Non-OEM Replacement Lower Control Arms

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/catastrophic-lca-failure-on-the-street-what-should-i-do.503994/

 

^That type of failure is EXTREMELY rare. Not something I would worry about. If you're wheeling THAT hard there are a lot of other things that need upgrading long before your LCAs.

 

Google brought me here twice now, and this doesn’t give me a lot of hope for mine...05 from Canada, and Toyota’s CRC crap has caused a lot of parts to rust and seize up

I recently replaced my shocks, springs, and coils. Instead of swinging down freely when I loosened the cam bolts, the LCAs didn’t budge. I was practically standing on the LCA just to move it down a few inches to remove the shock assembly! When I finished, I went to realign the cams....I didn’t have to. 3 of the 4 were so rusted that they didn’t even move from the marks I made at the start.

So, not only will I be buying new LCAs, I’ll also be buying more PB Blaster, a new sawzall blade, new cam bolts, more Rust Converter, undercoating, anti-seize.....

 

Now that it's been a few years, how have those LCA's held up? What brand did you end up going with? Thanks

 

I actually ended up just using them till I could press in another ball joint in the OEM arm. Then I sold the LCAs to another member on here.

 

Cool. Thanks for responding. I appreciate the feedback.

I ended up buying some Dormans a little bit ago from JCWhitney.

 

You know, a lot of people bash aftermarket parts and swear by OEM... but to this day, I HAVE NOT seen or heard of one person having a failure with this aftermarket parts (with NORMAL use, because even Toyota doesn’t warranty off road use) and trust me I’ve been searching. So by all means I have no problem giving Moog or doorman or any of the other brands a shot.

 

LCA replacements are high on my list of things to do. Have 180k miles on my OEM ones right now. I am not really interested in just doing OE swap or rebuild. But in terms of companies that offer stock length aftermarket bolt one, I think it's:

Camburg
Total Chaos
Dirt King
Solo Motorsports

Am I missing anyone? I am being specific to stock length.

 

Let me be the first to tell you. Coming up on two years with Dorman LCAs, and almost 20K miles. The lower ball joint on the passenger side LCA is shot - loose as a goose. Must have happened many miles ago. I only discovered it two weekends ago when I installed new coils and separated the BJ bracket from the knuckle to install the coils. Driver-side will need replacing also but it's not nearly as bad as the passenger side. I thought it was the mushy lower shock eye bushings that was causing uneven wear on the tires, but I'm now convinced it's the BJ's fault. Otherwise, the Dorman's are holding up well - I would recommend replacing the PIA BJ's with something better. I do off-road, but mostly in the desert and I'm not a hard driver. I don't regret installing the Dorman's and I thought about replacing the BJ's when I installed the LCA's, but got lazy about it. I still have my OEM LCA's and plan on installing new bushings and BJ's to replace the Dorman's when the bushings start to go bad.

 

https://youtu.be/NTq-YMegMjU

 

Dorman, the Harbor Freight of auto parts. I particularly love it when somebody replaces an OEM part with 150,000 miles on it with a Dorman replacement part and says something like, "I've had them in for 1,000 miles now with no problems whatsoever." Good luck with that.

 

was looking over some alternatives to OEM lower control arms most all are made in China check these out they are probably where the aftermarket out fits purchase thiers.https://www.alibaba.com/product-det...spm=a2700.details.maylikeexp.4.498a21fcGzoqUk

 

aint got the money, maybe buy 2 Chinese a arms press out the BJ and LCA bushings replace with OEM or Whiteline poly instead of rehabbing the old arms or paying a scrap yard for some 2nd hand ones

 

I got a front passenger side creak going on and its bugging the crap out of me was just retorqeing it since the numb nut who done my alignment fubared the whole thing, hopefully the bushing is not shot cause of it seems like its quieted down since I layed into it with a breaker bar and torque wrench.

 

I replaced my lowers with Moog, the bushings felt solid. And so far haven’t noticed any issues. NOT saying they are better than OEM. But that price sure was. Honestly if I could have afforded the OEM, I probably would have went with them tho.

For the record, I stay away from Dorman, I’ve had issues with their parts in the past on other vehicles. But moog has never really given me issues.

 

a couple other brands are CENTRIC and MEVOTECH ive found out that CENTRIC has manufactured their LCAs 622.44066 right and 623.44064 left some are Made in Canada and some are made in Taiwan pretty sure either way they used crappy bushings and LBJ.

 

So where are people getting super good quality LBJs?

 

from what im reading the OEM Toyotas are really the best, but once again they seem to need special super human effort and equipment to press them into either new a arms or the Original arms if reusing them, seems best bet it to fork over the money get OEM complete a arm units

 

I thought I read somewhere that Toyota doesn't sell LBJs.