Front Upper Suspension Arms

[sir john]

My LS400, 93, is up for an MOT and needs a new N/S front upper suspension arm. My machanic has been quoted £265 + vat. Ive been on eBay and found some at £69.99 but when i phone them up at A2Z car part Wakefield im told that they wont fit my car and i need the ADL Blueprint part at £169.99.

Next i phoned round the local factors who all quoted over £300.

Has anyone used A2Z car parts ? also called The Motorist Warehouse Car Parts and A2Z Motor Spares. are they okay to deal with?

The £169.99 is very tempting but im not sure about a company with 3 names.

[ROYT]

Don't know about the companies, but Blueprint parts are OK...

[ManicMark]

My LS400, 93, is up for an MOT and needs a new N/S front upper suspension arm. My machanic has been quoted £265 + vat. Ive been on ebay and found some at £69.99 but when i phone them up at A2Z car part Wakefield im told that they wont fit my car and i need the ADL Blueprint part at £169.99.

Next i phoned round the local factors who all quoted over £300.

Has anyone used A2Z car parts ? also called The Motorist Warehouse Car Parts and A2Z Motor Spares. are they okay to deal with?

The £169.99 is very tempting but im not sure about a company with 3 names.

Hi Ive used A2Z & all was ok there is another company who might do them I will look them up & reply asap Mark

[ManicMark]

My LS400, 93, is up for an MOT and needs a new N/S front upper suspension arm. My machanic has been quoted £265 + vat. Ive been on ebay and found some at £69.99 but when i phone them up at A2Z car part Wakefield im told that they wont fit my car and i need the ADL Blueprint part at £169.99.

Next i phoned round the local factors who all quoted over £300.

Has anyone used A2Z car parts ? also called The Motorist Warehouse Car Parts and A2Z Motor Spares. are they okay to deal with?

The £169.99 is very tempting but im not sure about a company with 3 names.

Hi Ive used A2Z & all was ok there is another company who might do them I will look them up & reply asap Mark

Hi again the outher company was Firstline they only do 10/94 on also sorry,benfur/ maurice might have a good used one for you he is an honest guy I have bought parts off him before.

[steve2006]

It may be worth calling Lexus Derby,I spoke to the parts manager Sean a while ago and he told me they are discounting a lot of the older LS spares and they list some on Fleecebay.

[sir john]

It may be worth calling Lexus Derby,I spoke to the parts manager Sean a while ago and he told me they are discounting a lot of the older LS spares and they list some on Fleecebay.

thanks for that. ive maybe missed an opportunity this time because ive ordered the part from A2Z. £79.99

i dont think that its a blueprint part cause the guy didnt know where it came from, just said it was from europe somewhere.

maybe somewhere far east europe...like china! anyway he said they sell loads of them and never have a problem.

ill post a message about the outcome, delivery, fit etc.

[sir john]

It may be worth calling Lexus Derby,I spoke to the parts manager Sean a while ago and he told me they are discounting a lot of the older LS spares and they list some on Fleecebay.

thanks for that. ive maybe missed an opportunity this time because ive ordered the part from A2Z. £79.99

i dont think that its a blueprint part cause the guy didnt know where it came from, just said it was from europe somewhere.

maybe somewhere far east europe...like china! anyway he said they sell loads of them and never have a problem.

ill post a message about the outcome, delivery, fit etc.

Ordered the part at about 2pm and it arrived the next morning. Not bad me thinks. Just had the car in to the garage for fitting the part and MOT. Part went on without fuss and, even better, the old girl passed her MOT. Just a bit high on the emmissions but it scraped through. So its another 12 months of quality motoring. And all for £180 for the part, fitting and the MOT test.

Why do people still buy 5 year old Fiestas for 5 grand and think thay are getting cheap motoring. Beats me! :D

[bazgtr]

PM me if you get any problems with the new arms in about two to three weeks after driving and I'll talk you through it.

There is a little problem that sometimes appears after fitting new upper arms. Not serious but annoying.

You'll know if you have it by the noise.

