1997 ES300 Control Arm Bushings

[Emm]

We have a 1997 ES300 that eats control arm bushings every two to three years. The area we live in is Southern California and the roads are pretty bad.

My wife's daily driver vehicle and she has to go over speed bumps at work but takes them slowly.

I have replaced the struts last year with new ones of good quality, everything else is in good shape per the repair shop except the control arm bushing. The round one with the two notches cut out.

Does anyone have any good fixes or upgrade ideas on these bushing and arm assemblies. The alignment shop told me that on average people keep a car for five years so they install the expensive lifetime warranty control arms and usually never get them back for warranty. They tell me these are prone to failure with the bad roads etc. When the car was new we had one set replaced under warranty. Then seemed like every five years they went out.

Ideas?

[gbhrps]

Emm,

If the car were a Nissan 370Z, a Mustang, or a Camero, or even a Miata, there would be a miriad of upgraded aftermarket parts for it. Not so with the less than performance orientated ES300.

Just bite the bullet and and resign yourself to replacing the darn things every few years. That car is pretty bullet proof otherwise. REjoice!!

[Emm]

Thanks for the info, I upgraded and replaced the entire control arm, ball joints and some other parts with the Beck/Arnely line. We'll see how these do.