Steering Wheel Shimmy, New Moog LCA's and New SPC/Mevotech Camber/Caster Bolts

Quick bio first:

Bio: 2008 Crewmax Limited with 154,000 miles. SPC Upper Control Arms installed at 113,000 miles. Two weeks ago, I installed Bilstein 5100's on the front with Eibach Pro-Lift Performance Front Coil Springs and all new top hat and hardware. The rear also got Bilstein 5100's. The front Bilsteins are set on the middle setting. New inner and outer tie rods installed in April. Also has 1.5" Bora wheel spacers. Mostly road driving. I've done a little off-roading in Moab, Utah in May.

So, the problem I'm having: starting in April, I began having an intermittent bad shimmy in my steering wheel between 55 and 65 mph. Here is a video of my steering wheel at 55 mph. https://youtu.be/CQNWNunEmF0. This video is with no braking. And once I start braking, the shimmy smooths out, so it doesn't appear to be anything with the brakes. I've had it aligned multiple times without much improvement. The alignment shop says everything is tight so it doesn't seem to be a wheel bearing, ball joint, or tie rod. When the shimmy first started, I could make a few turns or hit a bump and it would go away. So I know something is loose/wrong.

I got an alignment last week after I installed the shocks. When I drove away, I quickly realized they didn't do a good job. The front left tire was rubbing my mud flap real bad on turns. When I got home, I measured. The front left tire was 1 inch closer to my rear axle than my front right tire was. I decided I was never going back to that shop. The next alignment will be at the dealership. So, I got under my truck to change the caster myself to at least get the tire off my mud flap until I could get to the dealership. When I loosened my camber/caster bolts, I found that my front left camber/caster bolt was frozen. The bolt wouldn't turn and the bushing would not slide in its channel. I assume the alignment shop saw that and instead of telling me, they just adjusted the rear bolt as far in as it would go, causing my tire to be jammed back into my wheel-well.

So now I'm thinking that my bushings on my lower control arms might be bad. As I did research, I found that bad bushings can cause a shimmy in your steering wheel. So, I purchased new Moog lower control arms and new camber/caster bolts. I found a few things about the Moog arms in the forum, but not a whole lot. So I decided to do a little write-up on the process to let everyone know if it fixed the problem.

The Moog arms seem to be well built. They come with a new ungreasable lower ball joint installed and new RUBBER bushings. I paid $250 for both arms. I know we can get poly bushings, but they are pretty pricey and the install in the old arms can be difficult. I'm gonna see how long these Moog rubbers last. If I can get a few years, I'll be happy.

Now on to the camber/caster bolts. They were hard to research. Most of the little information I found was about the SPC bolts, part #25450. On SPC's website, they are $96. And that's for one set. I wanted two. Two hundred bucks for 4 bolts seemed ridiculous. Toytec has them for $77, out of stock. Summit racing was the next best for $64 for a set. I still didn't like that price. So as I researched, I found that SPC sometimes sells inventory to Mevotech. The Mevotech upper control arms have been discussed in the forum a few times. They are sold as Mevotech UCA's but are SPC UCA's with the UN-greasable ball joint. This got me thinking. Maybe the Mevotech camber/caster bolts were also SPC's. The picture sure looked like it. So I took the risk. I bought 2 sets of Mevotech camber/caster bolts off Rock Auto for $45 a piece. $90 for all 4 bolts. Much better. Here is a link: https://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo.php?pk=10003136&cc=1441501&pt=13512&jsn=8. They arrived today. They ARE SPC bolts, made in USA. The washers are even stamped SPC. Here are some pics of all the parts. I'll try to keep everyone updated when I start getting them installed. Let me know if you have any questions or comments.

 

Warning on the SPC cam bolts, the D-holes wallow out from ham fisted alignment techs and either are only good for one alignment or don't hold an alignment. I know the price tag is hard to swallow but the OEM cam bolts/nuts are truly worth it.

I do like being able to buy outdated design SPC adjustable upper control arms as mevotech on the cheap though. I prefer the older bushing design for full range of motion/easy and cheap to replace, plus the greaseable ball joint can be updated if they come without it.

 

Thanks for the heads up. So how long did the SPC bolts last after you installed them?

