Lower Control Arm Failure... Seeking replacement Advice

Some background info...

My Tacoma does see a lot of offroad use. Old Man EMU 3" lift. Running 33's with winch and armor. I do wheel it but don't feel like I abuse it. Occasional fast fire roads with a missed pothole or two, general rock crawling through washes.

Last weekend at the front end of a 7 day loop through CO my steering felt off headed up the first of many dirt roads. It got worse and worse. I finally noticed the problem was a crumpled and torn lower control arm. Possibly cracked from previous trips.

Regardless, I replaced it in a WalMart parking lot and would prefer not to have that issue again. I think the failed control arm is not OEM. Probably just a cheaper knockoff (I am not the original truck owner)

Question:

Tacoma OEM lower control arms that much stronger than nameless Ebay knockoffs... or do I need to look at a serious upgrade from Dirt King or Chaos or other?

Opinions and feedback welcomed...

Thanks.

 

What is the budget. Anything will fail when used beyond it's design. Based on your described use and where it failed some serious upgrades would be the direction I would go just to continue with the same habits of use. It looks like the shock was bottoming out before hitting the bump stop. Stock arms are known to fail at the pivots.

 

Wow that's impressive. Can't tell from the photos but it looks at least similar to OEM.

I beefed mine up with some reinforcements around the bushings but not at the shock mounts where yours failed. I beat the hell out of the truck and the LCAs have never failed. I run a similar setup. Maybe you had a fluke, or an inferior aftermarket arm?

If you want a serious upgrade you can find welded plate arms from places like dirt king. They are way pricey. I'd feel comfortable with a new OEM arm though.

 

That can't be oem, I have seen shocks snapped off with no damage to the lower control arm with OEM control arms.

So to answer your question I would say yes OEM are that much stronger than no name cheap eBay knock offs, Dorman and the like, with that said it maybe worth it to you if you really get that much dirt time and like to go fast and hard to get a factory length fabricated lower control arm from Total Chaos JD Fab or the like.

I have legitimately never seen a lower control arm cave in like that, the shock usually acts as the fusible link. At any point did you possibly winch in such a way that might have compressed the suspension completely and then some?

That is an exceptionally odd Carnage.

 

I have a feeling that the crack started at the hole.

 

OP. are you running any sort of spacers etc on the top of the shocks?

 

You replaced the LCA in a Walmart parking lot? That’s kind of impressive. What’s in there now?

 

Are there LCA gusset kits? Maybe you can make one. Or simply run some beads across certain spots with a welder to reinforce it.

only way up from there is steel which might cost $1k and may only come in different geometry long travel setup usually as a kit

anything oem style but aftermarket will likely be worse unless it’s something a bit more reputable like Moog or Mevotech which might be closer to as good

 

Don't they always?

 

I am in the process of replacing my LCA's after I had to cut the coilovers off of them (completely fused bolt and spacers). I just picked up the stock length LCA's from Total Chaos ($2500 out the door). These are massive and beefy, but will be a direct replacement. Only thing that some might have an issue with is they use a spherical bearing at the lower attachment point instead of the ball joint with a rubber boot like stock.

Having a career in stress analysis, I am pretty certain that the frame mounting points or the spindle will fail before these ever deform.

 

I see lots of vehicles that hit curbs at speed and get crunched in various ways. The control arms are designed to bend before the frame mounting points do.

When the toyota engineers designed the arms they weren't thinking about 3 inch lifts and aggressive offroading. It's amazing they don't fail more often considering how we drive these trucks. Extra weight, suspension mods and bigger tires.. throw in some rust around a critical stress point.

I wouldn't over think it, OP likes to offroad regularly, these types of things will happen sooner or later.

 

I am not looking to break the bank, even though I understand aftermarket LCA's would be bombproof.

It could just be a random failure or a slow death from an old crack. I have longer supposedly more progressive bump stops installed. Wonder if they ran out of room and leveraged the arm to failure? (similar to your bottomed out shock theory)

Perhaps actual Toyotas OEM arms will get me the marginal additional strength I need.

 

If you are going with such beefy lower control arms, you should also consider the TC spindle gussets and LCA cam tab reinforcement kits (if you haven't already). These are common points of failure even with OEM lower arms.

 

Thanks for the suggestions. I do have a winch but have not used it in a long time. And when I did it was more of a straight pull without a lot of downward force.

It is a crazy failure for sure...

 

No spacers... well, I might have a Tacoma lean spacer on the DS but that is of course opposite side of this failure.

 

It was a gnarly job but saved the CO trip as well as the drive home

Luckily a local O'reillys had one in stock. Whatever they sell with a 12 month warranty. Probably comparable to the one that failed, so I am thinking I will need to swap to at least Toyota OEM for piece of mind.

 

I have secondary shocks on my truck, I do some pretty major wheeling without much issues there.

I do have a secondary shock system upfront though. Looks like it may have gotten smashed on a rock when it was at full compression. Not sure it would be aftermarket LCA unless the oem failed to begin with.

 

Well... the truck had a hard life before I got it, not that it has a super easy life now. My guess is LCA could have been replaced simply because bushings or ball joint was done for and a new cheaper arm is a simpler, cheaper fix.

 

That’s not an OEM arm, I beat the hell out of mine and had one fail at the inner bushing which is a known weak spot and the other was cracked but still not in danger of folding like yours.

The failure on the drivers side


The passenger side a month later when I replaced it as well



I just replaced them with autozone brand replacements which are not as well built, while I saved for a set of Dirt King replacements. I knew I was going to continue to abuse my truck and could afford to throw the cost at the time.

If I were you I’d see if you can find a set of used OEM that just need new bushings, refresh them and likely never worry for the rest of the life of your truck.

 

Hehe Touché.