Upper Control Arm - Bad or OK?

What years are the upper and lower control arms interchangeable with a 2nd gen?

 

https://www.freedomoffroadusa.com/213622/12/0/824/fo-t701fu-tacoma-04-15-tacoma-prerunner05-front-upper-arm.html

$360 for a full replacement. If you’re going to keep those spacers, might as well replace the arm.

 

I don't have the knowledge to make an argument against that... and I won't try to pretend, lol.

However, I do feel like I should clarify some things.

1. I measured the spacer and it's 1.5 inches, not 3-4. Maybe my camera made it look differently. I'm by no means implying this "debunks" your statement. The fact is I have no idea. But I thought the clarification might help.

2. For anyone who has seen pictures on another post of mine with the spacer and ridiculous amount of down travel - that picture is with the tire off and the front of the truck jacked up. I do virtually no off-road... So I can't imagine a time that my truck was given the opportunity to flex that way. But regardless, I do understand that the spacer needs to go.

3. This is a very long story, but I'll make it short as I can. I took my truck in to a company and had several things done. One of those things was to fix my front brake rotors and install new front struts. Well, a little later I was driving down the road and hit a bump and I literally thought my wheel fell off. My entire truck started shaking so violently. I pulled off the road as fast as I could. Looked underneath and couldn't find anything wrong. So with extreme caution I started the truck back and started driving home (VERY slowly). I couldn't take my truck back to this place for a while. Anyway, I finally was able to take my truck back to them and they looked underneath and said holy crap... don't drive anywhere. Whoever worked on your truck forgot to put "something" back. I never did figure out with that "something" was, but ever since there has been weird clicks and pops and such in the front end. I've been slowly trying to get them all worked out, and now I'm here.

What I left out of that story was the fact that the initial work was supposed to be done in a couple hours. A couple hours went by so I started calling - no answers. I called multiple times throughout the day, still no answers. So eventually I had a friend drive me up there and to my surprise the shop was shut down... and my truck was still in there. I talked to their neighbors who shared the same parking lot and they said they had no idea why they shutdown... and they were wondering the same thing.

Well, after some investigating, apparently but the manager who approved all the work to be done after I paid quit right after I left the shop. The shop shut down early without telling me and they kept my truck in their shop for the rest of that day and most of the next day without my permission.

That shop has since shutdown.

I know that's a bit of a rant, but I felt the context was important.

So all of that to say, again I'm not arguing with you. I don't even have the knowledge to do so. But the fact that I've had problems ever since that experience makes me really suspicious that my problems now can be linked to then.

 

Your spacer is 1.5” which in turn produces 3” of lift. That is too much for your stock UCA geometry. Either ditch the spacer or continue to have prematurely worn parts.

 

Dude... all of your problems are likely linked to the fact that you have a spacer lift. Get rid of it, get new ball joints and be done. Or, go down the rabbit hole of lifting your taco the correct way and never be done. If you’re not off-road or on high clearance FS roads, run stock height. My last words of wisdom. Unsubscribing.

 

Where are you located @imbuffnotreally ?
Maybe some people near you can chime in a help you out. Also, if you need LCAs, and want to stick with OEM, i have some for sale.
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/fs-oem-lcas.671002/

UCAs pop up all the time

 

Thank you all for your added input.

I thought I'd made it clear, but apparently not... so I apologise for that.

I'll make it clear now - I'm getting rid of the spacers. I decided that in my last thread.

I'm here to learn and I thought the extra info I added might be helpful to those helping me.

It seems it's only irritated people though, lol.

So again... Thanks for all the help! And sorry for the unclear communication.

 

I'm in the southwest Missouri area. Seems there's a lot of people here from Cali

 

I haven't had a chance to look yet, but I will when I get the chance!

 

@uploadadventure might know some Missouri people near you, or be able to help out.

 

So I didn’t read all of the posts. But. I will be in south west Missouri this week (Thursday- Sunday) at rush spring ranch.

my buddy and I MIGHT be able to help you change these out at the park. Let me know so I can talk to my buddy

 

Dam, that’s a long post lol. I’ll read it when I get a chance, but any kind of ridiculous unexplainable down travel is the shocks. That was the case with me. I’m on bilstein 5100s, the shock itself limits down travel. If that fails, the next thing to limit your down travel is basically your CV axle touching your lower control arm. @imbuffnotreally remove your shock, it’s not too difficult. Mine exploded the minute I removed it.