2004 toyota sienna control arm replacement

[penguin4718]

Hi, My 2004 Sienna's passenger side control arm bushing is gone bad. I wonder if aftermarket brand MEVOTECH is good enough compare to OEM parts. I saw some people were talking about just changing bushing on the control arm, because I was told by toyota technician that bushing is not replaceble on control arm.
Any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

penguin4718,

[sharkinstx]

Originally Posted by penguin4718

Hi, My 2004 Sienna's passenger side control arm bushing is gone bad. I wonder if aftermarket brand MEVOTECH is good enough compare to OEM parts. I saw some people were talking about just changing bushing on the control arm, because I was told by toyota technician that bushing is not replaceble on control arm.
Any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

penguin4718,

I don't know, I'm not sure I'd replace a critical part like a control arm with some brand I'd never heard of. I see that RockAuto sells them for $103.79 with ball joint. I know Mevotech is based in Canada, but I wonder where their parts are manufactured? If it's in China, I wouldn't go near them.

The Toyota control arm is $136.37 (the ball joint is $40.92) at 1sttoyotaparts.com. At Toyota of Newnan it's $141.76, and $42.54, but their shipping may be cheaper. Retail is $189.02, and $56.72.

How many miles on yours, anyway?

[penguin4718]

Thank you for your response sharkinstx. My sienna has 110k miles. I didn't know my control arm bushing went bad until I recently replaced whole struts on minivan. I replaced front struts and rear shock with KYB along with front strut insulator as well as bearings due to poor ride and tire wearness. But the passenger front side is not as smooth as other side. Found out that bushing has bad crack on control arm.
Thanks again for the info. and I will keep trying to look for other information on websites. BTW, I wonder how some people were able to replace their bushing instead of whole control arm. If I knew, I would love to try that way with less $$.

Jason,

'04 Sienna LE FWD 110,000 miles

[sharkinstx]

Jason, which bushing is failing? Is it the one at the back, or the one at the front? To me, the design of the rear bushing looks like a poor idea.

[zosofan]

well, my 2004 has 135,000 on it and this weekend a buddy and i replaced the front wheel bearings on both sides, both lower control arms, and through in new brake pads as a bonus.

it was a big job. 13 hours and we really didn't get stuck anywhere. a couple of tips.

wheel bearings:
1. make sure to pry the detent in the axle nut back to near normal position, so that you don't mangle the axle threads.
2. when tapping the axle out of the hub, it may not come out. (this happened on the drivers side.)
3. if #2 happens, remove the knuckle/hub and axle all together.
4. don't bother trying to separate the hub from the knuckle. Take it to a shop and have them press the hub out, the old bearing out, the new bearing in, and the hub back in.

control arms.
1. do one control arm at a time.
2. you can jack the engine/trans up far enough to remove the engine mounts to get to the hidden bolt.
3. when doing the passenger side, remove the dog-bone.
4. when doing the driver's side, loosen the nut on the front motor mount.
5. minimize the amount of time that you have the engine mount out.
6. when putting the control arm in, put the back bolt in first, then swing the control arm into the final position and put the front 2 bolts in.

btw, it was the rear rubber bushing that failed on my control arms.


eye thank ewe

greg
zosofan

[penguin4718]

Thanks Zosofan,

I wonder if you have any pics for your diy. And, also what is the dog-bone and where is it located?

Thanks,

Jason

[zosofan]

I meant to take more photos, but took only two meaningful ones.

The first is the driver's side just after installing the new lower control arm, but before re-installing the motor mount.


The second is of the passenger side, just after removing the motor mount, but before installing the new lower control arm.


They are located in my gallery here on Toyotanation. I couldn't get them to post in this reply.


The dog bone is on the upper left of the engine and connects the engine to the body.

eye thank ewe

greg
zosofan

[penguin4718]

Thank you Greg. It certainly is a big help before I start work on my van. Btw, did u use oem control arm or aftermarket part?

Thanks again,

Jason
penguin4718

[zosofan]

ahh, the question that haunts all of us.

I bought a set off ebay for $140 + $25 shipping from canada. In a case like this, where the part will stay connected to the vehicle even if the rubber bushings fail, i felt it was a safe bet. we will see. If i only get 30K or 40K miles out of them, then the next set will be oem.

I work with a bunch of former dealer mechanics and i can tell you, it is their stories that make me do the majority of my own work.

Remember, this is a big job. go slowly and methodically. work safely, we put jack stands under the front, then had the hydrolic jack under another member for a 2nd line of defense, and finally the wheels under the vehicle near the doors incase the other two failed. getting squished on saturday is never a good idea. study the illustrations in the manual until you understand how everything goes together.

make sure that you have the tools you need. if you are doing the bearings, then you need the axle nut socket. it took me a couple of days to find one locally. if i were doing it again, i would order it ahead of time from the interweb. we used a tie rod end/pittman arm puller to separate the tie rod from the knuckle. we did not separate the ball joint from the knuckle. we also use impact sockets for most of the big stuff and found that a 1/2" socket wrench with a 4' piece of steel pipe would get the bolts to move. i believe that the ones on the control arm are 150 ft-lbs. We used a torque wrench that would go up that far to tighten the bolts.

eye thank ewe

greg
zosofan