Lower control arm bushing replacement

[Whitey Shockie Maker of the Month Award Find all posts View Profile Close Whitey]

Hey,

Good stuff!

Any chance you can post up some photos of what you've been doing?

Best

Mark

[pilgrim_traveller Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close pilgrim_traveller]

I'll post what I have! Will do a write up on what I did/learnt when done. Not many photos as I just wanted to get it done but I've got a few. All four bushings are in now (after pushing one in backwards and having to figure out how to get it out then back the right way!) and one arm is loosely bolted back in. Tomorrow I'll finish the rest, take it for a drive and get it properly aligned on Monday.

Will post back shortly.

[pilgrim_traveller Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close pilgrim_traveller]

Well it's all back together... Sort of. Bit of an anti-climax really. Found that my passenger side drive shaft boot has disintegrated which for some reason I didn't notice when I pulled the control arm off. Least of my worries though.

Mounting the control arms back into the brackets was interesting to say the least. You put the supplied washers on either side of each bushing and fit them back into the brackets that are welded on the chassis. Problem is, the control arm doesn't fit nicely with the Whiteline bushings. The internal washers (i.e. the two that face each other, one in each mount) cause the control arm to not easily slide into the brackets. Take one or the other out and you're fine. But with both, it takes a bit of wedging/BFH manipulation to get it in. What this does though is, on the front bushing, leaves a gap the size of 2-3 washers between the leading edge of the front bushing and the bracket. But only one washer is supplied. All well and good, put supplied washer in, put cam bolts in, align and tighten as hard as I can by hand and I can see things not going quite right on the front (smaller) bushing that takes the fatter 2-piece cam adjusting bolt. Because the very front of the bushing had a decent gap between the washer and the bracket, the bracket is now bending towards the bushing. Not a crazy angle, but still not the parallel vertical lines you'd expect! Ok, we'll live with this for now, put the torque wrench on it... I don't get to 135nM but I can see the trailing edge rubber of the front bushing squishing down quite a lot and the side of the bracket bending in to fill that gap I mentioned.

Didn't torque that one to spec on either control arm (every other bolt that came out is back to spec). Take for a test drive, all good, no issues, everything still aligned afterwards, but I do not like driving knowing that the front bushings in each arm are having the force applied unevenly by the cam adjuster bolts.

I'm going to call Whiteline tomorrow before I spend $ getting it all aligned again. I definitely have the smaller rubber flange of each bushing facing inwards on the control arms. And the crush tubes are definitely in the right control arms so I can't understand why they are not working on the front bushings and why the rubber is squashing down so much. I really don't want to pull it all apart to inspect but think I'm going to have to. What also concerns me is that they ship too many parts in the kit. They shipped 2 more crush tubes (6 total) and 4 more washers (12 total) than needed. Wrong size washer to fill that gap I mentioned above though.

Anyone else had issues with Whiteline control arm bushes in Prado 120 not aligning as well as stock?

Brett

[pilgrim_traveller Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close pilgrim_traveller]

Pics of one side. The other side is worse but I was too frustrated to take pictures. It's a bit hard to see but the leading edge (left hand side of the picture) is having force applied on an angle because the bushing in the arm didn't sit square in the mounting bracket even though it was installed perfectly. And the rubber on the right is starting to bulge. And I haven't even got the wrench to click at 135nM yet!

[pilgrim_traveller Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close pilgrim_traveller]

Chatted with John from Whiteline this morning. He said it sounds like perhaps there is an issue with what they're manufacturing, that maybe they're a millimetre out here or there and so it's not lining up as well as it should. He's a bit surprised as they've been selling these bushings for years and hasn't heard of this problem, but acknowledges that since it's happening on both sides of the vehicle, it's definitely not the brackets or the arms that are likely at fault.

He's going to send me more of the larger-internal-diameter washers to pad out the gap in the leading edge of the front bush which should square it up, as best I can tell, by applying the force evenly through the bushing instead of an an angle due to the bending bracket. Unfortunately they can't really inspect it even though they're in NSW as they don't have facilities. Other option I guess is I could take it to Pedders, who are apparently a Whiteline distributor according to Whiteline's website, and see what they think, although when I originally called them about renewing the bushings in the LCA, they said they don't do that and they only do replacement arms, so maybe they would look at it and shrug their shoulders...

Guess I'll be pulling the arms off again next weekend

[pilgrim_traveller Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close pilgrim_traveller]

Received a full replacement kit in the mail today. Thought I'd take a closer look at the quality of what I've received. I think the pictures speak for themselves...









First three pics are of the smaller side of the bushing. You can see that it has been cut particularly badly. I think this must be the "human" factor that Whiteline mentioned on the phone where there is room for error in the size of the bushing. Last pic is of the much nicer, glossier, printed side of the bushing. These are of one small bushing. The other small bushing is not excellent but not as bad. Both larger bushings seem much better.

