Id like to begin by saying I'm new to the forum and just replaced my lower ball joints and outer tie rods with the help of the stickies here. So thanks guys.

I took the car to a shop to get an alignment afterward and they told me I needed a new lower control arm (bushing). The car also needs new shocks, struts and springs so of course I want to go with a coilover setup. Im only planning on lowering the car 1 to 1.5 inches because its my daily and I live in LA where the roads are awful. I do plan on canyon drives and eventually some track days but, overall I'm looking for a street orientated setup. Ive heard that lowering a car can add stress to suspension components and since I'm replacing the LCA I figured it would be a good time to replace other parts in preparation for the coilovers.

That being said these are my questions,

Do I need to get some fancy LCA or will an OEM style be fine?

What other components should I address now before the coilovers?

You'll want to do whatever you do at the same time probably as a lot of the same work is involved. I'm 99% sure they are referring to what people here call "caster arm" bushings. They are on the rear most arm of the front lower suspension and are the most common bushing failure on these. OEM replacement would be fine. They are just old and worn out. But some companies like FIGS engineering make poly sets if you want that. I was looking for the same thing when I first started modding my gs, so I put on a set of Tein street basis z coilovers. For the price I have no complaints. Great set for lowering and smooth comfort on street designed springs. However as I've taken the car deeper down the mod hole I've begun to need adjustable damping, so they will be getting replaced soon. I would say they are a great set if that's about all the car will be seeing for usage. But if you are serious about modding and racing, you might want to drop more money now and get a quality set with adjustability.

Look into Figs. I ran figs on Megan coilovers.

Thanks, Im gonna just go ahead and replace the control arms with OEM style parts, it looks like most adjustment I might need to do in the future would be done with an adjustable UCA so when I finally get to the coilers ill do that as well. Hopefully it is just the caster arm like you were saying and not the LCA but with my luck Id be willing to bet its both. I guess I will know soon enough. Thanks again.

I'm not %100 versed in this knowledge, but look at replacing your 2GS factory front suspension components with GS430 factory components. The 2GS ball joint design is known to fail catastrophically.

I have numerous FIGS suspension parts in the front and rear and can say they are worth every penny. Suspension was a weak point on these cars from the factory!

I don't agree that suspension was a weak point on these cars. In fact, they were impressive in their day. Go read some articles published when these cars were new. Ball joints are prone to failure, relatively early, but that's still 150k+ miles as typical on these cars. And after 200k miles that so many of these have seen, it's not unexpected that bushings are in need of replacement.

And to clear up misinformation, I also want to point out that there's not a difference in the suspension components between the V8 and I6 engines. I think there may be some variations in some components based on the year model (likely with the refresh 01+), but the same part numbers are used for the 300 and 430/400. One isn't an upgrade over the other in this area.

Once you take out all the old oem bushings designed for older folks ride preference and replace them with performance bushings and supporting pieces, it really starts to make the chassis shine. I just ordered new trac links, rear diff bushing kit, subframe supports, and a steering rack kit from figs.

Cannot wait to install these next spring with some new KYB's, RS*R springs with megan rear lower control arms and new bump stops & mounting pieces bellows kit. Will pair the new setup with some pilot sport cups.