Hello, I am new here and I just acquired a 1992 Lexus SC400.

It has 88k miles on it, and is in great shape, however there is a noticeable amount of clanking sounds from the front suspension when hitting bumps or uneven roads.

I have not yet finished diagnosis, but I am fearing it is the LCAs.

I was reading up on lower control arm bushings and bearings, and holy cow they are expensive! Replacing both with Lexus OEM parts are almost as much as I paid for the car @ over $800 each.

I read conflicting information regarding Supra LCAs; some say they are the exact same part as the Lexus only half the price.

Does anyone know if this is correct?

Thanks in advance. Oh and here it is:

Previous owner added 17" Enkei RP03'sj and an injen short ram.

 

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/sus...t-numbers.html

This gives the part numbers and has background information for most of the control arms, but the answer is yes, the Front LCA off a mkiv supra will work

 

Thanks - does the year of the SC matter? One of the conflicting reports I read indicated the earlier (92) SC's didn't bolt the Supra LCAs directly on. Or were they incorrect? Or did I misread?

Thanks again!

 

If you order the 93 MKIV Supra arms they will fit your 92 SC. The only difference is the SC had rubber bushings in the "rear" bushing of this front control arm that had some void areas that I assume was to make it softer whereas the Supra arm bushing is solid rubber. I can't tell much difference in the one I have done with the Supra arms. I can for sure tell it is stiffer on the set I put Prothane poly bushings in.

You didnt say, but are the ball joints worn out or is it just bushings? If bushings you could just replace with Daizens or Prothane if you don't mind stiffer, or if more OEM ride replace with the bushings with the rubber type that are sold, I think these are Whiteline?

 

Order the Supra arms from Elmhurst Toyota.

Steve K.

 

Awesome, thanks!

I haven't pulled the wheels off yet, but I'll investigate soon.

Appreciate all the info.

 

I have a 92 SC, I have MKIV Supra LCA's bolted on with no modification. I told the toyota dealer it was for a 94 Supra. They went on very easy and fit fine.

Also if you hear a lot of noticeable clanking it's more likely that your sway bar endlinks are shot. If the bushings go really bad they can bounce up down and make a clanking noise. Before you buy anything take the wheels off and inspect the LCA's and sway bar end links.

The LCA's are less likely to make noise and more likely to cause vibration in the steering wheel at speed and cause a clunk when coming to a complete stop. And as the ball joint starts to go bad you may start seeing the car sag slightly in that corner or excess negative camber in one wheel.

 

Mostly true. However, you will most definitely hear a knocking if you back up and tap the brakes if it is a worn out rear front control arm bushing (the one that always goes first).

 

I have been hearing that noise lately and time to replace the bushings!
how long and how much work is it to replace the control arm bushings?

 

Is that the cheapest place to get them? My local Toyota dealer told me they would match Elmhurst's quote after twenty minutes of haggling. Elmhurst Toyota quoted me $272 each plus $21 shipping, so $565, which beats everyone else's price so far that I've seen. Anyone got a better deal on these?

 

Its not bad, if you do the urethane bushings you have to heat the outside of the arm and pull the old bushing out. I bolted the bushing down to something solid and used a map gas torch to heat the outside of the arm, keep a tension on it, and when it softens up pull it out. Then you clean up whats left and push the new greased bushings in. Arms need to be off the car to do that. I did upper and lower while i had everything apart. I have done this for both SC's. One is a track car the other is a dd. Wish i had put rubber back in the dd, just a little too solid for highway, great for track driving in the other one.

If you get the whitelines, you may have to press those out, have never done those so maybe somebody who has will speak up.

 

I think i bought one set from toyotapartsdeal.com for about $265 each so yeah thats about the best I could find. Do a google search on the toyota part number, you will get a bunch of hits.

 

That doesn't sound to bad! When I bought the car the guy gave me a box of new bushings, now that you say rubber maybe better for daily I might go that route

 

I used to work for a network of car dealers that shared employees, one of them was Toyota, so I got a pretty hefty employee discount cuz my friend was at the parts desk even though I no longer worked there when I went in to buy mine, I paid a little over $425 for both out the door. But that was with a pretty heft discount from the dealer. Normally they were $360 each, is what I remember being told, not entirely sure though.

 

Yea I wish we had a friendly Toyota employee around here who could pass his savings on down to us lol. I'm more or less stacking up parts to completely redo the suspension components, struts, arms upper and lower, mounts, etc... it's starting to add up. I contacted Carson Toyota to see what they can do on their pricing as they got them listed for $320 I believe.