Replace bushings or new control arms?

Long time lurker and new poster here.

My 1st gen Tacoma is getting old and clunky. It’s time to fix or replace things up front.

question is, would it be worth it to replace the whole lower and upper control arms rather than just doing the bushings? I know replacing bushings is not an easy task and with parts like moog or similar and prices of replacement parts that won’t break the bank are available out there.

I’m planning to do the work myself

thanks TW!

 

I did the lower control arm job last year. I opted for the Whiteline bushings in the lower control arms. It's work either way, but less work to replace the entire lower control arm. The lower control arms are very stout, and don't really need to be replaced, just the bushings. But, removing the old bushings is a task some people would prefer to avoid. So, it's how much you are willing to do to get this done. Also, some say the aftermarket lower control arms, i.e. Moog, have bushings that while like oem, don't last like oem. You also can get oem Toyota replacement LCA bushings. Looking back, I wish I had.

Where are you located? You might find someone in your area who's done that job and may be willing to help.

 

I'd replace the bushings with strongflex or whitelines if you have the time. I have a 7 month old kid so I had to bite the bullet and have Toyota do the job for me with oem everything. I had bought oem cam adjuster hardware and strongflex bushings to do it myself on an old set of 4runner arms, but couldn't carve out more than an hour or 2 to work on it at a time. Took all Saturday just to get my truck on jackstands before a meltdown kept me out of the garage the rest of the afternoon

Paid about $1500 out the door with an alignment, they also put the new cam adjuster hardware I had in for me as well. I could have saved about $300 if I sourced the arms as well but didn't know if my dealership was cool with me providing parts (they are as long as everything is OEM Toyota). I asked for my old arms back to and will just press the old bushings (what's left of em) and pop in the Strongflex ones and throw them in a bin in the garage for the next go around.

Probably could be cheaper having a 3rd party shop just slap some moogs in there, but for rubber stuff like bushings I like sticking with Toyota as much as possible, that shit just lasts. I had a firestone quote me $2k for the job with Moog/equivalent LCA's, mostly cause I'm guessing they wanted nothing to do with it, YMMV.

You'll be amazed how much better the truck feels after you replace them, I let mine go for too long and it was like a whole new front end after getting them swapped out.

 

x3 on Whiteline for the lowers. The extra cost is worth it.

 

Helped a buddy replaced his two LCA, cost $512.15 from Toyota

 

Replace your bushings.

Replacing your control arms is the equivalent of replacing your wheels just because your tires are bald.

 

I have little free time. I'd replace the whole arm. Less labor/effort/time. Especially if the arm is rusty.

Lower arm is fun, have to set back the steering rack n pinion.

 

Where are you located? I vote for changing the bushings as well, but if you're in a rust prone state, it is ALOT of work to get the old ones out.

 

Yea the presence of absence of significant rust should guide your decision. I'd pay the $60-80 per bushing for the OEM bushings and reuse the old arms if rust isn't a factor.

I used Moog bushings in my OEM LCAs and they failed in 3 weeks. So 3 weeks later I spent another 8 hrs tearing the whole front end apart again just to put new OEM bushings in. OEM Toyota parts are far superior. "Buy once, cry once"

 

Looks like I’ll be putting the truck on jackstands! Bushings on the stock arms it is!

my truck has lived in SoCal away from the ocean it’s whole life and looks like it’s never seen the dirt.

OEM bushing or whitlines are the way to go vs energy suspension?

I thinking I should just do everything while the arms are out. Steering rack, sway bar and ball joints. Am I missing anything else?

 

How hard is it really on these trucks? I haven't done it yet on mine but I've done it multiple times on other cars and once even with uniballs(real pain in the ass) and they aren't that bad. Is there something I don't know?

 

Don't use energy for the lower arms. But I would suggest replacing steering rack bushings with the energy suspension kit. You can do this with the rack still in the truck, just loose like you will already have it for the LCA removal.

 

I'd add tie rod ends if you haven't done them recently. Everything else is perfect to do since you gotta touch most of it to get the lca's off. Timmy has a video for each of these jobs individually on his channel, great resource. AdventureTaco has probably the best writeup for LCA bushings.

I'd skip the ES bushings for the LCA, stick with Whiteline, OEM, or Strongflex.

ES are good for steering rack if you just daily drive, if you push if off road get the total chaos ones

 

I did my lower control arm bushings and lower BJ's recently.. In my case/for this truck I opted to try the sonora fab bushings and OE toyota BJ's.
What I found easiest to get the old bushings out was to cut both far ends off with a sawzall-used a blade skinny enough to cut from the inside out into the outer bushing sleeve being careful not to cut into the arm-knock out the remaining bushing with an impact chisel.
Only takes about 5 min per bushing once you have it down. SF bushings pop right in after.

 

Those are all the things I tackled while everything was apart. It seemed wise to replace all the bushings and lower ball joints, since they were accessible.

 

Are you asking about upper ball joints? Or the lower ball joints? Pretty sure many trucks on here have the uniball uppers, but very few uniball lowers. Either way, both are pretty easy to do. The uppers can be a bit tricky to get out of the knuckle, but installation back into the knuckle is pretty easy. Lower ball joints are a breeze. Use tie rod puller to take tie rod out of LBJ, then use a ball joint puller or seperator to break the ball joint loose, take out the 4 bolts holding it to the LCA, then reverse the process for reinstallation of new ones. Usually can be done in about 10-15 minutes per side tops.

 

I actually meant the bushings for the LCA. Looking at it, I think a c clamp press should make quick work or a 20 ton press would be even easier. Are they harder than meets the eye?

 

Oh gotcha. I actually have used two methods: 1) a harbor freight 20 ton press my buddy owns, and 2) or the OEM bottle jack [while the control arm was held in the vice]. You can get some tension on the bottle jack [start applying some jack pressure upwards into the bushing], then heat the sleeve on the control arm, and once it gets hot the bushing will just pop free usually. Be careful and have it pointed toward the ground with a bucket full of rags to catch it. The bottle jack method is much easier in my opinion.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmaZNBp1gZM&pp=ygUsdGltbXkgdGhlIHRvb2xtYW4gbG93ZXIgY29udHJvbCBhcm0gYnVzaGluZ3M=

This timmy the toolman video demonstrates this process real nicely.

 

Was it easier taking the LCA out and doing it on the 20 ton?

 

You gotta take the LCA out either way, but no the bottle jack method was easier in my opinion, because the odd shape of the LCA arm itself makes it a bit unwieldly in my opinion to line up the press properly, to get the bushings out. The bottle jack fits nicely right between the forward and rearward bushing sleeves and can push each one out lickety split.