LCA question....

I bought new tires after having one that had a high spot in it that would not balance correctly. I am still having the same issues with the steering wheel wobble as before even with the new tires. Had them road force balanced twice and still the same result but the tires balanced out both times. Took it to the dealership and they said it was the tires but I found there to be slack in the driver side cv axle at the front diff so I was thinking it was a bad bearing but they said it was within spec. I brought it back to the tire shop where I got the tires and they found that the LCA bushings on the rear of both sides had slack in them and that was what was causing the problem. So back to the dealership I go and they tell me that the slack is normal in the 4x4 tacoma's for off road articulation. I called BS on it because I believe that they don't want to do the work because it falls under the extended warranty. The bushings had at least 1/2 inch or better play in them. Has anyone here had the same issue with the bushings being bad? I'm thinking with that much play in the bushings that is where the problem is or is the dealer right?

 

Ya, you should not have play at any suspension pivot point like that. All that's going to do is wallow out bolt holes and make an even bigger mess in the future. A half inch is A LOT of play. The thing that sucks is that a bushing is a wear Item, so they may even tell you they won't cover it. Especially with the lift and what not. Then, changing bushings on stock arms is a PITA, and labor costs usually outweight the cost of just buying a whole new arm from the dealer or Napa.

We just had a customer wit the exact same issue. He opted to go with the Total Chaos stock length race lower arms.

Cam tab gussets would be a good idea for you as well in case the hole has some slop in it now, the will help hold the alignment better.

 

I bought the truck with the lift and everything on it, also purchased the extended warranty too. They called later and said they called the extended warranty claims and they said to replace them. What really bothered me was they gave me that line of crap about the 4x4 tacoma's and articulation for off road and that slack was normal. I told the service manger how about we pull a 4x4 tacoma off the lot and put it on the rack and see how much play was in those bushings and he quickly responded " I can't do that with a new truck " and when I asked him about the used 4x4 they had in inventory if we could check it he said they had sold it already. I call BS on that too, they just didn't want to do the work under the warranty and me be able to prove the point that the bushings were bad.

 

The good thing for you is most dealerships won't just replace the bushings, they swap the whole LCA. That means you get new bushings and ball joints (and possibly new mounting hardware if the old ones were seized and had to be cut off).

 

Yep when they called they said they are going to replace the whole LCA on both sides. I had a ball joint go bad on my 06 tacoma and the said they couldn't replace just the ball joint they had to replace the entire LCA. I did some research on here and found that the bushings usually work the same way.

 

Ya, If they want to replace the bushings alone, It so much mor elabor, and usually have to get burned out.

Glad they are taking care of it

 

Yeah me too. I knew when I bought that truck the extended warranty was a good idea with the lift. They wanted to push the issue of the lift but I told them that it had it when I bought the truck from them and if the extended warranty wasn't going to cover the LCA's, which it says it will in the list of warrantied items, that they shouldn't have sold me the warranty and I wanted the money back. The service manager starting "crawfishing" on me when I said that. One more phone call about them not wanting to try and fix the issue and I was going to file a complaint with Toyota.

 

Yup! Nic's truck looks good with em!