Steering idler

[Jonny77]

2 weeks ago my steering idler was rattling quite a bit, and upon examination it had about 2mm of lateral play between the arm and housing, so I bought a brand new genuine Toyota replacement and fitted it.
Since then a knocking has gradually been developing, so thinking it was a balljoint or summat I set about investigating it this afternoon, but it seems that the idler has play in it again, about 1mm laterally this time. I have arrowed the play in the pic below.
Surely I have a duff one and it should have zero play in it dontcha think?

[nero279]

can't remember whether there's any play in mine, i'll ceck in the morning if someone reminds me and see if either of mine have any play.

[BUSHWHACKER]

Mine has excessive play in it, it's been pointed out at the past two MOTs, I still aint replaced it!!

[Jonny77]

Hers is some footage of it in action, I say its Fubar'd, the shop I bought it from are trying to wriggle out of it a bit, but I wont give up, I will win!!!!!!
Dont forget, this has done under 300 miles and isnt even 2 weeks old...

[Jonny77]

In case anyone is interested, I got another genuine Toyota arm from Iezura parts on ebay and that was also no good. I reckon they had a dodgy batch of them. Rather than waiting for yet another one to try I decided to sort it out properly. Upon stripping the brand new never used arm down, the bushes measured up as having 0.4mm of clearance in them, which when muliplied out through the steering components translated into about 3mm of free play at the n/s wheel.
I machined some new bronze bushes with 0.05mm of clearance in each and 0.05mm of end float, now its absolutely bang on with zero play at the wheel and super smooth action.

[chrisinflight]

That`s interesting- I find it hard to accept the genuine Toyota part is faulty or defected. I would take it up with Toyota. Copy or pattern parts are reknowned to be cheap quality and not last long but not OE parts. Keep us informed if anything else comes from it.
PS. I need to replace mine and have been trying to decide on which supplier and now you`ve ruined all my choices! I may just replace the bushes but how do we know the Toyota bushes have the right tolerances?
Cheers,
chris

[Jonny77]

That`s interesting- I find it hard to accept the genuine Toyota part is faulty or defected. I would take it up with Toyota.

I agree, I thought the first one was just one of those things, but to get 2 that are wrong? All I can guess is that the shop has a supply of seconds from Malaysia or somewhere, because £58 for a genuine part is cheap.

...I may just replace the bushes but how do we know the Toyota bushes have the right tolerances?
Cheers,
chris

Well you dont! The problem might not be with the bush anyway, it could be the housing or it could be the shaft. The bushes are crush bushes which compress to size once installed, so without knowing the correct sizes of each its hard to say which part is at fault.
I have 2 bushes you can have for nowt if you want to try them!

[chrisinflight]

Another thought- maybe the ones in question are not genuine but fakes.
Was the first one bought from a dealership?
Regards the bushes- I`d appreciate them and I`ll pay postage and for your time. I`ve got a week off and want to jack up the front and have a check at what has play in what! I`ve got my mot coming up april.
thanks,
chris

[Jonny77]

They both came from Iezura parts on ebay. I dont think they are fakes, the castings are identical to the OE one and they came in Toyota packaging. The staff seemed quite concerned about it all and posted the 2nd one straight away as I need the truck to drive every day.
email me your address and I will pop them in the post next time I am at the Post Office.
jon@jonboy.ndo.co.uk

[jeff.fn02jwa]

Hers is some footage of it in action, I say its Fubar'd, the shop I bought it from are trying to wriggle out of it a bit, but I wont give up, I will win!!!!!!
Dont forget, this has done under 300 miles and isnt even 2 weeks old...

ha bud that vid is surf porn:

just makein baby steering idlers me thinks but if your not happy with it just rip it off and go back and get the place that you got it from to give you a replacement for it i would dam
right i would