2011 LS460 Front-rearward (main) lower control arm separation. The easy way.

Here is a quick video showing how to pop the lower control arm from the ball joint on the steering knuckle of an LS460 the easy way. There are very few videos showing the separation, most only show the removal and replacement of all of the other control arms and skip the main one. Others show hours of beating and tears. I found using a tie rod/inner bearing race puller is a life saver. There is no longer any need to beat on anything, and replacement of all four arms on each side should be a 2.5-hour job max. ...and don't forget to pre-load before tightening everything.

[@user-hl7sf7js7l]

Thanks Mike, this was very

[@aly8848]

Thank you Alpha Mike. I love watching these DIY videos.

[@glenrodriguez9002]

Doing this now and them castle nuts are killing me.... ty for the video

[@mikoriad]

Good luck Sir. There's always something that comes up. After I did the lowers in the video I ended up having to cut the castles off the uppers on one side before I could swap them out. That was easy enough but was still nonsense that I didn't want to deal with.

[@glenrodriguez9002]

@mikoriad man I cut the castle nut but messed up my lower ball joint which I had to take the whole knuckle off to get out... your right it's always something.. but I'm learning hopefully the other side will be easier...

[@scottwiater2699]

Thanks for the video, I ordered the parts as the car care nut wanted over 7 grand to do my LS

[@Jursaw]

You are joking? $7k parts and labor to replace these arms?

[@Laggy200ms]

No joke. That's what the dealership told me. LS AWD is much more labor intensive then the RWD. So labor costs went up. AWD, you must remove the axle from the spindle to gain room to the castle nut. If you're thinking of doing this be sure to get all the hardware for the parts you're about to replace. If you live in the rust belt the Cam bolts (they rust bad, most likely you will have to pull out the grinder and cut it off) for the front LCA and castle nut should be replaced along with the LCA.

[@scottwiater2699]

I finished the job myself!It cost me about $800.00 in parts as I didn't need to replace lower ball joints,knuckles,and wheel bearings like the car care nut wanted to do to save himself labor and profit from selling me more parts.He pretty much doubled the Lexus parts.

[@scottwiater2699]

I bought the Figs engineering uppers with the polyurethane bushings and TRW lowers.

[@pgill2682]

Scott how's the ride with the figs bushings ?

[@SaifaldeenSAH]

Nice! Really helped me a lot. Thank you very much.

[@mikoriad]

You're welcome!

[@donaldwilliams2721]

Great video just a few tips remove the end link bolt before the shock tower bolt. The pressure of the arm dropping is why you needed a hammer comes out a lot easier without pressure put on it. My ball joint nut was a 19mm not sure why you had a 20mm.

[@mikoriad]

You are correct on both accounts. It was a super light tap of the hammer. It was just a hanging swing on basically 2 fingers. Stupid camera in the way, lol. I think I just misspoke on the 19mm. Thanks!

[@DUBIZZLE1]

Great video my brother, this will be very helpful

[@user-hl7sf7js7l]

helpfull

[@ryannrjohnson]

Omg can you please post the item number of that separator, that’s a life saver. Wish I had that the first time I changed mine. I have to do one again now because the Lexus dealership didn’t correctly bleed my brakes when they replaced my brake actuator and I had been driving around for a month with only the drivers side front brakes working and of course it totally wore that side out so I’ve got to replace them again or the drivers side at the least. Thanks.

[@mikoriad]

I bought a kit from Amazon. OMT 5 in 1 ball joint separator tool kit. It comes with the tie rod and ball joint remover, as they call it. It was cheaper to buy the kit then the tool by itself when I was searching. Looks like the kit is still $49 on Amazon if you are in the US.

[@ryannrjohnson]

@@mikoriad Thanks so much 👍

[@renesolis7799]

I accidentally damage the boot while popping the ball joint, do I have to replace the knuckle now ? i read somewhere that pressing new ball joints is not the best

[@mikoriad]

@@renesolis7799 I thought about just replacing a ball joint once and decided to go with buying a knuckle years ago. Back then I was able to get a knuckle with a ball joint from Saudi Arabia for fairly cheap funny ehough, I think it was like $170. You'll have to remove the entire knuckle to do the ball joint though. At that point might as well just change the knuckle in my opinion. Sorry to hear that, it just made the job that much more difficult.

[@zaki0078]

I just start working on mine 2007 I'm stuck on the damn castle nut i try everything can someone please please help me how to take it off it's my first time. THANK YOU!!!!!!

[@mikoriad]

In the worst case scenario, you can carefully cut that castlenut down the side easy enough. Use a Dremel or a grinder cutting wheel. Wow, I haven't had a castle nut issue before on this car.

[@zaki0078]

@mikoriad Thank you so much for replying. Yes, it's crazy that i bought air impact impact wrench, but no luck tomorrow. I'll try to buy a dremel well, keep you updated.

[@lobssangmarrero4781]

No way that’s a 20mm!!

[@mikoriad]

You're right. Hah, I misspoke.