2014 Prius Bushing Separating Front Lower Control Arm

Do you get a bunch of clunking from that side noise tick tick clank clank clunk clunk turning Why did you go into the dealer? For an oil change something else was going on Is this worth $290 to me no but at current dealer pricing and shop pricing this is not really too badly out of line at home I have a few of these on a few cars that are broken beyond repair so I would just unbolt one off the other car and shove it onto this car that I'm driving and be done and it would take about 55 minutes of my time at home it'll take the shop similar but they get paid by the time labor guide and well that's that this is not going to rip off the car. Eventually that bushing will fail and they'll be some clank and clunk clunk going on when you turn the steering wheel or the car undulates up and down going down the road they can't let go and let the lower control arm go flying off the car and generally you go into the drink or something like that.

 

The whole lower control arm shouldn't be any money I mean I have to go look online just like everybody else that's a piece of unit construction type steel or whatever there's no way that should be available from almost everybody for well pretty inexpensive $100 usually you take that one out and you beat new bushings in or squeeze new bushings in or I guess now you don't That's how we used to do it but getting that out is you know nothing to do really even on jack stands in the driveway so 2,900 that must have been for all the other work too but anyway yeah I would say drive it until the wheels fall off this is a generation 3 that shouldn't be really that long.

 

The Car Care Nut (youtube) make many Toyota videos and I recently watched on on this very subject, because I had a shop tell me I needed new control arms for cracking bushings. Car Care Nut is very clear: If you have cracks in the bushings, this is NOT a concern. Get a new mechanic, not new control arms. He says even with minor SEPARATION, they can be watched, and only need to be replaced when bushings become more significantly separated, but zero concern of small cracks in rubber.

I bought some control arms with very good looking rubber on eBay recently, cleaned them all up with wire brush, removed all small surface rust with evapo-rust, and treated rubber (which looks new on one side and almost-new on the other) with 303-Aerospace. I'm going to paint them with Rustoleum Pro enamel, but do not think I'm going to bother with putting them on.

I think I have no reason at all to replace my control arms with minor cracks in bushings (the outer, doughnut-like horizontal bushing is the only one that ever goes bad...the other "tube-like" bushing never goes bad).

If you do need new control arms, I've got a like-new pair for you....but I highly suspect you don't need them.