5 Lug stock lower control arm - bolts seizing at frame attachment point?

I'm really starting to get pissed off with Toyota - and by extension, my truck.

Rewinding a bit - the truck now has 4 winters, and 70,000 km now on the odometer. I had it at 4wheelparts the past few days to have a Readylift 69-5510 kit, biltsteins all around, and a ARB bumper installed.. meeting with massive failure.

The forward bolts are apparently loaded/jammed in position in the LCA's .. as the mechanic there explained, he'd need to 'torch' them out/off, which would destroy the bushings - which would necessitate LCA replacement .. about $900.00cdn in parts and labor later.

So, I call up my Toyota dealership - sounded to me like a mechanical issue that might be addressed by my 7 year/120k km ECP. I talk to the Operations manager about the situation - and he is in vague agreement that this might be covered by the ECP. Ok, great.. i tell 4wheelparts to throw it back together - it goes in for work at the Dealer..

So... I get to the dealer, to book an appointment - and the Service booking monkey says "sir, Rusted bolts are not covered by the ECP".

Wut?

Ok - so we got a rusted bolt issue - an OEM part on a portion of the vehicle that is meant to be loosened to adjust the alignment, and as designed by Toyota, it's rusted to dog-shit in four years, and to fix the relatively minor problem of these seized and/or rusted bolts, destroys the LCA's? What the All-Mighty fuck? This is something i would have expected of my 10 year old Ford, not my 4 year old Tacoma with 1/5th of the kilometers on it, vs the Ford...

If i had known that they were going to bounce this back in my lap .. i would have just had 4wheelparts leave it on the hoist, and do the work there.

I'm certainly not going to go down without a fight on this.

Has anyone else encountered a situation similar to this with their 5 lug front end? What was your resolution and/or reception from Toyota and it's dealer representatives?

Advice?

 

Ultimately they would have to loosen up the LCA bolts to perform an alignment but I'm not sure why 4wheelparts had to touch them at all. The installation video for the ready-lift sst 69-5510 that is on ready-lifts website makes no mention of touching the LCA bolts. The installation instructions for the Pro Comp kit that is essentially the same thing (spacer/AAL) instructs you to loosen but not remove the LCA bolts. I said to hell with that when I put the lift in and followed the ready-lift instructions and was able to put the lift in without touching the LCA bolts at all. I did have trouble with sway bar end links (destroyed one getting it off) and UCA bolts being rusty and seized; breaker bar, torch and penetrating lube to the rescue. When it goes in Thursday and they do the alignment I hope that my truck doesn't have the same issue but I'll be sure to let you know. My Tacoma is a 2010 as well and currently has 110,000mi (177,000km) I bought it in February 2013 with 74,000mi (119,000km). I did notice an increase in rust underneath the truck even with the spray on undercoating after this past winter with how bad it was here in western NY.

 

The need for front-end alignment after the install, was why they were messing with the LCA bolts - the mechanic was making sure that they could loosen them up, before they went forward with the actual install. They are able to do the front end alignment in-house, once everything was done. I got the impression, in conversation with the mechanic, that they encounter much older, and rustier 4x4's all the time, that need similar remedial work, prior to installation of aftermarket components. He also said that he hadn't encountered a recent manufactured vehicle quite as bad as mine was, with this issue.

When they initially told me that the bolts were seized in position, i also questioned why they were messing with them - I had also seen the 69-5510 installation video beforehand, and they didn't need to do anything with the LCA in the video. They were doing pre-emptive checking before the actual install. I don't feel that they were trying to pad the bill ... they released the vehicle back to me without argument, or any attempt to pursuade me to have the remedial work done in-house.. indeed, they didn't even charge me to pull the vehicle apart to that extent, and then bolted it back together to take over to the Dealer/Stealer.

I had the truck rust-proofed in March 2011.. aside from the ECP, rust-proofing was the only other option that i chose when i bought the base truck. Seeing it on the hoist - it definitely needs redoing again. Entirely dry, and getting surface rusty ..

 

what kind of rust proofing do you use? I have had all my vehicles krowned every year and since its like a think wd40 I have never had a problem removing suspension bolts even on my 11 year old odyssey that has seem 11 salt infested winters (exhaust manifold yes but they don't spray that )

 

Superior rust proofing with my previous vehicles - also the type that 'flows' into areas that need covering/coating.

Since my original posts on this topic - further reading has shown that this is a weak mechanical component with our Tacoma's in terms of the internal corrosion issue, since they switched over to this suspension design with the first generation Tacoma. It just so happened that i probably messed with it later than is 'normal' with people who do the spacer lifts, but sooner than what Toyota bargained upon, in not having this component disturbed .. if it doesn't need to come apart, then there is no problem.

I haven't yet done my pre-winter rust-proofing - i wanted to look into getting the frame painted, first... life just got a little bit busy to focus on that, however.

 

Sorry to hear about your problem but join the club. This has been a sore point with me for a long time how Toy cheaps out on the LCA cam bolts. I did a gusset reinforcement on mine and 2 of the 4 were seized just 6 months following purchased. I know it does not make you feel any better.