Long gone. Always keep OEM control arm. If you want the best bulletproof control arm bushings get Energy Suspension Control arm Bushings. Otherwise, OEM bushings are my go to if you want stock for stock.

The first impressions of new bushings are better acceleration, handling, and braking. A Must maintenance for safety sake. After, your Golden for a good 7+ years.


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Long gone. Always keep OEM control arm. If you want the best bulletproof control arm bushings get Energy Suspension Control arm Bushings. Otherwise, OEM bushings are my go to if you want stock for stock.

The first impressions of new bushings are better acceleration, handling, and braking. A Must maintenance for safety sake. After, your Golden for a good 7+ years.


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Are the Energys urethane? I put those in my old Mustang last century. Torched out the old and pressed in the Energy units. Do they slightly stiffen the ride? @John Anthony posted about changing these. I'm going to look that up. Any tips on this job?

 

Burn the rubber out and cut a slice with a sawzall, in the metal shell that's left, they come out in the vice easily with a hammer and punch. press in the replacement paying attention to the orientation, with photos before they are removed if there is no indexing mark. You can get a control arm assembly, but I would use OE and replace the bushings as long as you are sure the arms are not collision damaged.

 

Yes, those are toast.

FWIW, and not to be disagreeable with our friends before me, I recently did a major front end suspension overall and swapped in new Beck/Arnley lower control arms and have been quite happy with them.

While you're at it on those bushings, you may want to inspect your motor mounts to see if the rubber on those has worn similarly.

I have a 97 Camry 2.2L, so a different configuration than yours, but I installed new mounts all around a couple of years ago and noticed an immediate reduction in overall engine vibration and a major improvement in 0-60 acceleration (the bushing on my dog bone mount was completely shot, and would cause my engine to rock/lurch on freeway ramp accelerations).

Blessings on your project. Hope it goes well for you.

 

A tad bit, yes. But most comfort comes from what kind of strut spring setup and tires for me.

Easy if you have done it before. Heat the center metal cylinder and it will slide right out clean at the right temperature. Then, heat the bushing metal sleeve or cup until the rest of the rubber slides off like maple syrup. Biggest tip is only heat the metal and the rubber will flash off at melting point. You keep the OEM metal sleeve and center pin.

To install you can just use a large C clamp. That’s what I did before owning a shop press. You do need to align them to the specs on the paper as the pin will pivot best in the position they show you on the instruction sheet. Go ham at the bushings, they are a lot tougher than you may think. Getting the edge or lip of the bushing in will be the hard part but once in you can clamp that thing down in place. The center pin goes in next, clamp it in with the provided lube. Lube belongs on the center pin and inside of the bushing, not the outer diameter that touches the control arm.

The vertical bushing on the control arm is the easiest. Just burn out and both bushings just slide in. The center pin is somewhat of a press fit, just clamp in. Thats pretty much it. Love mine. Simply bulletproof and holds the lower arm so damn well to the wheel!

Oh and alignment will probably be on the list too. Mine went off spec a little after replacing my worn bushings.

Edit: Yes, polyurethane.

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Oh and alignment will probably be on the list too. Mine went off spec a little after replacing my worn bushings.

+1 on a post-install alignment

 

Thanks to all who replied. I'm busy replacing the front struts now and I saw those bushings looking bad. I was planning on an alignment after the new struts are in but I'll wait and drive the other vehicles until the bushings are in too. I just ordered the Energy kit from Big A. They're saying about a week- oh well. My spring insulators are shot as well. I bought all OEM parts for this including replacement mounts so hopefully this job will be right. The rear shocks were a pain with the alignment and little clearance with the spring compressors. These look easier.

 

The orientation of the bushing affects its longevity. I personally would just get aftermarket control arms with new bushings. Moog or Beck Arnley $44 each plus shipping on rockauto and use the 5% discount code. Both Moog and BA catalogs don't differentiate US/Japan production, but rockauto lists it for Moog for some reason.

 

Ditto. One of the main reasons I went with all new, rather than bushings only. Another bit of solid advice from Mr. JohnGD.

 

Ok now I'm not sure. Some say keep the OEM control arm and either use Energy or OEM bushings. $44 is cheap. The orientation is specified in the instructions for the Energy kit. Is this insufficient or difficult to get right?

 

Boozehound, it's entirely up to you, of course.

One thing I've learned on this forum is that in regards to these kinds of repairs, as in life, there are often not black-or-white answers, but rather, a plethora of shades of gray reflecting any number of wise possible options. I've taken advice from friends on the forum, and been thankful; and other times, done what I whatever I wanted to do in spite of it. It's [y]our car.

As for me on the lower control arms, I did not want to hassle with heating up, sawing out, reinstalling precisely, etc. new bushings, and so I found great peace in simply buying and installing new Beck/Arnley arms. Simple, easy-peasy, a good quality brand, done.

