Rear Carrier Arm Bushing Replacement

[lexus400]

I just replaced my rear carrier arm bushings and solved an annoying vibration problem. Symptons were heavy vibration when braking with the feeling in the seat. The shift selector also vibrates as well. I already replaced the trans and motor mounts and had new rotors up front. I followed the procedure on the "LexLS" website but made one change. I didn't have anything in my arsenal of tools that worked to press "out" the carrier sleeve. I found an easy way to get it out w/o using the "press" method. Just take a sawzall with a short metal blade and carefully make two cuts (you need to press out the center first which will leave you with just the metal sleeve) about 1/2" apart (I don't think the spacing is critcial). Just cut into the sleeve. It's only about 1/16" thick. Be careful and try not to cut into the carrier arm itself. Once you do that, just pry up with a screwdriver and the whole thing will pop right out. After trying to press out one side w/o any success I used the cutting method and it came right out. I started with this method on the other side, and did that start to finish in about 30 mins. Both sides cost about $110 for the bushings. The old ones were shot so if you have the symptons that I had above check yours. Overall, a very EZ project and satisfying fix...

Bob

[Littletimmy]

Where did you get the bushings from?

[lexus400]

Do a search on ebay for "Lexus bushings" and you'll see them. Place in CA.. same as the dealer would order.

Bob

[obergc]

Bob,

Thanks for sharing your repair experience with us, it will be useful info if and when I face the same job.

[highlander]

Did the search and foudn lpdauto or something.. not sure if its that one.. i emailed him.. do you have a price estimate?

[VRV]

Rear Carrier Bushings – “pop em out and pop em in” Not that easy.

Now I have been a shade tree mechanic for years. Actually overhauled my little 1986 Mazda B2000 engine and it is still running. But this rear carrier-bushing job on my 1994 LS400 nearly did me in.

I have most work done on the LS400 by a local shop specializing in Lexus repairs, with Lexus trained mechanics, with not so Lexus repair fees. During a routine check (175K miles) the mechanic said I needed to replace me rear carrier bushings soon. I am not sure what they do and no one has yet to tell me what the consequences of NOT replacing them are. But he said they were shot and it would cost $400 for the job. After much surfing Google for the parts I found ONE parts house who had the replacement bushings and a tool (I bought it, you don’t need it) Don’t know if it is ok to post their web site so you can email me at vicv@ev1.net for the web site. About $80 for the parts, so I thought I would give it a shot….How hard could it be? Har Har….

I just want to ad my experiences with this job. First side took me all day, second side took about 30 mins (tools assembled)

1. Loosened lug nuts and jacked up vehicle. Took off tire. So far so good. Make sure wheels are blocked, car is in park, emergency brake on and back up jack stand for safety. I work for a local fire department and two of my co-workers were killed with their own cars….nuff said.

2. Get your biggest ½ drive bar and 19mm ½ socket and then slide a piece pipe on the end of the handle and get ready to take off the tightest bolt and nut I ever fought. I though head bolts were on tight – as Donnie Brasco said; “forget about it.” The first time I tried to take off the bolt, I gave up! Yes, I put the tire on and headed for the shack, a beaten man. Now I am no lightweight – I tip the scales at 250lbs. I re-read the info on this website once again and the post that says; “take off the 2, 19mm nuts off (they are torqued to 163ft lbs (revised to 136 ft pounds)so be ready) pop the two bolts out and off comes the trailing arm.” “Be ready????” Yea – get ready to exert enough force to lift the car!!!! Once you get the bolt loose, you can use your trusty socket set to remove the bolt. It doesn’t just “pop out” I had to unscrew it all the way with the socket set due to the downward pressure of the wheel assembly. When the bolt finally comes out (the nut will have already fallen to the floor) the carrier will “pop” down with a “wang” an inch or so.

3. I agree with the poster who said cut the sleeve walls on the bushing to remove it. After an hour or so of trying to position a puller and an especially made tool (the second time I gave up) I got out my trusty jigsaw (you don’t need to buy a sawsall) with a new bi metal blade and went to town. Made three cuts in sleeve (be careful not to cut through the cast carrier) and then pried the bushing out with a screwdriver.

4. Greased up the new bushing according to the other posts and inserted it into the carrier. Now comes another fun part….lining up the arm with the hole in the bushing.

