UPGRADED the lower control arm bushings, the a-arm bushings Options

[Batman722]

I was going to do a how-to but was too caught up with just getting this done, I only snapped a couple of pics at the end.
Me, Manny, and Stef knocked this out pretty easy.

I ordered some front suspension bushings from Paul in Poland



here's a pic of the control arm



(taken from this post)

I went from this bushing



to this bushing



and the other



I know the pics I took kinda suck (they're a little messy from the grease too) but I was more concerned about feeling the difference driving with them and then eating.

I have to say after launching a few times on the ride home I can really feel the difference with keeping the wheels on the ground. They really help to reduce wheel hop and it feels great.
The other thing I wicked noticed was how much tighter the front end feels during turns. They keep the front end of the car much more level to the ground and cornering is so much more controled, it's amazing.

also, ride quality was not compromised at all, which I was a bit concrened about.

The entire process took a few hours and air tools made it much easier

This post has been edited by Batman722: Jun 30, 2009 - 8:22 AM

[jordisonjr]

Has anyone had issues with these wearing out fairly quickly?
I installed min July 2011 (by the looks of of it, from my posts in this thread) and last night discovered that on the driver side wheel, the bushing towards the back of the car has quite a bit of play, and is causing a huge clunking noise. You can actually see the wheel move forward and back within the wheel well while accelerating and stopping, and I can recreate the sound/movement by simply shaking the wheel front to back with my hands, with the cars weight on the wheels. And I'm pretty frustrated that these are worn already.

When I replaced them, I torched out the existing bushing (leaving the ring inside the arm) and brought it to a mechanic to press in the new bushing. I'm not sure if the ring was left in the arm, or taken out, but from the looks of it, everyone that's done these bushings have taken the ring out. I also did NOT use the OEM crush tube within the bushing as Tigawoods did, but it seems no one else did either. Could either of these two things cause extra movement in the arm or per-mature wear? Or were the bushings just installed wrong? Right now it seems the rear bushing is the only one moving, but I've yet to put the car in the air and inspect closer.

I did a quick visual inspection, and the bushing appears to be intact, and not cracked or torn, so I'm a little confused as to why this would be causing noise after about 3.5-4 summers of regular driving and no track use. Any insight would be great, as I'd like to avoid replacing these bushings again. And if they do need replacing already, I will probably be going back to OEM which, IIRC, cost about 500 CDN, and not something I'd really like to do either.