Originally Posted By: yvon_la
Originally Posted By: wirelessF
Improper installation? You tighten them when the car is sitting on the ground. The bushing acts like a torsional spring when it gets tightened onto the crossmember. If the car is up in the air by the frame and the LCA's are being tightened then it's gonna overtwist the bushing when it sits on the ground.
+2
Mind you, the first lca was changed at 60k miles by the local Toyota dealer with OEM Toyota parts. This part has only been on the car for more like 14 months/15k miles and I noticed the clunk with only 10k miles on the part. I also have no reason to believe the car has been wrecked. It was a one-owner car that was well taken care of.
My symptoms are/were tire wear, steering vibration at high speed braking, and clunk over bumps.
To all of you who say that it was improper installation I am 99.9% sure that this isn't the case. Like I said the factory part and dealer installed parts both wore out in a relatively short period of time and I can't find any information (online or Chilton manual) that says the lca bolts for this vehicle must be torqued with the arm loaded. I think you guys are referring to installation of a different style of control arm.
2001 Cavalier control arm: Makes sense to torque while loaded.
Amazon Cavalier Control Arm
2008 Camry control arm: Tightening bolts without a vehicle load will have no impact. Its simple bolt-on.
Amazon Camry Control Arm
So more specifically, might there be specific driving conditions that could contribute to control arm wear/failure?