Haven't added more washers yet to fix the spacing issue, that's a job for this weekend, will update here when done as to how I go. I'll keep these extra bushings as spares, me thinks!

Customer service? So far, so good. Ride quality? Similar to Toyota's rubber. Haven't ridden on poly but this doesn't feel as bad as the poly-people say. Quality of product? Quite average given what you're seeing here and the fact that it doesn't fit properly :-P

[kevdebbi Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close kevdebbi]

Hi mate, I have had the whiteline bushes fitted for a couple years now. From memory there was no issues in fitting them with no real gaps following installation.

BUT I just went out when I to have a look at them and I found both of the front bushes have cracked or split. The passenger side is the worst, the drivers side is only small at this stage. I have been chasing handling issues for some time now with is being a bit twitchy of floaty at high speed, maybe this is the cause? I have had multiple wheel alignments with mixed success, but never fully fixing the issue. I will call Whitline shortly to see what they have to say.

[pilgrim_traveller Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close pilgrim_traveller]

That sucks... When I bought mine recently they came with a lifetime warranty, hopefully yours did too? Still sucks that you'll lose a day doing a replacement. Having seen a couple of sets of these brand-new first-hand now, I definitely have no confidence in them lasting the 200k that the Toyota originals lasted. At least they sent me a spare set though This weekend I'll slot the extra washers in. Hopefully no damage done driving on them mounted unevenly!

Give John Leighton at Whiteline a call on 02 4340 2355, he was very helpful in my case.

Brett

[kevdebbi Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close kevdebbi]

Thanks mate, will give him a call

[foxclan Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close foxclan]

Hi Brett
Just read through your thread, well done on tackling your LCA bushes yourself.
I hate to say it but the difficulties that you have encountered nearly mirror the very same issues that I had recently.
After removing the OEM bushes, deburring, cleaning up and painting the LCA then pressing in the new bushes.
I believed the hard work had been done and the fitment of the LCA's back on the Prado to be the more rewarding part of the task.
Like yourself the recommendation to torque the LCA bolts to manufactures specification was where things turned pear shaped.
While noticing the mounting brackets squeezing in on the bush and the torque setting still not yet getting achieved it was time to back off.
After taking the bolt out it is evident that the supplied washers are not of the best quality. The washer actually deformed into the adjusting slot in the mounting bracket that allows for alignment adjustments.
I too contacted the above mentioned Mr. Leighton, whom kindly offered to replace them.
Not content with the non parallel bracket and therefore pivot point.
I had a local engineering workshop check the bushes/mounting brackets and washers with the intent of machining some thicker washers out of some better material.
Tim calculated that an extra .7mm per washer over the thickness of the supplied washers should get the mounting brackets back to square each side of all of the bushes. So armed with 8 new washers machined and zinc plated it was again time to break out the axle stands and pull the LCA's out enough to regrease the bushes and replace with improved washers.
Needles to say a much better assembly and torque spec. now achievable.
http://s6.postimg.org/6tp3tnlch/IMG_7024.jpg
As you can see these are the "Raspberry flavour" not the "Blackberry flavour" that you have, but I believe the are both products of Red Ranger.
Some more pictures of the UCA rebush etc. from about post 110
http://www.pradopoint.com/showthread...3-GXL-V6/page8
Cheers
Troy

p.s. sorry for the elongated post on ya thread. Lol.

[t303 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close t303]

Just a note for all, and I hope you don't think I am trying to tell you how to suck eggs, but:
always lower the vehicle so you have full weight on wheels before you torque up any suspension bolts otherwise you will end up destroying bushes! They have to be torqued in their operating positions.
cheers
Steve

[raydes Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close raydes]

You sure you haven't bent the LCA when pressing the bushes in and out ??

[pilgrim_traveller Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close pilgrim_traveller]

Hi Raydes

Impossible to have bent the LCA pushing the bushes in. When pushing them out, using the jack method, if anything it would have pushed the eyes further apart, but that was not the problem here. If anything, with Whiteline bushes, the appearance is that the eyes are too close together, which is obviously incorrect.

Brett

[pilgrim_traveller Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close pilgrim_traveller]

Just a note for all, and I hope you don't think I am trying to tell you how to suck eggs, but:
always lower the vehicle so you have full weight on wheels before you torque up any suspension bolts otherwise you will end up destroying bushes! They have to be torqued in their operating positions.
cheers
Steve

I'm curious... Does this apply to the lower suspension mounting bolt? I did this for the two bolts on each side that went through the bushings, but not for the lower suspension mounting bolt as I couldn't see any movement that would be accounted for when dropping the vehicle back on its wheels.

Thanks

Brett.

[pilgrim_traveller Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close pilgrim_traveller]

Great idea foxclan. When I pulled the washers, I too found they were pretty weak. For now I've just added more to them but when these bushings fail (and I'm not expecting a long life given the quality), I've got the replacement bushings ready to go and will get the right washers machined for the job!.

Thanks for the thoughts

Brett