Alignment issues...to upgrade LCA or not?

Hello everyone,

I'm looking for your advice on how I should proceed with my predicament. Long story short, took the truck in for the warranty coating for the frame, while it was in the shop figure I have them take a look at the alignment as the truck has been pulling to the right for a bit (I already serviced the brakes myself in the fall). Long behold the alignment was out and was able to be corrected mostly. Now thanks to our salty roads up here in Canada, the left camber adjuster is seized. The rest were able to be readjusted to some degree, but the left camber could not and as such the truck still pulls to the right.

Now to the big question, the mechanic is recommending replacing both LCA's and all the adjusters (Stated the LCA's bushings weren't in best of shape). For just the parts alone it will be 1350$ plus labour and taxes (CAD)...so an estimate of 2000$. Would you all recommend staying OEM or going aftermarket? The mechanic did say he would recommend to stay with OEM for the LCA's but go aftermarket for the adjusters with the zerk fittings to gain some more life out of the parts.

Thoughts??

 

My driver side cams froze up. I bought a movotech LCA and spc cams bolts. Cut out the other bolts and installed the new stuff. For under 500. And when I get around to it I'll rebuild the OEM LCA and put it in.

 

I think the adjusters come seized from the factory. Honestly you may get a pull becasue the cross camber is greater then .5 degrees which is more then you want but I don't think it will prematurely wear you tires.

Your LF tire actually has less camber then the RF but it's out of spec on the negative side.

My vote if you don't notice abnormal wear on the outer edge of the LF tire tread, just run it till you need to replace it from wear.

I'm in the same boat since I pushed the nose up 2" on mine. Locked adjuster, just out enough to be in the red but not enough to really casue problems. Just going to kick the can down the road till I actually need to do some front end repairs, or go with a Marlin Crawler long arm, or stuff a Dana 60 up front, or sell it and buy a real truck...

 

Bingo. 1000% go oem cams and hardware.

 

Why OEM bolts without zerks? Wouldn't aftermarket bolts with zerks be better for maintenance purposes and such?

 

Well I bit the bullet and ordered the parts, originally was going to go with Napa control arms and camber bolts. The arms were 300$ each, but then I took a gander at toyota parts direct. For an OEM control arm it was only 12$ more, so by not having to buy some parts at Napa and the rest at toyota I saved some money by not paying taxes twice. Was considering the cheaper aftermarket alternatives, but for a such a vital component of the vehicle, I choose to stick with OEM. Dealer was able to give me a part list of everything they said was needed, so just had to plug and plug the part numbers. Before taxes and shipping toyota parts direct was 824$, if I were to go to the dealer themselves it would have been 1317$ for the same set of parts

I also noticed with the grease able bolts from Napa that they are only zinc plated, so they most definitely wouldn't have fared well in the salty roads that we have here in the north. I also read up and saw issues with the cam plates too, so they were a no go.

In the end won't be a cheap job, but for 5 years of use and 100,000 km to be my only real repair needed besides basic maintenance...not to bad. Just wish I were back at families home with the garage, I could have done this all myself haha..ah well. From driving the truck today it has a notable pull, and recently for the few months the mpg has gone below it normal, figure the fighting the misalignment isn't helping.

 

Dare I ask...

If this isn't going to wear tires and nothing is loose in the front end, why jump to replace them when you may have gone another 25k or more miles without a problem?

 

Here's the cam part numbers. This is enough to do 1 side of the truck.

 

Primarily replacing the parts as plane on long trips this summer and becoming annoying having always push it to the left to compensate for the rightward pull. Also this past while I noticed a drop in mpg out of the trucks normal, figure constantly fighting the rightward pull certainly can’t help. If I leave it its only inevitable that other components may get worn prematurely, for being my only repair in 5 years and 110,000 km not too bad!

 

Im replacing my LCAs and when I was reading up on the job they mentioned most have to cut a bolt (because it’s seized). Are these the bolts they’re referring to?

Are there any other random bolts I may need?

I guess I’m confused now because on the post I was reading he had a pn# and the bolt were only $2? these cam bolts are definitely more expensive...