Also, in my experience, most alignment shops don't give a s**t about doing a quality alignment. I've been very frustrated with at least two shops.

 

About one trip offroad. This was on my 4runner but same design and same OEM design too. After that trip I had a clunk on accell/decel, the lower control arm bolts were rotating in the wallowed out cams. Since I had cut to cut my LCA's off I was only able to save some of the nuts from the old hardware and ordered the rest, I think like $200 but never had a problem again.

 

Hmm...well that sucks. I wonder what causes that issue? It seems to me that if the bolts are torqued to spec, there shouldn't be much force applied to the rotational aspect of the bolts; more of a force in and out/up and down on the arms which would push on the tabs that hold the washers in place.

Thanks again. I may see if I can save my factory bolts and washers. I believe only the one is frozen. Its the sleeve I'm worried about. I'm not sure I will be able to salvage it. If I can, I'll probably just return the SPC ones to Rock Auto.

 

The fault was caused by alignment shop rotating the bolt hard to attempt to either adjust the alignment (as the would a factory cam) or while tightening it and not realizing that they were rounding out the adjuster instead of actually torqueing to spec properly by holding the bolt and rotating the nut side. That shop has also been guilty of not torqueing to spec, I would torque my own bolts in the parking lot after that until I gave up and just started doing home alignment.

 

I’ll ask this as I’m in the same boat. I lowered my truck and now have to return to stock ( crappy roads down south).

Why didn’t you go back with OEM lower control arms and cam bushings?

 

Oh I see. Hopefully my dealership knows what they are doing. I'll make sure to insect things after they are finished. I'm gonna ask before they do it to make sure they torque the bolts AFTER the vehicle is lowered to the ground. I've read that can cause faster wear to the bushings if torqued in the air.

I've done some research on the home alignments. It just seems like a ton of work. Not sure I have the patience. Thanks again for your help.

 

Simply put, cost. The toyota website has the OEM's for around $900. And I'm not sure if they come with bushings or ball joints. Budget is important in my house. If the Moog arms work, they save me roughly $650. But I can see where someone might want the OEM parts if they can afford them. They are quality parts.

 

Hi Blackoutt. I can't find a greasable lower ball joint. Do you have a link?

 

Landodnal, a word of caution on the SPC camber bolts: I twisted one off @ the published torque specs on a kit for my GX470 (#25435). I believe they were listed as small dia bolt @ 120 & larger bolt @ 130ft lbs. Emailed SPC tech line & they admitted to publishing wrong specs, shipped out a new kit promptly. Adjusted them to around 100 & 120ft lbs respectively. May want to double check with SPC before handing them off to shop. Also....the SPC camber bolts left a bit to be desired as far as tolerances & fitment. I'll be paying the $300-$350 for OEM's next time.

 

Thank you. Another guy above also gave a word of caution. His was on a 4runner. I still haven't seen anyone say anything good or bad about the SPC bolts for the 2/2.5 gen tundras. These bolts are quite a bit bigger than the ones for the 4runner and the GX470 I'm sure. The torque for these two bolts are 198 lb ft and 227 lb ft. But still, bad build quality is bad build quality. I might still try to salvage my factory bolts that are on the truck. Gonna have to wait and see how everything looks when I get the old arms off. I'll just return these to Rock Auto if I do that. Thanks again. I appreciate the heads up.

 

No sweat. The Gen 2 bolts you posted do look pretty beef....also appear to have a bit of a matte coating similar to factory. My SPC's for the GX looked like they came out of a harbor freight multi pack.

 

I wouldn't recommend a greasable lower ball joint, they are too difficult to access if not installed very very thoughtfully and end up being a waste of your money. I'm kind of an OEM parts snob now but the Moog lower ball joints have treated me well in the past.

 

Thanks again Blackoutt. Yeah, I ran Moog parts on a Honda Pilot I had a few years back. They held up well enough for on-road conditions. I think a lot of guys who have complaints about Moog have issues when they go offroad. Once again, I'll try to give some updates when I get working on this thing. It will probably be some time next week.

