05 LCA - both sides / aftermarket vs. oem?

Got a quote from my reliable local mechanic for lower control arm replacements on both sides.

There's a $425 difference in total repair cost for aftermarket vs oem. He quoted Auto Zone's Duralast Gold. Truck is driven under 5-7k miles annually, no offroad.

 

ok

 

Go OEM, I bought aftermarket LCA's and had them installed, they failed within a year, Passenger side Ball joint started squeaking and the front bushing popped out causing a clunk when I braked.
I ended up buying 2 new arms from Toyota, a little over 300 a pop. Trust me dont cheap out, a lot of this Aftermarket stuff is junk. I ended up paying twice for install and twice for alignment due to the crappy aftermarket parts.

 

Thanks.

 

300 a pop creeps near fabricated arms with none of the benefits

why not try the new TTX arms around $130

stock suspension is not supposed to cost that much.
13 piece full front end kit on an old “expensive” Audi, aluminum multi link, is $300 with lifetime warranty including upper, lower, inner tie rods, outer tie rods, sway bar links.

Toyota is real proud of it. Meaning it’s probably cheap to produce. And looks nowhere near like the heavy duty appearance of Land Cruiser lowers.

not to mention for those of us with JD pivots addressing stock lower bad geometry and weakness, it requires modification and/or different bushings making stock replacements not plug and play.

 

I vote on OEM and it will pay you dividends. Maybe find the OEM online at a better price and bring them to your mechanic.

 

Make yourself a Toyota acct. and buy them from an online Toyota dealer. Get OE and you won’t need them again more than likely with the low mileage driving.

 

Found OE online for $245 per side

 

link??

 

Order from a dealer doing this sale
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/25-off-genuine-toyota-parts-w-free-shipping.839692/

 

So I have a Toyota acct. when you look for the part it then will give a list of dealers to choose from and the price they’re selling at. On average the online prices are 25-35% off retail. I buy all my OE parts that way.

 

https://autoparts.toyota.com/products/category/parts

find the part, then select your local dealer, the dealer price will typically be lower. Select in store pickup and you dont have to pay shipping.

My local dealer has them for $282 each, cheaper than what I bought them for last year. My old arms had 240k nothing wrong but wanted to rebuild my entire front end before I installed my lift.