5. After another hour or so of pushing and grunting I figured out I could put a pipe clamp (24inch ½ inch pipe) and fit it to the other end of the arm and crank away till the bushing hole lines up. * (The LS400 is equipped with shocks – the air suspension system expired several years ago – so I don’t know if the wheel assembly “wangs” down out of position on these vehicles) Walla – insert the bolt thru the bushing and arm and then get out the trust ½ bar and torque wrench and tighten to 136 ft pounds. *Picture of the clamp set up here http://users3.ev1.net/~vicjudi/vicjudi/TAB.jpg

6. Be sure to have an escape route when you are under the car and do what ever it takes to make sure it doesn’t fall on you. After all, you are really cranking down on this bolt and I suspect you could move the car if it wasn’t secure.

7. I did the first bushing on the 31 Dec 2004 in only 7 hrs. The second, on the 1st Jan 2005 (Happy New Year) took about 30 mins…but I guess you could say it took a “year” to do the job. Just found out the Lexls site and it might have made things easier***** hind site is 20/20

8. Good luck, watch out for falling LS400’s – Hey does anyone know what the heck the rear trailer arm bushings do????

Cheers

Vic

[99lsguy]

Great story Vic!!!

And thanks for the post & instructions

[jzz30]

well the rear trailing arm bushings keep the rear arm in place from moving forward or backward along with up and down.

as for the really hard nut and bolt i used a jack to break it free instead of pure brute strenght.

and since people are having so much trouble getting these bushings off maybe i should start to sell them? just a thought...

[VRV]

well the rear trailing arm bushings keep the rear arm in place from moving forward or backward along with up and down.

as for the really hard nut and bolt i used a jack to break it free instead of pure brute strenght.

and since people are having so much trouble getting these bushings off maybe i should start to sell them? just a thought...

←

It is just a surprise how tight they are - my first thought (having delt with many nuts!) was that I was going to break a "rusted frozen" bolt and then my wife would have been teed off when she had no car to take he to work and worse yet, the red face i would have after taking it to the shop to explain what i had done. Telling us you used a jack (i can picture that) to take off that bolt is a good indication that sucker is on tight. But knowing how tight it was, made the other side doable. The fact the local shop wanted $400 for the job should have given me a heads up too. What do you think Lexus would have charged for the job???? Also this forum gave me the confidence to go back and give it one more try.....it worked, the little woman has her car to go to work in Monday, I saved $300, we went out to dinner last night. Wonder what else I can buy with the money I saved - hmmmmmmmmmmm some nice tools over here...

Cheers

Vic

[Lexls]

With the money you saved you should go out and buy an impact wrench ;). I helped a friend install coilovers on his car a few months ago. We tried for a long time trying to take off the nuts/bolts that hold the struts on...no luck, so we gave up for the night. The next day he bought a bunch of air tools. We tried the bolt again with the impact wrench and the nut came off in about 1 second! I now have an electric impact wrench and can't wait to use it!

[VBdenny]

Great thread and discription Lexus400 and Vic, you both gave me the motivation to do this job when it becomes a problem. So far mine seem to be fine but the car has always been kept in a garage and driven rather gently on fairly smooth roads so maybe that makes a difference.

Vic, from the picture I couldn't exactly tell what you attached the far end of the bar clamp to, and how much did you have to crank it in to get proper alignment? Welcome to LOC by the way.

[VRV]

Great thread and discription Lexus400 and Vic, you both gave me the motivation to do this job when it becomes a problem.  So far mine seem to be fine but the car has always been kept in a garage and driven rather gently on fairly smooth roads so maybe that makes a difference.

Vic, from the picture I couldn't exactly tell what you attached the far end of the bar clamp to, and how much did you have to crank it in to get proper alignment?  Welcome to LOC by the way.

←

The far end is attached to the end of the arm - you have to move a little bendable sheet metal out of the way and wiggle it in - the crank end is on the cast part where you just installed the new bushing. Hope that helps - Am venting my clothes dryer today and it just might be worse than the bushings - ha :D

cheers

vic

[highlander]

well the rear trailing arm bushings keep the rear arm in place from moving forward or backward along with up and down.

as for the really hard nut and bolt i used a jack to break it free instead of pure brute strenght.

and since people are having so much trouble getting these bushings off maybe i should start to sell them? just a thought...

←

Do you have any available?

[jzz30]

yea i could chop one up if you needed

[jzz30]

you can take a look at what it looks like on my tutorial, but you also need a puller

[lexus400]

Vic, I didn't even think of using a jigsaw which would be a little easier to manipulate than a sawzall. I had no trouble with the bolts but I do have a 1/2" impact gun. If any of you have ever been on the fence about getting an air setup you'll never look back. I use it for everything and even just the convienence of taking wheels on and off make it worth while. I just did a timing belt on an ES300

ang zipped the crank pulley bolt off which I know people spend hours trying to remove AND to Vic's point about safety... you eliminate bouncing the car all over the place while it's in the air. Once I got them out, they did slide right back in w/o any pressure.

Bob