Control arm recommendations?

So I have a 2012 Tacoma I4. Every time I brake the steering wheel as well as the front left part of the truck shakes. I believe it might be that the caliper is damaged but it could also be the control arm. So I will be replacing the brakes, calipers and the control arms. I’m not looking to lift or lower the truck. I already have the brake kit chosen but I’m still choosing the control arms. Any recommendations for a brand to buy? I shop at extreme terrain.

 

If you are high mileage, new LCA are a nice improvement for handling. If you are dead set on replacing them, I'd get OEM. Anything aftermarket is a gamble for LCA.

 

well I’m a total noob when it comes to working in cars. Could you explain a little more of diagnostics? Like should I get a code reader or take it to a shop? I wanted to try doing this stuff by myself but some people just said that there’s no shame in having someone else fix your car.

 

Well it’s a little over 150k in miles. I’ll look into LCAs and most likely will stick with an oem part. Brakes though they gotta be switched out. It’s already annoying hearing them scream at the top of their lungs whenever I reverse.

 

Whoa slow down dude. Had shaking under braking and this is 99% of the time a brake rotor & pad issue. You need to find the problem first before assuming what it is. Look at this that gave me the same symptoms of shudder when braking.

 

Shaking when braking is almost always a warped rotor. Do the brakes and see if it’s better. Inspect the calipers for proper movement or torn boots while it’s apart. LCA usually cause clunks or odd feelings once you come to a complete stop.

 

I think I found the problem? What do you say? There’s some cracks around the strut I believe.

 

I had shaking and it was because the alignment cam tabs were bent flat letting my lower control arm to move freely take a picture of all 8 of those and post them I’ll try to help best I can

 

That’s a plastic sleeve over the shock, unlikely to be your actual problem.

If you aren’t mechanically inclined, taking your truck to a shop for a brake job and an alignment won’t hurt anything but your pocketbook. An honest shop will give you a list of anything worn that needs to be replaced, a dishonest shop will give you a list of stuff that needs to be replaced that doesn’t really.

 

Yeah I think I’ll just take it to a shop and see what they find out about it. The shaking seems to be getting worst but the only thing I do know is that my brake pads are worn out so I gotta get that dealt with

 

Worn brake pads can cause brake rotors to do weird things which would cause shaking while you brake.

 

Probably, well I’ll take all the advice into consideration. The truck is already suffering as it is.

 

Those cracks are just the spring isolator. Shouldn’t really cause anything except maybe noise

 

Dammit, thought I had something.