Lower control arm replacement

Driver side LCA ball joint boot is completely shredded. Considering I have 226k miles and its the original LCA, I decided to go ahead and buy a whole new one at the dealership. Anyone have a writeup or advice on changing it? I plan on reusing the same hardware as I have zero rust on mine.

 

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/2nd-gen-lower-control-arm-replacement.513827/

Basic concept there. A few videos on YouTube as well showing the procedure. Make sure you take pictures of the cam bolt positions before removing and put them back in similar to how they came out. Torque everything with weight of the vehicle on the ground at the end. New arm may be a tight fit to get back in. Get vehicle aligned after.

 

no rust doesn’t mean the hardware isn’t seized. Before digging into the project check the cam is free to move. If it isn’t, order new hardware to avoid downtime.

 

Yep. My undercarriage is virtually rust-free with some surface rust on the LCA’s, yet I had a frozen front driver-side cam bolt, and it would not budge with heat and hammer blows. I had to cut the bolt with a reciprocating saw. It really depends the last time you had an alignment. I had gone about three years.