One quick comment to that end, if you do go the aftermarket route: the new B/As came with ball joints already attached, but I could not for the life of me get my old ones off the wheel hub/knuckle...so I kept the old ones (seeing they were still in good repair), and used the new B/A arms and bushings.

But, if I were in your shoes, and were going to go through the trouble of removing and reinstalling new bushings, I would get OEM Toyota rubber, to keep it consistent with my Toyota OEM arms. But again, that's just persnickety personal preference on my part.

Just my two cents. Again, 100% up to you, and either way, it will be an improvement on your handling and ride comfort, for sure.

 

The 12 reviews on their site are 5-stars. Since you already ordered it, just carefully follow the directions and give it a try. You might end up preferring urethane over the standard rubber bushings.

 

The other option would be to find a shop with a press that can remove the old bushings and install the new sets.

But of course, if you live in the snow, that will be a pain in the butt to get it out of the knuckle.

 

If you followed John’s post, I showed the picture of how I do my arms. Mark them and get them close. This is only required if your going the Energy or replacing only bushings. No, it’s not a fine tune alignment. It’s more important to torque the bolts when the wheels are on the ground than anything else. The bushings on the Energy are marked with arrows which side faces forward.


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Esso I did this procedure but tightened all bolts while still jacked up. What will this affect? And should I loosen all bolts then retighten with tires on the ground? Thanks in advance

 

I'm in Houston so no snow, unfortunately. I've never had a problem separating the ball joint, wait, I actually ripped the boot on one a few years ago while replacing a front bearing. It grabbed a Moog and went with it. I had them out one other time when I pulled the manual trans to replace the input shaft bearing at just over 110K and no problems at all.

I burned the original rubber bushings out of my old Mustang's upper control arms. I don't remember that job being particularly difficult if a little smelly from the rubber. Pressed in the urethanes with a vice IIRC. I have access to a 20T press at the shop so hopefully this won't be too bad. I couldn't find the OEM bushings at the Toyota parts site. Then again I couldn't find WS ATF there either but they certainly have it.

I tend to go with OEM parts when I can. Wasn't about to use quickstruts. Too much BS with improper ride height, spring rate, damper function, etc. I do use Hawk brake pads but OEM for the rear shoes.

 

Those quick struts I am not a fan of. Same goes for the control arm assemblies. However, if your goal is to save time and get an X amount of usefulness out of them then they are actually perfect. Yes, they will get you by. It’s affordable.

For me, its pure function. I don’t slack on quality replacements. When it comes to bushings for the cars I work on I replace with OE bushings with factory arms. Struts I only replace shocks as those are typically the culprit in poor suspension. Time and difficulty is obviously not in my formula. I’m kind of old school that way. I break it down to discover true value per se, with such disregard to anything less than 100%. Definitely my opinion, choice, and lifestyle.

I have friends that own private shops for decades and they too suggest OE replacement for Ctrl arms. This is while being actual one to one with techs and with each other on real world experiences. I don’t doubt their insider advice and I never compromise.


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If the repair is easy then the risk of aftermarket is low. The more critical the repair the more essential it is to use what you KNOW will last. Remember this, of all the makes and models of cars you may own over a lifetime, the ones that will not have a major component or system failure are few.
I used KYB quick struts on my Echo when they were on sale at rock auto, my originals had 170 k miles and they still worked good but were getting "loose", I kept them and even have a spare set in the same shape. The rears were tube shocks.
OE manufacturers are good choices when the price of new is ludicrous. I like LUK clutches and AISIN seems to be a good choice sine they are an OE supplier, but Toyota can establish their own specifications which the supplier must adhere to.
I always told a customer the choice is fairly simple, buy a new car and then go to Advance and buy everything they offer as a replacement part and your car will no longer be the one you bought. It will be only as good as the worst part you replaced. 3 blower motor resistors and none of them lasted 6 months. I get tired of that quickly and the additional risk of unknown quality parts can get so frustrating that you get rid of the best car you have ever owned.
With Toyotas lasting 20 years and more, do you want to replace it one time at 10 years or once until it is time to replace your car. I would rather do it once with quality parts and never have to do it the second time and with other brands and my labor is free.
If you only want to get another 5 years out of your car then the rationale changes, so you are really the only one who can make that calculation, but if given the choice I will not use Chinese made crap, because it is crap. I would rather use a 20 year old made in Japan bulb out of my spare parts box.

 

It's hard to imagine getting rid of this old car. It's a manual and not covered up with all the nannies and foolishness that pass for "safety features" today. Everything has to make noise. This car starts every time I turn the key and if it isn't in the right gear it's my fault. The climate control settings don't magically change without my input. Working on it is generally easy. And here's one newer Ford drivers won't believe: the brake lights work, every time, with only a simple pedal switch!! No $2000 brake light controller is necessary. Oh and those are the original bulbs 18 years and 225K+ miles later. Maybe that's why you'd rather pull one of those out of your spare parts box?

