I took my '93 4Runner in for an oil change and the shop does a good job of inspecting the truck. There are few things wrong with one of them being the idler arm on the passenger side. They said it was was worn and needed replacement at a cost of $360. I asked them if it need to be replaced or have the bushings replaced and they said that there aren't any serviceable parts on the idler arm.

I've read through the forums and have seen lots of posts regarding replacing the bushings. Are there a couple different versions of the idler arm installed on the 4Runner depending on the production date. I've been using the shop for a while and have trusted them and hope they aren't leading me astray. Does replacing the bushing, if possible, involve rebuilding the whole assembly with oil seals et all?

Oh yeah. What the heck is the SST (special service tool). If I replace the whole assembly myself, can I rent one of these somewhere?

 

The bushing is a cheap part and supose to be fairly easy to replace. My idle arm was bent so I had to replace the whole think. The whole piece was $54 including tax at schucks or autozone. Its a fairly easy and straight forward task to replace. The special tool to pull the idle is a ball joint puller, you can rent one at autozone for $6 a day. I had it back in enough time that they didn't even charge me.

Alot of mechanic shops are R&R (remove and replace) mechanics these days so your shops prices do seem a little high. Even at 2-3x price of part and a labor rate of $85 an hour.

 

http://www.custommachiningusa.com/Specialty_Items.html scroll halfway down but unless you have a balljoint or torsion bar lift its probably overkill.

 

The idler arm is not considered "servicable" by Toyota but as muddpigg stated, it can be serviced.

As for "SST", that's an abbreviation used by Toyota to signal any 'special' tool used for some type of repair. Seems they have an "SST" for everything. But they're probably referring to a ball-joint separator so that the ball joint on the idler arm can be separated from the relay rod.

 

360$...? I would tell them to get screwed,your cornhole mechanic is obviously a meth addict or he thinks your retarded and come complete with vaseline.Whats he charge for oil change 150$ ?

 

^ yea what he said you can buy an idler arm assembly for about 20-40 bucks and put it on your self easy in like less than 30mins if that long. 360$ is crazy and they would make a killing off you doing that job cause they would ahve it done in like 20-30 mins when the job rpolly pays 1-2 hours. Usually idle arm bad.... old one out in the trash new on ready to go. The SST they are talking about is a classic "pickle fork" used for separating ball joints. Yea you can rent one at auto zone or many other places i've rented them before just tell em you want a ball joint separater fork like thingy.... lol