Rx450H front lower suspension arms

NEILJ · August 10

Afternoon All

I have a 2009 RX45H with just over 60K miles . Last year at MOT I was told that it would most probably need front lower suspension arms for the next MOT which is coming up. I have had a good look at the bushes and cannot see any signs of cracks or tears in the rubber and visibly they look fine so cannot understand why the garage thinks they need replacing. The car drives perfectly with no knocks or rattles or the steering pulling to one side so I am just querying if anyone else has had to replace the lower arms at this sort of mileage and for what reason as I am wondering whether to get a second opinion as I just cannot see anything wrong. I look forward to any ones feed back thanks .

Neilj

Spock66 · August 10

I'd just wait until the next MOT and maybe look at parts prices in the interim.

MOT advisories do seem a bit random in my experience.

Malc1 · August 10

If you’re taking your car to the Main Dealer for servicing and MOT they could be “ touting “ for unnecessary business …….. maybe

Do you get the car annually serviced by your Indy mechanic ? …… his buddy’s the Tester ?

How’s it all working for you ?

Malc

BarneyTT · August 12

On 8/10/2024 at 3:17 PM, Spock66 said:

I'd just wait until the next MOT and maybe look at parts prices in the interim.

MOT advisories do seem a bit random in my experience.

I'd second that👍 Just in case, check part prices as they can be expensive (as I found out with rear suspension components).

GSLV6 · August 12

Trailing arms are very (unreasonably) expensive as there's no aftermarket suppliers for independents to use so all parts come from Lexus AFAIK. Mine had a cracked bushing and was flagged up on mot, but it ran perfectly for another 18 months before really needing replacement (torn). I argued, at the time, that is was unreasonable wear and tear (literally) as the car had only covered 40K miles and lexus replaced it FoC after querying with Lexus UK as they agreed it oughtn't to have perished and torn within 40K miles. That was done under the RELAX warranty. Given labour and parts costs they sometimes advise preventative replacement if they are doing something that might need the trailing arm to be removed, depending on mileage.

NEILJ · August 20

Morning All

Thanks for your comments, Just booked in for MOT so see what happens, the garage said if I hadn't done a lot of miles this last year they would most probably be alright so they couldn't have been that bad last year . I had the front wheels off last week to rub down, rust treat and paint the front disc backing plates and the main bushes had a bit of crazing but no cracks so sprayed them with silicone lubricant . Just checked and I have done just over 2000 miles this last year , I am retired now, so fingers crossed they will pass again, I'll update in a couple of weeks. The reason for the post was because I seem to remember someone saying on one of the forums , might have been the American, that the bushes on the RX350/450 always look worse than they really are and some have replaced the arms only to find they look as bad after only a year on the vehicle . Well that's all for now keep you posted and thanks again for the comments.

NeilJ

NEILJ · November 8

Apologies for not responding

We have had quite a couple of months with a bereavement . I took the car in for MOT praying that they wouldn't fail it on the lower arm bushes as I desperately needed the car as we had so much to do emptying a maisonette . Fortunately it passed and the mechanic who always tests the car commented that the bushes were not really any different from last year, so I have another year to keep an eye on the bushes . Now I have another problem that I will start a new post about but thanks for all the comments and replies on this one .

Neilj