How do I break the silicon to regrease aftermarket control arms

The ball joints on my Tacoma were squeaking last year. They were aftermarket Camburg control arms the previous owner had put on. I took it to a shop and short story long, one of the joints had rusted out and damaged the control arm bushings. I had to replace both control arms; got a set of Icons.

I want to maintain these and got out my grease gun for maintenance. There are four screws and if I remove them, I cannot get the cap off. The guy at the shop used some kind of sealant (I'm assuming silicon. Looks grey/black) and I can't fit a spugger or razor knife under the cap! I got out my heat gun and ran it for two minutes or so but it didn't seem to do anything. I don't want to damage the plastic. Should I just heat it for longer? Should I use a solvent?

How do I safely get these caps off without damaging them?



and while I'm at it, I was confused as to why my truck had a blind spot detector on my drivers side and not the passenger side. I thought these blind spot mirrors were factory, but now that I look at them, did the previous owner seriously put a blind spot mirror over the indicator LED? If I take a heat gun to this, will there be an indicator under it?

 

If you have BSM it will show up in your combo meter (the speedometer LCD) settings, try scrolling through, you would have BSM and RCTA settings.

As for the cap on the arms all you can do is gently heat and work at it, try tapping while prying it up gently when warm.

 

I have it. I have the button and the LED on the drivers side. Just wanted to make sure Toyota didn't sell them in some asymmetric variant where it wasn't on the passenger side. So that means it is just covered up, right?

 

Yup, I was able to get them off a car I owned. Heat and patience. All tacomas are 2 sides for BSM

 

Yep, just needed patience and evenly heating all sides of the cap. Don't think I needed to worry about damaging it with heat. For some reason I thought it was a hard plastic, but once it came off, I realized it was metal.



And the previous owner did totally cover up the BSM light with a blind spot mirror. I guess he preferred them? I'd prefer the LED. You can't see anything from that tiny mirror at night.



I got the rest off with a plastic tool and some alcohol wipes.

 

For everyone else, braid fishing line pulled back and forth behind the fish eye mirror will break thru the foam adhesive. Don’t try to pry it or you will crack the mirror. Don’t ask how I know.