[sir john]

The machanic that fitted it said it went in with no problems. I havent noticed any noises yet and its done about 1000 miles since fitting.. I have, however, noticed that the steering wheel is at a slight angle to the left. That it its not level when im going down a straight road of motorway. other than that im very happy with the service i recieved from A2Z parts. :P

[bazgtr]

The machanic that fitted it said it went in with no problems. I havent noticed any noises yet and its done about 1000 miles since fitting.. I have, however, noticed that the steering wheel is at a slight angle to the left. That it its not level when im going down a straight road of motorway. other than that im very happy with the service i recieved from A2Z parts. :P

The noise is caused when turning and braking at very slow speeds like riding the brake pedal with weight of car shifting to the front while starting to turn.

You might get it or you might not. I have it after fititng news arms and found the reason. The arm fitment was correct like yourself.

With your steering get the tracking redone due to the arms and suspension being apart. Easy fix(ATS etc).

[ManicMark]

Hi all just fitted a pair of upper wishbones on my 98 mk4 took about an hour a side ( best £120 I could have spent) A2Z parts. My old wishbones were not to bad just a bit of a creak in warm weather & a slight juder on heavy breaking off the motorway.

It was a good tip in a previous post to loosen the 3 nuts at the top of the shock under the bonnet ( gives you just about enough room to remove the two 14 mm bolts that run through the bushes with a bit of jiggling about & saves dropping the complete suspension leg)

Even though my ls flew through the last Mot with the old wishbones the difference by fitting the new is major. Really drives like brand new now. All that remains to be seen now is how long they will last ( They look & feel to be good quallity though)

[TigerFish]

You might get it or you might not. I have it after fititng news arms and found the reason.

What was the reason?

[bazgtr]

You might get it or you might not. I have it after fititng news arms and found the reason.

What was the reason?

I have found that ertain arms don't allow correct fitment of the nut, IE you can't do the nut up tight enough. If you look at the nut on the ground just turn the wheel back and forth and you'll see the nut miving on the ball joint. If it does it's not suppose to move at all hence why you get the play(creek).

I've found that you can jack the car up and then jack the lower arm up to compress the suspension to make the arm level as the height will then be under load and at roughly the correct ride height level. Once you've done this then tighen up the nut fully. I found today that there is a little gap between the rubber and the arm once you do this than before.

Tighen the gap and hopefully this should take up the slack. A breaker bar is a good choice if not do the same and use a high torque gun from a garage.

[bazgtr]

Hi all just fitted a pair of upper wishbones on my 98 mk4 took about an hour a side ( best £120 I could have spent) A2Z parts. My old wishbones were not to bad just a bit of a creak in warm weather & a slight juder on heavy breaking off the motorway.

It was a good tip in a previous post to loosen the 3 nuts at the top of the shock under the bonnet ( gives you just about enough room to remove the two 14 mm bolts that run through the bushes with a bit of jiggling about & saves dropping the complete suspension leg)

Even though my ls flew through the last Mot with the old wishbones the difference by fitting the new is major. Really drives like brand new now. All that remains to be seen now is how long they will last ( They look & feel to be good quallity though)

Also you don't have to lower the suspension to get the two bolts out. The reason for lowering the suspension is to get the last of the thread of bolt out that hits the spring on one side of the arm. You can get around this by just putting a car jack underneath the lower arm suspension and jacking a little to compress the spring to allow clearence of the bolt and then undoing it to get to the other side to reinsert the bolt.

Saves a bit of time.

[TigerFish]

You might get it or you might not. I have it after fititng news arms and found the reason.

What was the reason?

I have found that ertain arms don't allow correct fitment of the nut, IE you can't do the nut up tight enough. If you look at the nut on the ground just turn the wheel back and forth and you'll see the nut miving on the ball joint. If it does it's not suppose to move at all hence why you get the play(creek).

I've found that you can jack the car up and then jack the lower arm up to compress the suspension to make the arm level as the height will then be under load and at roughly the correct ride height level. Once you've done this then tighen up the nut fully. I found today that there is a little gap between the rubber and the arm once you do this than before.

Tighen the gap and hopefully this should take up the slack. A breaker bar is a good choice if not do the same and use a high torque gun from a garage.

Cheers for that. Usefull bit of info for LS owners.

The reason for lowering the suspension is to get the last of the thread of bolt out that hits the spring on one side of the arm. You can get around this by just putting a car jack underneath the lower arm suspension and jacking a little to compress the spring to allow clearence of the bolt and then undoing it to get to the other side to reinsert the bolt.

I found the same on the GS with the bolts, only requires a fraction, but just gives enough extra clearance if you need it.