I had some noises in the front of my truck, which I found out to be bad sway bar bushings and end links. Well, further inspection, both lower ball joints have a little play, while the uppers seem fine big one of the uppers has a small rip I the boot. I already replaced the inner and outter tie rods. I also noticed my lower strut bushings are bad as they are really squished and one lower might be bent.

I plan on getting the complete raybestos lower arms and one raybestos upper arm from rock auto for 280 shipped. Are those good? I read raybestos is really good. Moog is a lot more money too. I have limited funds as I'm going to college. I JUST don't want to die on the way there LOL.

Any opinions? I went with moog outter tie rods, mopar inners, energy suspension sway bushing and moog end links.
Any opinions?

 

And, I have 145,000 miles.

 

Wow, it's amazing what's popped onto the market after less than 2 years. The lower control arms at that time were only available from the dealership around here and they were asking over $400 each. I initially was going to change the bushings but they couldn't find the right ones (they had the PNs all screwed up), but if they had the right ones, each bushing would have been over $60 each. I see complete LCAs available everywhere these days, even on e-bay, and the cost is certainly cheap enough that I wouldn't have even considered changing the bushings - that can be a dirty and tedious job, I've had some I've had to burn out and then chisel out the steel bushing retainer.

Jeremy, I don't know what your budget is, but it doesn't seem like it's worth getting just the bushings as I mentioned in another post to you. I would do a couple of things to pick the LCA supplier, check for any reviews and make sure the control arm is cast and not stamped-out steel. I would think that all the cast arms will be coming from one source to the various "manufacturers" that put their brand on them, so it's really just the quality of the bushing that's in question & Raybestos seems to have a pretty good reputation on their parts. If the price diff is significant, I'd go with them. Moog is good but they do have some of their stuff that's junk as well (their front sway bar links that I got a couple of years ago were garbage - I couldn't even install them).

Just remember to use anti-seize compound inside the bushing tubes and on the bolts/nuts.

 

At that mileage, I'd also be changing the strut shock, the stock ones seldom last that long - they normally bite the dust at less than 1/2 that mileage. If you don't have spring compressors to do the job, check out the cost of getting a good set that will fit those springs (most of the cheap ones won't fit the spring diameter and the screws bend under the pressure) vs. having a garage dismantle and reassemble the strut with the new shocks, you might find it's close to the same price and it would save you considerable work.

 

Yeah, I can't find any particular reviews of people using this exact raybestos control arm, but I heard they are great quality. Especially for 120$each, that ain't bad! I was hoping someone might of had experience with either of those two arms. I read that moog has been kinda going downhill, but moog and raybestos are the best I think.

My struts are fine for now. I plan on replacing them in January. I saw the Monroe complete struts for around 150 a piece. With my mileage, I'm sure they have been done already.

On a side note, I won't be driving my truck that much anyways. I'm keeping it as a spare vehicle cuz my car gets better mileage.

 

After I removed my old moog end links, 95% of my noise went away. I think the rest is the ball joints. It rode fine down the road, so shocks are okay for now.

 

Sounds like you have a good plan, good luck with the new control arms & let us know what you think of them when you've had a chance to run them for a while.

 

Yes, ill definately keep this updated. I cant really find anybody that used raybestos or even moog arms, so this can help out people. I may even do a write up and create a new thread. Thanks for your help!

 

If I was going to all of that work, I'd be doing both of the uppers. Sure as ****E, 5k later you will be replacing the other upper - just the way these things go.

 

I know the other upper will need changing, but I Can do that in a couple months. I'm fixing what is currently bad at the moment so I Can drive it safely, you know?