 

So here's the first issue I've run into for this project. The front right control arm was dropped during shipping. When it arrived, I saw damage to the box but hoped that everything was ok inside. Well, it wasn't. When it was dropped, it landed directly on the bushing flange resulting in a bend, two cracks, and some gouges. So, luckily I bought this one on Amazon. They already sent out a replacement. It will be here tomorrow. I just have to send the old one back within 30 days. Fingers crossed the shipper takes better care of this one. Here are some pics of the damage.

 

Well, I finally made it under my truck to do the work. Aaannndd this is what I found. The ol' broken gusset plate tabs. Two of them. I called the dealership. They said they could put a weld behind those tabs, install the parts I purchased, and give it an alignment for the low price of $1,300. And that's with me providing the parts. Or, if I could take everything off and have it towed to them, they would put a weld behind the tabs for the on-sale price of $300-$400.

So, I went out yesterday and bought a welder. I'll post up some pics when I get it repaired. Could be a bit. It's cold. This is most likely partially my fault. Last time I was under there I didn't own a torque wrench that went to 250 ft lbs. The bolt probably wasn't tightened enough which caused it to have some slight movement, bending the tabs. I now own a bigger torque wrench. I won't make that mistake again.

PS. I got the replacement LCA in the mail. Luckily, it was undamaged, so I'm good to go there.

 

Geez. Folded that sucker right over! I'll have to take another look, but if the tabs are all that thin, I may have to lay down some preventative beads at my buddies.

Looks like you got your moneys worth out of the old bolts... Do you live ON the beach??

 

Yes. I live right on the beaches of rural Ohio. Dead smack in the center of the rust belt. Keeping rust at bay here is a never ending chore. There is salt all over the roads this time of year.

If you do some off-roading, it might not be a bad idea to do some preventative welding on those tabs. There are also some after market replacement plates made by Total Chaos if you are a hard core off-roader. But again, if the bolts are torqued to spec, you shouldn’t have any problems with them breaking with typical road commuting.

 

Im just a soft-core off-roader. Low speed crawling sufficient to not spill my beer or anger my wife.

Only real hooning is in the snow or on beaches I'm permitted to drive.

 

I was finally able to get some work done the last few days. Here are the walkthrough photos and steps for my front driver's side where I had to weld new gusset plate tabs on and replace the lower control arm (LCA).

1. First I removed the lower coilover nut and slid the bolt out, then the sway bar bolt was removed. Next was the two bolts holding the lower ball joint bracket on. Once these first 4 bolts were out, the LCA will swing down.

2. Now you just have to remove the 2 LCA bolts that attach the LCA to the frame. The front bolt slides through a sleeve. This sleeve was frozen on both the driver and passenger side. With the sleeve frozen, the LCA will not come off even with the bolts out. So, I had to cut the sleeve with a saws-all. Here is a pic of the piece of sleeve cut off next to the old LCA. The second pic is of the wheel-well without the LCA.





3. Next, I removed the lower ball joint nut from the old LCA and used a 2 lb. hammer to separate the ball joint from the bracket. I then installed the ball joint bracket on the new LCA ball joint on top of my workbench. The nut was tightened but not torqued yet.



4. Once the old LCA was off, I now had to clean up the two areas with the bent tabs. Here are some photos of the LCA brackets and one of the gusset plates after I cut the left tab off:





5. Once the area was cleaned up, I welded on a new 3/16" tab. I left the tab long then cut it to the correct length afterward. I then sprayed it with black rustoleum. After that dried, I covered everything in Fluid Film. The weld job is far from perfect, but it will get the job done. I did this same thing on the back side of this one.





6. After everything was dry, it was time to install the new Moog LCA. I did end up using the new SPC/Mevotech cam bolts. They were pretty worn and the sleeve was now shot. The new bolts went on pretty smooth. The new sleeve for the front bolt is plastic so it will never rust or adhere to the bushing. The rear bolt does not get a sleeve. I used anti-seize to cover all parts that go through the bushing, including the sleeve and the smooth part of the bolt, making sure to not get any on the threads. The front bolt is the shorter but bigger in diameter of the two bolts and also has bigger cam washers. This bolt gets torqued to 227 ft. lbs. after the truck is lowered back to ground. The rear bolt is longer but smaller in diameter and has finer threads. It gets torqued to 198 ft. lbs. after the truck is lowered to the ground. The cam washers are also smaller. The two bolts slide in from the front and the rear. The nuts go on the inside of each. The front bolt gets an extra (smaller) washer between the nut and the cam washer. The rear bolt does not. Some guys mentioned that the SPC bolts can strip where they go through the D hole in the washer, which would make adjustment impossible. I didn't have any issues with this. Even with the truck lowered to the ground and the bolts not torqued, I was able to turn the bolts with ease and the LCA's would slide back and forth in their channels. The new tabs even held up :0). My guess is that alignment shops are doing something wrong resulting in the stripped washers. Here are some pics of the new bolts. The first is of the rear bolt with the new tabs. The last pic is of the old bolts:







