tank.

With my 70 liter tank
I was getting
420km =16.7 liters per 100km = 14mpg
and now it is
500km =14 liters per 100km = 16mpg
600km =11.7 liters per 100km = 20 mpg

Only other variables are an HKS exhaust and motul 8100 oil until i do a cold air intake and it should be in the 600 range all the time.

Originally Posted by mistyfied

You seem to know what you are talking about. I have a a question, when I hit the brakes lightly, my steering wheel start flopping, when I apply more pressure to the brake pedal, the flopping stops, it's worse when driving down hill, any suggestions? I replaced the lower ball joints, but no results, other then that now my steering wheel is out of alignment, which indicates that there is more going on then just the lower ball joints. Just don't know where to start. Thanks Will.

Originally Posted by mistyfied

Yeh I get that, it's not the first time I had a discussion about warped rotors, now I'm losing confidence in you. My rotors are not warped, after replacing them and the front end was still flopping around, I had the rotors checked first, that is common sense I would say, they are fine. I had a warped rotor on my BMW 740 I and that is a totally different feeling when you hit the brakes. Also, if a rotor would be warped, the flopping will not stop no matter how hard you push the brakes, it's there, and it's not going away by pushing harder on the brakes. Also, the flopping is getting worse, to a point that you have to hold on to the steering wheel with 2 hands and pushing real hard on the brakes to make it stop. No, there is something going on with the suspension, especially after I replaced the lower ball joints, the steering wheel is now out of alignment, that to me that indicates that the ball joints are back in place where they suppose to be, (and by the way, there was a recall on those lower ball joints anyway, that is why I replaced them in the first place) making it more likely that there is indeed some other suspension parts that need to be replaced. Of course, the problem would be solved in a heartbeat if I just replace the whole front suspension, I bet you that the flopping will be gone, however that runs in some serious money, and on top of that, I'm having the car up for sale so I do not want to put another $ 1000 repair into it, but selling it with that front end flopping around makes it not all that easy to sell, and I cannot allow a potential new owner driving around like that, and then something happens to that person because of a faulty front suspension, unless the new owner is aware of the problem and take the car as is, and take the repairs in is own hands. I put in way too much money already, so I need to fix it, therefor I posted this question to see if somebody had the same problem and where to start without taking the whole front end apart. Thanks.

Originally Posted by pizdets17

WRONG. I did replace ALL of my suspension and guess what? Still shaking steering wheel and seats. Brand new DBA rotors (not cheap ebay ****) with Endless pads, brand new ball joints, tie rods, castor arm Daizen bushings, steering rack Daizen bushings, sway bar Daizen bushing, UCA Daizen bushing, LCA Daizen bushing, 3 wheel alignments, 5 road force balances, 3 sets of tires, 4 different set of rims (now running 3gs oem hubcentric rims), hub rings, brand new Tein SS coils, front/rear strut braces, checked runout, checked bearings (thrice), took apart calipers, re-lubed, new slider pins (just in case). And guess what? As soon as it hits 60mph, I don't need to look at the speedo because my seats and steering shakes meaning its both front and rear. If you have a bad GS you have a bad GS. If you have a good one then you can drive with different size rims front and rear on broken spacers and feel nothing, if you have of these, NOTHING fixes the shake. Somethings make it better or worse, vibrating at different speeds on and off but in 3 years and thousands of $$ I still have the same problem as day one with 16" stock rims and 4x4 suspension. Well done Toyota.

Originally Posted by Bon

Originally Posted by Och

Could it be that your hubs are bad/damaged? Often something as simple as a bit of contamination/rust between hub and brake rotor will cause vibrations.