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Has anyone with a 3rd Gen had to replace the front lower control arm bushings? Mine squeak like crazy, they squeak all the time! Its driving me koo koo. :cry:

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No one else has had to replace these? Maybe its all the water and mud I've been through..

Roadtripr

havn't replaced it yet, but I traced a sqeak to it recently and put some wd40 on it which helped so far. (btw the dealer quoted my 17$ per bushing!)

dragr1

iTrader: (3)

Check out Schaeffers site, I believe he replaced his.

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Yeah I placed some WD40 on them, but it doesn't help. I just wonder how hard it will be to replace these. I looks like a PITA to me...I'll check steve's site to see if he has any info... $17 per bushing isn't that bad then. Oh it squeaks even when I get out of it. It'll squeak the whole time while I'm driving down the road, it be drivin' me nuts..

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Nothing found on Steve's site. Does anyone happen to have a FSM that might have info on replacing the front lower control arm bushings?

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Well I took it to the stealership this morning and they say they whole lower control arms up front needs to be replaced. Uhhhh....$700.00. I doubt its the control arm though. I still believe it is the bushing and not the control arm. Looks like I'll be buying some bushings and trying to replace this sucker myself. Has anyone ever removed the whole lower arm?

sschaefer3

More than likely the reason they want to repace the enire arm is the bushings, like all the rest on the vehicle are probably pressed in.

I'll look in my 99 book, I'll be right back.

sschaefer3

sschaefer3

You can buy the SST's from:

http://toyota.spx.com & 1-800-933-8335

MODZILLA

700 BUCKS?! OUCH!! Nice post Steve!

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You think I'll have to remove the whole arm as stated? Wonder how tough of a job this will be.

mt_goat

If the LCAs are anything like my 93 truck (they look the same in those pics) then yes you'll have to remove the LCA from the truck and use a press or a huge vise to press them out. Some people like to get a torch and burn them out, but I just used a big ass vise with about a 3 foot cheater bar on the handle and hit it some with a hammer too. Mine lasted 11 years and 104,000 miles and never squeaked. I've had problems with poly bushing squeaking but never rubber. The new ones go in much easyer than the old ones come out. The LCAs are a bit of a pain to get back on the truck by yourself too, I used a jack to help push them up into place.

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Ok here's the deal. I believe I'm gonna have to replace both sides, but I found a junkyard here locally that has a couple of 3rd Gen runners. They said they'd give me both left and right control arms for 100 bucks. I got quoted by the dealership yesterday for bushings and they ran about $54 each. So I believe I could save myself some trouble and just replace the whole arm. Good deal?

mt_goat

That's what I did, I got some used arms and put the new bushings in them and painted them, then switched them on the truck. Less down time that way. My LCA bushings were $32.21 each at this place http://www.toyota-parts.com/

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Yeah to me it seems like the logical thing to do. How hard is the arm to replace. I believe it is just a matter of taking out the bolt that has the adjusters on it for alignment, taking the lower shock mount off, and then popping the lower balljoint....

mt_goat

On mine you don't even have to pop the ball joint, just leave it attached and undo 4 bolts on the other side of the ball joint.

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How long did it take you per side?

mt_goat

Well, I didn't do just that. I replaced all the ball joints, installed ball joint spacers, and redesigned and fabricated a new superlink (Superlift part) at the same time as the LCA bushings. Plus I sand blasted the used LCAs and painted them before the new bushings went in. It was a good week of work for me. I'm slow though, it has taken me all day to design and fabricate a bracket for a transmission cooler, I'm painting that now.

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Ah I see. Well I have on the way a set of LCA's from a 98 4runner with 19k miles. Hopefully these will be the ticket to a non squeaking yota.