 

If your lower control arm bushings are bad, and they do go bad, it isn't a simple job. I do 95% of any work to all my vehicles but had to bring this to my brother in law, who is a toyota mechanic. The right tools and the right tricks make it easy for them. If the welded nuts behind the bushing pivots break, you're in trouble. Good luck

 

those are fine, they all look like that on these old cars, the handling is the same until they completely tear. they can last quite a while longer

 

So here's an update to this one. I ended up replacing both control arms with new Moog parts. @kevcules46 I didn't find this to be a particularly challenging job. But I also had no trouble with the pem nuts. You can't even see them so I'd imagine a repair would involve some strategic cutting and welding if one of those nuts failed. Once I got the arms loose I found the bushings to have a bit of dry rot but still stiff and functional. My guess is that I could've gotten another 100K out of them but it was only $90 and I had the front end apart anyway for the boot job.

While I was at it I replace all four motor mounts with OEM. That was expensive. After removing them my take is that only the passenger side mount was bad, but it was real bad. Oh well, live and learn. The good news is that the cabin is much quieter now. Lots of engine buzz was coming through prior to the motor mount replacement.

I took the car on a 3K mile road trip and all was well.

 

Good job. The side I started on I snapped the head off one bolt and couldn’t budge the other. My brother in law was with me and said I needed to take it to his toyota co worker with a hoist. I never hit trouble like that on any toyota I worked on. I have three of them.

 

My control arms felt fine when I removed it to install the energy bushings. But I think it did help a lot for handling and control. Visually, mine were like yours and looked okay.

Yeah, motor mounts are pricey. Spent 400+ on my set. Still holding up like new and putting all the power straight to the wheels.


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@Esso Good to know. I replaced our corolla LCA bushings with OE rubber. Is your handling about the same or more limited (sharper)? Any squeak noises over time or still new? I also have energy bushings for sway bar and still in box,2 yrs and corolla already gone.

 

I want to say it’s sharper in handling. I frequent 80+mph freeway looping transitions and they hold the wheel where I point and doesn’t flex or change the angle which is nice. I also have the energy sway bar bushings which helps too. No sound from them at all. I lubed them based on the spec sheet and seems to be on point from a sound perspective. The very first thing I noticed when switching to energy Ctrl arm bushings was handling sharper and immediately after that was braking improved. Acceleration was noticeable. So when on the brake or gas the wheels are more responsive to inputs. Satisfying to say the least.


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These bushings look a little rough. Is it time to replace them?

According to The Care Care Nut (A Toyota Master Diagnostic Technician)....No, you DON'T need to replace them, yet.

 

Concur with you.
Manufacturer requirements on LCA bush replacement is premised upon cracks having penetrated through to the other side exceeding a certain percentage of crack-line circumference .... IIRC.

 

Is it neccesary to jack up the engine on automatic cars to clear on of the bolts as seen in this video ?

 

Is it neccesary to jack up the engine on automatic cars to clear on of the bolts as seen in this video ?

I just did the control arm for the second time now, and yes, I followed the method in the video. It doesn't take much time to loosen those fasteners for the three mounts. The first time I did the job, I did raise the transmission, but I might have only loosened just the passenger side/transmission mount (I can't remember) instead of three mounts.

 

Glad I don't have to deal with that rust. It seems like the movement of the transmission would be necessary to remove the bolt holding the control arm. On my Prius that was not necessary, not so sure about the one in the video but very similar setup. Considering the rust on that vehicle I think it would be better to just take the single bolt out of the left side transmission mount would be enough to get the bolt out, if that is even necessary. slightly possible your could lift the transmission without taking the bolt out.

 

Is it neccesary to jack up the engine on automatic cars to clear on of the bolts as seen in this video ?

Yes, the driver side bolt won’t make it past the automatic transmission. I’ve done this before.

Remove the driver side motor mount and you can lift the transmission to clear the bolt.

 

I have a set of new Mevotech lower control arms and OEM ball joints that I need to replace. Any horror stories on Mevotech LCAs? No doubt their steel is inferior to OEM LCA. I would love to replace the bushings but I have a bench vice with no table to attach it to, so that may make it harder to press out the old bushings.

Yes, I've noticed acceleration and braking is poorer than before even with new pads and rotors. I can delay this repair for a few more months, no problem.

A set of Energy Suspension Control arm Bushings is about $100. Anyone know the part number for the OE bushings? Can't find it on McGeorge's Toyota website.

 

Danny's DIY Garage has two videos for the 2005 Corolla:

Passenger side:

Driver's side: