SPC UCA Bushings Failing (1 Viewer)

[bbrussel]

Hey All,
First time poster here. Having trouble with my SPC upper control arms. I am on my third pair. Bushings in the first pair failed after 10k miles. SPC replaced them under warranty. Second pair's bushings failed after 8k miles. SPC replaced under warranty. This pair's bushings have failed after 11k miles. All of the miles were mostly dirt and paved roads with very light off road occasionally. Nothing that should cause premature failure. Everything installed to torque. Double checked flanged washer direction every time.

Anyone else suffering from the same problem? SPC told me I just got a bad batch the first and second time. 3 times though? Anyone have any insight into what could be causing this? I originally sprung for them to be able to get a better alignment with my 3" lift. My OEM UCA's had 335k miles on them when I swapped them out and the bushings were still ok.

It's a 4 hour drive to an alignment shop that will work on the adjustable UCA's. This is not sustainable for my wallet or my tires!

Thanks in advance for any help or ideas.

 

[efjayatee]

Yes.....SPC sucks. Failed on me 2x for bushings. Our lifts puts a lot of stress. OEM last longer because of stock lift.

Total Chaos would be your best option.

 

[bbrussel]

Yes.....SPC sucks. Failed on me 2x for bushings. Our lifts puts a lot of stress. OEM last longer because of stock lift.

Total Chaos would be your best option.

Thanks for the feedback. They got back to me and said the first two pairs that failed were their old style bushing, but the latest pair was the newer ones. I think I am going to give the JBA's a try. A friend of mine has them on more or less the same truck and likes them.

JBA STD High Caster Upper Control Arms for Toyota Tacoma, 4Runner 1996-2004 (1 to 3.5 inch lift)

Toyota Tacoma 1995-2004 with 4WDToyota 4Runner 1996-2002 with 4WDToyota Prado 90 1996-2002 with 4WD The JBA Upper A-Arms were designed for a spring lift or leveling kit for a lifted Toyota and will directly replace your stock upper control arms. They work with up to a 3.5-inch spring lift. The...

jbaoffroad.com

 

[efjayatee]

Love the price of those JBA. Will try them.....replacing my LCA after some hard trailing in the near future-banged them pretty hard and needing replacing. I have Freedom UCA. No complaints.

 

[bkg]

Confused.

What he pivot bushings failed? Aren’t they basic off the shelf bushings?

Had no issues with mine. I have replaced the pivot pushing in my TC arms, but they had 40k+ on them and I figured it was basic maintenance

 

[efjayatee]

Confused.

What he pivot bushings failed? Aren’t they basic off the shelf bushings?

Had no issues with mine. I have replaced the pivot pushing in my TC arms, but they had 40k+ on them and I figured it was basic maintenance

I guess depends on how you use your rig. Do you trail your rig? I don't just daily my 1st gen. I tow and drive off pavement with it. Maybe it's the way I send it.

 

[bkg]

I guess depends on how you use your rig. Do you trail your rig? I don't just daily my 1st gen. I tow and drive off pavement with it. Maybe it's the way I send it.

View attachment 3643714

I’m in 4wd daily (literally). Could be that I’m putting less stress in mine… not sure. But still don’t know that I understand why one upper arm would burn through pivot bushings master than another brand… yes, there are length differences, but the bushings are like standard poly stuff????

 

[efjayatee]

Read post #1

 

[bkg]

Read post #1

I have... still not understanding why the issue is happening. Can you add more clarity to "failed?"

 

[efjayatee]

100% due to quality on SPC's end. Bad batches of bushings. My bushings did hold up to abuse. Different brands different proprietary ingredients. There's a Tacoma forum on SPC issues. Total Chaos is the gold standard (my opinion).

 

[joseywales]

My SPCs have 40,000 or more on them now, and are perfect. My Sequoia is off pavement every day. No exaggeration there. I’m on deactivated forestry roads with it constantly. It’s not crawling, but I figure the higher speeds found on the roads I’m on with cross ditches is probably harder on them than crawling?

 

[bbrussel]

Jus to follow up on this post. Yes it was the pivot bushings (They are the only bushings in the UCA?). They basically just turned to mush. Could wiggle the center metal sleeve with my fingers extremely easily when I pulled them out. 6k miles on the new JBA's and no issues to report yet.

 

[smritte]

I wasn't going to post due to the age but, considering the resent post I will.
Here's the difference in bushings. What they run is up to the company. Its not so much quality but what material and hardness (durometer) rating. Harder bushings flex less than softer. urethane "can" be very hard and is commonly so compared to softer rubber. That said, you will have less travel (movement) out of the harder material.

The question stands on why one person can get more life out of the bushings than another. Two answers and one is more likely.
Least likely is the company changed a spec or the manufacture did and no one cared. Most likely the arm is not installed correctly. When installing the arms, the vehicle MUST sit at ride height. I achieve this by placing a jack or stand under the lower ball joint and letting the weight sit on it while I tighten the arms. Even if you don't change the arms or remove them, if you add a lift, the arms must be loosened and retightened at ride height.
The reason you do this is when their tightened, the bushings lock. You want them locked in the neutral or center of their movement. These bushings barely flex enough for off road as it is. The result of not doing this is exactly what was posted, the center tore loose.

This is an issue I have watched happen for decades. Even in the shop, few people knew to do this and even fewer cared. Personally, I run Heims and Uniball on all my suspension. Lift your vehicle too much and now your ball joint doesn't sit right also. That's a whole diffrent conversation.

 

[bbrussel]

I wasn't going to post due to the age but, considering the resent post I will.
Here's the difference in bushings. What they run is up to the company. Its not so much quality but what material and hardness (durometer) rating. Harder bushings flex less than softer. urethane "can" be very hard and is commonly so compared to softer rubber. That said, you will have less travel (movement) out of the harder material.

The question stands on why one person can get more life out of the bushings than another. Two answers and one is more likely.
Least likely is the company changed a spec or the manufacture did and no one cared. Most likely the arm is not installed correctly. When installing the arms, the vehicle MUST sit at ride height. I achieve this by placing a jack or stand under the lower ball joint and letting the weight sit on it while I tighten the arms. Even if you don't change the arms or remove them, if you add a lift, the arms must be loosened and retightened at ride height.
The reason you do this is when their tightened, the bushings lock. You want them locked in the neutral or center of their movement. These bushings barely flex enough for off road as it is. The result of not doing this is exactly what was posted, the center tore loose.

This is an issue I have watched happen for decades. Even in the shop, few people knew to do this and even fewer cared. Personally, I run Heims and Uniball on all my suspension. Lift your vehicle too much and now your ball joint doesn't sit right also. That's a whole diffrent conversation.

 

[smritte]

Didn't know they did that. That applies to those and something I would never run then. Not being familiar with that particular brand, that's a feature that scares me. That also goes back to what I originally said about differences in compound then.
That brand did something diffrent and if they don't hold up then its another failed suspension design to add onto that many poorly engineered ones. What's unfortunate is how many "Off-Road" suspensions are actually more "street" suspensions.

 

[bbrussel]

Didn't know they did that. That applies to those and something I would never run then. Not being familiar with that particular brand, that's a feature that scares me. That also goes back to what I originally said about differences in compound then.
That brand did something diffrent and if they don't hold up then its another failed suspension design to add onto that many poorly engineered ones. What's unfortunate is how many "Off-Road" suspensions are actually more "street" suspensions.

Agree with all that. What really struck me was that I talked to them on the phone every time and described my install and symptoms and sent the damaged bushings back to them each time, but they seemed or claimed to not have any idea what could have happened and suggested that "I must have gotten a bad batch". For one customer to get bushings from a bad batch 3 separate times made me lose confidence in the engineering. Thanks for chiming in and adding to the discussion. I was really curious to see if I would find other people who have had the same issue, but have not heard much on that front.

 

[smritte]

What I find odd is the symptom match's a bushing locked wrong. Trust me when I say, I have seen lots. It also wouldn't surprise me if the " bad batch" was a hundred sets. Another thing I've seen a bunch.

 

[aztoyman]

I don't know if they are exactly the same but I installed these on my wife's 2008 FJ Cruiser back in 2010 (I think) They were called Light Racing UCA's. It was the old style bushings where I had to tighten them at ride height.

The bushings have been trouble free all these years but it was never off road. It was all about bigger tires and the look for my wife. Her mall crawler as she says. The ball joint on the driver side finally got sloppy so I contacted SPC to ask about replacement parts.

Customer service was quick to reply to my email and called me. They told me what parts to order and that Summit Racing was probably the best deal. They also said they have an exchange program if I didn't want to rebuild them myself.

I installed the new style bushings and the updated ball joints. I still tightened the bushings at ride height. I hope they last as long as the originals did. They were actually fine.

I ended up going through the entire suspension. There was a thump I could feel that ended up being three of the rear link bushings failing.