Lower control arm squeak

Long story short I have a squeak coming from my lower left control arm. Been to Toyota 4 times in the last month and it just comes right back a few days later. Here’s what they’ve replaced:

- struts (their diagnosis of squeak)
- lower control arms (bolts were seized)
- left upper control arm

5 days after replacing the left upper control arm, squeak is right back.

I’m about 95% sure it’s coming from the lower left control arm because I can push on it from underneath and it’ll let out a bit of a squeak as if the weight was being taken off of it.

Any ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Video of squeak:

https://youtube.com/shorts/R_R4-sObqz0?feature=shared

 

Make sure those LCA bolts are torqued to 100 ft-lbs. If they are, the bushings may need replacing.

 

The lower cam bolts "seized" only needs to be cut off if you are removing the lower control..in witch case replacing the whole unit would have been a wiser choice (cuz your here now) ...possible you have bent the cam tabs making it able to shift around ..n..squeak ...loose worn out bushings...loose ball joint...

 

Something isn't adding up here. That video of the LCA does not look right. You said they already replaced the LCA's? If that was the case I'd expect they replaced them with complete arms which include new bushings and new ball joints. Or did you mean that they only replaced the LCA hardware and not the LCA's themselves?

What you're showing in that video does not look like a new LCA or a new LCA Bushing. Take a look at this thread which has pics of what the LCA bushings should look like: https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/steering-wander-lower-control-arm-bushings.419198/

Now, look at your video again. Notice how one of the silver colored washers is warped? And notice how the spacing of the arm/bushing within the "pocket" is not the same as the link I posted? Unless I'm going blind it looks like something is very wrong with your LCA/bushing. Which makes me think this Toyota dealer has no idea what they're doing. I'd be escalating this issue with the dealer or going elsewhere.

If you can, take pics of all 4 lower control arm bushings and share them so we can get a better idea of what's going on here.

 

I just dropped it off for the 5th time this morning so I can’t take any new pics at the moment, but I did get underneath it last night and noticed the same thing your mentioning. The “pocket” on the left LCA seemed like it was being squeezed to death compared to the one on the right side. This is the same side where they told me camber bolts were seized and had to be cut out which left it looking pretty mangled (I’ll attach pic). Right side looked completely normal. As soon as I get it back I’ll snag some pics of the bushings. Dealership *should* have replaced both entire LCA’s ($3,500 to replace struts and LCA’s) and I’m still back at square one making the same noise.

 

They just wasted this dudes money for no reason/r

Top pic left cam tab.. possibly compromised... at this point I would not return to same place for "repairs" .

 

After the 3rd visit I stopped dealing with the service advisors and started going straight to the service manager because I realized there was no reason to replace the struts and they were just playing a guessing game on my dime on what the issue was. Best advice you could give as to how to handle it from here in the current situation? Going to another dealership and throwing more money at it wouldn’t be preferable. Is it possible corporate would help me out with this issue at a different Toyota dealership?

 

Empower yourself with education(you tube /tacomaworld) ... jack stands and tools ...(harbor freight ) probably still . Your best option ..stealerships are not the way

 

Oh I definitely agree, I pretty much never take it to a dealer unless I can’t figure out what’s going on or don’t have the proper tools to get it done right.

 

Is it me or does the lca mount look al bent to shit?

 

You're basically between a rock and a hard place, unfortunately. If you don't want to cut your losses (I wouldn't either) then I'd continue to work with the service manager, document as much as you can, and overall be sure to keep your cool. Express your issues, distrust and dissatisfaction but don't turn angry, don't yell or throw a tantrum as that won't help and will likely make things worse. Escalate within the dealership if necessary. And I wouldn't pay another dime until they have actually fixed the issue.

Unfortunately, I wouldn't expect they'll be giving you any financial compensation for the hassles or for changing parts that didn't need changing.

 

Yeah, that doesn't look great. The sticker on the LCA is a good sign that it's actually a new LCA but that bushing in your pic looks completely messed up. Without being able to look at mine right now to compare I hate to speculate too much but @gotoman1969 may be right that there's damage to where the LCA mounts. Something is definitely not right here.

Talk with the service manager, you should do what you can to make HIM look at the truck with you. Do an inspection and comparison with the truck on the lift. Look at all 4 mounting points, look at all 4 bushings. They should all look the same. I would not let them do any more work until you've inspected it with them and agreed upon a plan of action.

And it looks to me like the repair they did after cutting the bolt off is complete garbage. Looks like they damaged the cam tab when they cut the bolt off and then they tried to do some welding to fix or repair the area but did a hack job at it. I don't understand why they would have even been cutting on that side. While I've never done it myself my understanding is that you want to cut the bolts INSIDE the pocket, not outside. Cutting the inside would allow the LCA to drop out, cutting the outside won't. And cutting the inside doesn't risk damaging the cam tabs. Check out this post for some pics of where I've seen people cut before: https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/lower-control-arm-seized.216629/page-3#post-21408518

 

I appreciate the advice. I’ve been pretty calm and always kept my composer with them at the dealership, no arguing or anything of that nature. They seem like nice people doing what they know/can but I’m just super annoyed this is a constantly reoccurring issue. Little disappointed I lost my 2 year old front bilstein shocks in the process of this, but it is what it is. I haven’t paid any additional costs other than the original payment of replacing struts/LCAs after the first visit, and they were able to replace the left UCA on their dime, but the part that’s weird to me is that they replaced the left UCA and the noise came right back shortly after, so it’s like they are still messing with the LCA each time but still throwing new parts at it which doesn’t make any sense to me.

 

Personally, I wouldn't be thinking at all about the squeak and instead focusing on making sure your LCA's, bushings and mounting points are all good and safe. If that fixes the squeak, then great. If not, then tackle that problem next - and probably see about going somewhere else.

 

I completely agree with all points. I just noticed it in my video and snapped a pic of it, but to me it almost seems like the tabs are completely shot and they are possibly trying to tighten it down too much to keep it from sliding around and making noise. In the pic below you’ll see the area of where the old washer was, and at the other side you’ll see where it’s squeezing so hard it’s literally splitting the bushing in half (which would also explain how the washer got warped).

 

Yeah, the smaller circle with the bushing... more bushing should be visible there. And the upper circled area I'm wondering if they damaged the hole the bolt goes thru. I don't see how that washer could deform like that unless the enlarged the hole.

 

Stealership.

 

Learn how your lca's work ...they adjust for Alignment ..etc... learn about cam tabs and there roll in the lca and how they can be damaged ...etc

 

Would this explain why the alignment seems off? Ever since they did this I’ve noticed if I hold the steering wheel completely straight it’ll veer off to the right side of the road pretty quickly and I’m constantly holding it at a slight angle to the left to keep it going straight.

 

Hard to say for sure, but it definitely could. What are the alignment specs? They should have provided a before/after print out when they did your alignment after the LCA work they did.