Catastrophic LCA failure on the street... What should I do?

Hey guys. I've had my 2009 tacoma for about 3 years now and i haven't had many issues with it. Aside from my differential grenading multiple times - (shop messed it up as well). Today when I hit the brakes the welds on the mount of my lower control arm just snapped and the control arm broke off on one mount and destroyed my entire driverside front suspension.

Has anyone else had this happen? I'm lucky I'm not in the hospital if it happend on the freeway it would've been much worse I was on the street and haven't done any offroading on this thing for over a year. Ive just been using it as my work truck. There was visible rust around the mount and I know they've had huge recalls for frame rust issues. . I can get it fixed myself hopefully soon. I feel like these two little tack welds on there are pretty weak for such a load bearing part... Is this something that toyota should pay for? I know a lot of people would try to sue over something like this. I'm just trying to get some thoughts at what some other fellow yota owners would do. Any advice is appreciated. Super bummed. I love my yota but this is not something that should be failing like this. i think this part should have more than 2 little tack welds holding it on... I'm lucky I have total chaos UCAs with a steel uniball otherwise the whole entire thing wouldve ripped out and been in the street.

 

How have you not heard that way before it got to this point??

 

There was absolutely nothing to indicate it was bad. No warning. if you look at my build post you'll see that I've gone through the truck thoroughly. the welds just failed all at once and then the metal unwrapped itself. There was no gradual loosening of the mount as far as I can tell. I would've been able to tell if something was up if it gave me any warning.

 

Surely you must have heard some sort of noise from your front end driving over bumps and what not

 

Nah man this happened all at once the welds broke when I hit the brakes... I use this thing every day for work and I haven't heard anything off.

 

I've always looked under the truck at that and thought that it was weak but damn I didn't think it would fail on the street... or fail at all really like i've seen this part break on shitty engage kits that are being MASHED off road but never on an OEM arm

 

Maybe if it was gonna foreshadow it did it about 1 minute or less before this. Who even cares?

They'll never warranty that or even get near it but I would still try. It's not like you're on 40's and stacking wheel spacers. Definitely try to see if they'll do something to help.

 

I've had this happen 4 or 5 times per side before I went long travel. They won't cover this at all. New uca's from rockauto or some other parts website and you are good to go. (Brake lines and what ever else.)

 

Jesus dude 5 times?? Like I said I knew those little tacks looked weak but damn man Yeah I figured I was on my own.. doesn't hurt to get other opinions tho for sure. Rockauto is awesome too I just got some pads and rotors from them for dirt cheap. Ended up having to replace calipers too cause my pistons were seized and the shop wouldn't do just one side so it turned into a 500$+ front brake job haha. cant catch a break with this thing dude. Motor and trans have been flawless though.

 

Let this be a warning to all of you guys too!!! BE CAREFUL WITH YOUR SUSPENSION DEPENDING ON WHEN IT FAILS IT CAN END UP ALOT WORSE.
EVEN A WELL MAINTAINED TRUCK CAN HAVE WELDS FAIL LIKE THIS WITHOUT WARNING.

INSPECT YOUR TRUCK AS OFTEN AS YOU CAN EVEN IF YOURE NOT OFFROADING
Sometimes it can't be prevented like I couldn't even tell this was gonna happen but balljoint failure etc will have a similar result and that you can actually check for.

 

"It's a pickup, that's what it's supposed to do" would be my guess.

 

Maybe it is related to this

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...s-may-be-cracking.503773/page-2#post-15739916

 

odd that you'd have that much rust in California ? Glad youre ok

 

Only that many times because the way I off road and beat the truck.

 

Heard about this happening. Had the eyes strapped when I went to the poly bushings.

 

That's what I was thinking when I read this. Seems easy enough if you have a welder.

 

Yo that is a really good idea man that looks solid too. they shouldve done that shit from the factory lol. I realize that translates to millions in production costs tho so I understand why. Ill have my fab buddy who made my bumper do that for me on my new ones The parts for this truck are dirt cheap luckily.

 

Hell yeah man your LT build is beautiful

 

Straps are about 5/32". Probably wouldn't be necessary at all except that the eyes are split and the split is located even with the welded seam in the arm.

 

Toyota quality!!!