Front suspension bushing replacement
Welcome to my nightmare!
This started as project to fix an oil pan gasket leak on a '93 SC400 114K miles Chicago car stored in winter by previous owner (very little rust for being here 17years the bolts still have threads). Decided to drop the #2 oil pan so took off the #1 oil pan (I now know you have to pull the engine to get the #2 pan off). The #1 pan does not fit past the cross member. Tried to loosen driver side lower control arm rear bushing. The nut came undone easily but the bolt would not come out of the bushing. Loosened the passenger side bolt and it slid out of its bushing. So I went to work with a vengence on the driver side bolt. In my exhuberance I managed to shear the rubber from the inner sleeve. So now I have to get it out. Removed the driver side lower control arm. Note: The sway bar link does not have wrench flats on the ball side. Managed to remove it without destroying the link ($109 at dealer)(yea vice-grips). Got the lower arm off using the old nut on the end of the ball joint threads and give it a whack trick. Tried an arbor press to push out the bolt. Quit when the cross member started to bend. Torched out the rubber and heated the sleeve with a Mapp torch. Judiciously applied an "Engineers hammer" (google it) while torching. Still didn't budge. Thought about the hotwrench but was afraid the sheet metal cross member would melt (apparently it does). Tried a sawzall dulled three blades on the inner sleeve and only scuffed it. It's gotta be 50Rc. Got a 4" metal cutting disk for my hand grinder. Cut through the bushing near the bolt head ($28). Still had to tap the bolt out of the remnant of sleeve. Apparently the entire length of the bolt rusted into the sleeve. I'll have to straighten the bolt slot bulged by the arbor press and fab a new inner bushing (helps to have access to a machine shop). Ordered TM Engineering aftermarket bushing set. Full set for R/L upper and R/L lower with install grease ($99 for the set)(the dealer wanted $110 for just 2 lower bushings aftermarket to boot). Waiting for the replacements to arrive before I torch out the other bushings. And the oil leak still ain't fixed.
This started as project to fix an oil pan gasket leak on a '93 SC400 114K miles Chicago car stored in winter by previous owner (very little rust for being here 17years the bolts still have threads). Decided to drop the #2 oil pan so took off the #1 oil pan (I now know you have to pull the engine to get the #2 pan off). The #1 pan does not fit past the cross member. Tried to loosen driver side lower control arm rear bushing. The nut came undone easily but the bolt would not come out of the bushing. Loosened the passenger side bolt and it slid out of its bushing. So I went to work with a vengence on the driver side bolt. In my exhuberance I managed to shear the rubber from the inner sleeve. So now I have to get it out. Removed the driver side lower control arm. Note: The sway bar link does not have wrench flats on the ball side. Managed to remove it without destroying the link ($109 at dealer)(yea vice-grips). Got the lower arm off using the old nut on the end of the ball joint threads and give it a whack trick. Tried an arbor press to push out the bolt. Quit when the cross member started to bend. Torched out the rubber and heated the sleeve with a Mapp torch. Judiciously applied an "Engineers hammer" (google it) while torching. Still didn't budge. Thought about the hotwrench but was afraid the sheet metal cross member would melt (apparently it does). Tried a sawzall dulled three blades on the inner sleeve and only scuffed it. It's gotta be 50Rc. Got a 4" metal cutting disk for my hand grinder. Cut through the bushing near the bolt head ($28). Still had to tap the bolt out of the remnant of sleeve. Apparently the entire length of the bolt rusted into the sleeve. I'll have to straighten the bolt slot bulged by the arbor press and fab a new inner bushing (helps to have access to a machine shop). Ordered TM Engineering aftermarket bushing set. Full set for R/L upper and R/L lower with install grease ($99 for the set)(the dealer wanted $110 for just 2 lower bushings aftermarket to boot). Waiting for the replacements to arrive before I torch out the other bushings. And the oil leak still ain't fixed.
DO you know that you can replace the entire LCA's with Supra LCA's ? They are way cheaper than Lexus parts, come bushing already installed, and you get new ball joints to boot! They're around 250 each. Search around a bit, there's tons of info here about it, as well as lots of nightmare removal experiences like yours
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