I thought I had previously registered to the sight. So either I’m surfing with multiple personalities or I just never registered. Anyways, I have ‘97 Coach Edition and wanted to freshen up the rear bushings. I was getting that weird, side step, slop on uneven lanes, running over cat eye reflectors etc. I went ahead and ordered an Adus eight piece lower link kit. I really hate to badmouth Armstrong Distributors because they were very pleasant and helpful...but these bushings just DON’T fit. They’re all too big, almost like I just got a bunch of wrong parts for a different vehicle. I had to turn down the trailing arm bushings in my garage so they’d fit just to get the car back on the ground. I went to replace the lateral arm bushings, which was a royal pain as the accentrix (sp?) was all rusted to the inner bushing shell. I finally got this all apart and the arm bore all cleaned up and guess what? The bushings are not going to fit. So I just went ahead and ordered a new lateral link and camber bolts from Lexus. I’m kind of at a spot now where I’m concerned the bearing carrier “spherical bushing” may be what I’m feeling. And I don’t want to attempt to install and “modify” some crappy ***, urethane bushing. Or have to go through removing the lateral link on the other side for nothing. I’ll put it back together when I get the parts and test drive to see if what I’ve done remedied the problem. But I realistically doubt it.

Ive seen in the forums where IS300 owners have replaced the spherical bushing with one sourced from eBay etc. Does anyone know if the same part is shared between models? Or if there is a LS specific one available?

And has anyone else had problems with weird sized bushings from Adus? Jon, from Armstrong said that on rare occasions they heard from people who’s suspension components had different size bores. Or is this what you get when you payed for what you got???

 

You say you have a 97 Coach edition and want to freshen up the ride quality after mentioning some handling quirks.

Generally, the ethos with this car is unless you plan on a VIP\hard park\drift build, use OEM suspension components. And you want to specifically avoid polyurethane if you want the OEM ride quality.

I would speak with the supplier as to why what they provided was such a pain in the ___ to install. I mean, if you're turning down bushings to get them to fit...

"different sized bores" doesn't make much sense... the market is well defined for sizes and model years that parts do\don't fit into. They don't randomly just change the geometry of the suspension components mid-year mid-production run and not have it documented in parts suppliers right?

 

[QUOTE=400fanboy;10825870]You say you have a 97 Coach edition and want to freshen up the ride quality after mentioning some handling quirks.

Generally, the ethos with this car is unless you plan on a VIP\hard park\drift build, use OEM suspension components. And you want to specifically avoid polyurethane if you want the OEM ride quality.

I would speak with the supplier as to why what they provided was such a pain in the ___ to install. I mean, if you're turning down bushings to get them to fit...

"different sized bores" doesn't make much sense... the market is well defined for sizes and model years that parts do\don't fit into. They don't randomly just change the geometry of the suspension components mid-year mid-production run and not have it documented in parts suppliers right

 

I’ve kind of deduced that the durometer of the bushings in the rear is pretty negligible. I like this car but not enough to throw thousands of dollars of OEM parts at the suspension. And I don’t mind slightly harsher characteristics. Not looking for anything that sounds like it’s going to hammer itself apart though. Really hoping for something that at least fits so I can drive it and form my own opinion about it.

I also agree on the arm bores being odd sizes. Unless there were supplier issues and alternative parts were used...I really doubt it though.

But about those spherical carrier bushings?

 

If you're doing the labor yourself, the parts aren't that atrocious. Maybe a bit more expensive than on a normal Camry, but not outrageous. I don't wrench myself, so on the parts I've replaced labor has actually been the larger $ amount. But I understand **** does add up considering the complexity of the suspension.

I've never personally driven a car with poly bushings, but from the research I've done, you gain handling characteristics (tighter steering, better body control, better momentum transfer) - but you trade off ride quality. Noise, vibration, the "glide" that makes the car such a nice 90's boat. Whether or not this is what you want when you want to "freshen up the rear bushings"? I dunno. You said it best: once you're done you can judge for yourself.

Spherical carrier bushing? I'm not clear which specific part those go to. Is this part of the wheel bearing assembly?

Are you re-pressing the bushings into the existing arms? Or did this kit come included with new arms. Can you do side-by-side comparison of the new vs. old bushings to see if there is any dimensional difference? I've never worked with poly before so I'm not sure if they're intentionally just more difficult to install or not.

(I'm not an expert just FYI, just someone who's also learning)

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/113411258959

Found some. Be a lot cooler if I don’t need them.

The only car I could ever justify having high parts prices like this was a Porsche 911SC. That car always returned the investment in total driving fun like no other. I had a Cressida and it was a great car, but it’s parts were pricey like the Lexus.

 

In that same vein, if you like the OEM ride characteristics paying for those parts is worth it. That's becoming a problem as parts are discontinued and what is out in the supply chain is shrinking. The aftermarket are gambles if they use out of spec sizes along with needing modification to fit. One of the past threads on OEM and after market suppliers is a similar discussion. Mainly finding the "made in Japan" is a better indicator. There are some exceptions and with so many "made in China" these can be disappointing.

I don't like the wallet hurt either. One aspect is that I've not regretted installing a red box Toyota part where with aftermarket has been a gamble. The one engine part in ours that isn't Toyota related is the alternate Denso radiator that was $200 difference. Was like $230 vs. $425 and the shop that did the install said they use them all the time with minimal worries. For the rest they encourage using Toyota parts as they know it won't be coming back for that same repair within the year.

Had an MX73 Cressida prior to the LS400, really enjoyed that car too. Had better aftermarket goodies to play with.

 

Some cars have better aftermarket support with higher quality parts and support, but unfortunately this car isn't one of them.

I'm talking out of my butt here - but if I had to guess: it's because the parts are so over-built and using very high quality input materials to begin with, that the typical aftermarket 3rd party replication of car parts isn't suited or has the tooling to replicate the quality of what OEM spec actually is. And thus, you arrive at a higher frequency of problems than OEM parts for this car. If it's got rubber in it, stick with genuine OEM as much as possible. Beyond that, you can start moving away on specific bits and pieces. Brakes, radiators, air filters, etc.

I'm sorry to hear you have such **** experience with these bushings, but generally the rule of thumb with this car is that unless you're purpose building it for VIP\drifting\hard park, you want to stay as far away from polyurethane as possible. I think the biggest deviation in terms of suspension is shocks - some people go OEM, but plenty of others branch out into other brands of shocks.