Bent Lower Control Arm Mount

Edit:I posted this in the 2nd Gen Forum but I thought this might be a better place for it.

I was crawling under the truck for some routine maintenance and I noticed this. You're looking at the driver side forward lower control arm mount bracket/eccentric.

It seems like I hit a rock which bent the leading part of the mount backwards, but I don't understand how the aft part of the mount was bent towards the front of the vehicle. Does anyone with alignment or frame experience have any thoughts? Could the aft part of the mount been bent by an alignment shop or could that have happened off road?

I also noticed my eccentric tabs are bent flat which i know has been covered in other posts.

If I want to get this mount bracket fixed, what would be my best bet?

 

Does anyone else have this issue?

 

It can happen by going off road but if both front and back are bent, I bet the alignment shop did it so they can spin the eccentric bolts around and they don't sit flat upside down. I've seen way too many shops try to get the adjustments but spinning bolts upside down.

 

Thanks for your response. I went to the alignment shop to put it back into spec as both sides had some out of spec numbers. The tech brought me into the shop and said the wouldn't be able to do anything about caster/camber on the side that had the bent bracket because my alignment tabs are also flat..but luckily those values were still in spec anyways.

SO, I have an appointment with a frame shop and also Toyota Dealer to take a look at the frame and alignment tabs. My question:

1) If i have a frame shop straighten the bracket and fix the tabs (maybe TG tab gussets) will that void warranty? Im only at 34 months and 25k.

2) Would insurance cover the costs, less my deductible?

 

Do you have a skid plate? Even the stock one? From what I can remember, the skid plate protects at least the front of the tabs. As far as the warranty goes, I don't think welding tab gussets will void any warranty unless they can prove that whatever you've done is the cause of the issue.

Doubt insurance will cover it but doesn't hurt to ask.

 

I do have the stock skid but it barely covers the forward lca mount and since it's so chintzy it does nothing to help in this instance. I can see a huge dent in it where the rock hit the skid first before moving onto my lca bracket.

I'll be interested to say what both shops have to say in a couple days. My feeling is that Toyota will say if dealer does the repairs/welding then warranty is not voided. I looked into my insurance policy and it looks like the damage should be covered since it was not a racing activity. They don't explicitly state anything about off-roading. Ill keep this post updated with what I find out.

 

Been a while since you started this thread, but wondering if you got this fixed? Got the same problem myself now

 

What have you been doing to cause something like that Jay? Lol.

 

Lol, hi Roberto long time. Doing dumb shit in the desert, took a big hit on the passenger lca. Bent the hell out of the mounting assembly where the lowers bolt on to the cross member. Any suggestions?

 

This is great timing-- I'm in the process of fixing this today! A frame shop told me I had slightly bent my coil bucket as well as the LCA mounts, but I didn't go forward with the repair because I've since gotten it aligned and it drives well.

As for the LCA mounts, I knocked mine back out enough using a punch/hammer to remove the LCA. Then used pliers once I had LCA removed to straighten them out a little more. It's not perfectly straight again, but the LCA cycles fine. Last week I installed TC Cam tab gussets on one side of truck and today I'll be putting them on the damaged side-- the new gussets won't sit totally flush on those bent mounts but Ill be able to line up the bolt holes and fill any gaps with extra weld.

 

Mm... You must had hit something seriously hard in order to bend that area. Remove the control arms and get to work with a sledge hammer and possibly a torch. Sounds like boxed control arms are the next step for you.

I have never bent that area, and you have been in the truck with me to see how hard the hits I've been through are.

Been a long time indeed!

 

Are you worried at all about the metal being weakened by bending it back?

 

Yeah, hard is an understatement... My lca is dented in a couple places and cracked. Wheel is rubbing the hell out of cab mount, got pushed at least an inch back.
Boxed lca's would be awesome but don't think they do anything to strengthen the mounting points do they?

 

No not really, because I didn't get the metal to move too much anyway and once the LCA hardware is back in + the gussets, it's pretty solid.

I noticed on mine that I also bent the washer behind the mount, which is part of the LCA bushing-- yours are probably bent too. Try to straighten your mounts enough that it won't interfere when you install the new bushing.

 

I'm going to need to get mine too move quite a bit, they pretty bad. Torch and bfh it is I guess

 

Well sure they would, not only are the bushings within the arms much more solid and less prone to distortion and flex like the rubber ones are, but they are backed by cold hard steel. Which once all bolted together nearly becomes one massive piece of steel due to how hard delrin bushings are (go with delrin if you go upgraded arms!). The stock ones are made of what seems like sheetmetal and this is not the first time I've heard of them being destroyed off a hit like yours or even easier hits.

 

It's not the lca itself tho, it's the bit that it bolts into