7. And finally, I installed all of the remaining bolts: 2 lower ball joint bracket bolts (221 ft. lbs.), 1 lower coilover bolt and nut (144 ft. lbs.), and 1 sway bar bolt (89 ft. lbs.). I torqued the lower ball joint nut (123 ft. lbs.) right before putting the tire back on. Don't forget the cotter pin for the castle nut. The sway bar bolt gets installed AFTER the truck is lowered to the ground. The hole is much easier to align this way. The lower coilover bolt got torqued after the truck was back on the ground.



I repeated this same process with the passenger side. I did not have to weld anything on this side luckily. I was able to test drive it. It appears that the steering wheel shimmy is gone. But, I do need to get an alignment. The dealership was booked 2 weeks out, so I gotta wait for that. I have it aligned relatively close at the moment. After the alignment, I'll post my final thoughts.

 

Very thorough. Thanks for the write up.

 

Uggh I have to do this job on my '10 that's from the rust belt. I have some bilstein 5100s for it and I'm sure the cam bolts are seized. Doesnt look like fun.

The cheap cam bolt tabs breaking off are a known problem. There are larger aftermarket ones available, but I cant remember where from. A piece of flat stock does the same job though.

If you can find a 4x4 or a performance shop with an alignment rack they might be a better bet to get what you want.

 

Yes. This is something I’ve definitely thought about. I’ve had an alignment done at a 4x4 shop as well as a tire shop. I didn’t like either alignment. And I think my bushing problems started there. I think the technicians either didn’t torque the cam bolts to spec or they torqued them in the air. Or both. Who knows. I just haven’t had good luck with alignments. This is why I decided to go to the dealership. I figure they should know what they’re doing. “Should” being the key word. I think we care way more about our trucks than the techs do. Just my experience. I may look in Columbus, see if I can find a 4x4 shop with real good reviews. It’s an hour drive but I’ll take it if they do a good job.

The aftermarket gusset plates you talked about are made by Total Chaos. I considered them. It would have just been more money and more work. I decided to ad lib a little.

Good luck with your project. Let me know if you have any questions.

 

Good work! those SPC washers look beefier than the soft cheese I ones I wallowed out. I also just pooped a weld bead behind all the cam tabs for extra support because why not?

 

Also if you like fluid film, you'll love woolwax. Coming from a previous western NY'er who once bought a vehicle out of Michigan, and hates rust.

 

I’ve never heard of it. Just looked it up. Looks like a good product. I might buy a can of the black and see how it does. Thanks for the suggestion.

 

Update: The problem is not fixed. I got up over 60 on the way to work this morning and still having a pretty severe vibration in my steering wheel. WTF. I don’t think it’s the lack of an alignment. I think it’s pretty close. My next thought is steering rack bushings. A mechanic friend of mine said the first thing he would do is get the tires checked. The tires are less than a year old. The shop said they couldn’t get them balanced when I got them so they put beads in them. My friend said he doesn’t like beads. Do you guys think the beads could be any issue? Anyone else have problems with beads?

 

So today I will be going over to my buddies house. He has an ‘07 Tundra. I’m gonna put two of his tires on my front end to see if my shimmy goes away while driving with his tires. If this is the case, I will know for certain that the shimmy has something to do with my tires/rims/balance. If I still have the shimmy with his tires, I’ll move on to the next suspension/steering part. Wish me luck. I’ll post later today with an update.

 

Clean the rack and frame by under it, slap some painters tape up to down across it. Turn key just to take steering wheel lock off and turn left and right rapidly. If tape brakes its bushing time would recommend polly if you need R&P bushings.