Front Control Arm Bushing Question

[JohnM]

I had a front wheel off to repair a tire puncture and while I was there, I inspected the lower control arm bushing as I've read on these threads that they fail. Mine appears to have some deterioration with a rip in the rubber, but no apparent displacement. I only have 19K miles on the car and drive it pretty easy. What do you all think -- is it shot?

[grantwildbill]

they replaced mine .they had atear inthem it was under warrenty 30k miles 03 gt. i took car in because of a rubbing sound in front end.

[SteelBlueGT]

Any rip should mean replacement of the bushings as they cant work as designed.

quote:Originally posted by JohnM

I had a front wheel off to repair a tire puncture and while I was there, I inspected the lower control arm bushing as I've read on these threads that they fail. Mine appears to have some deterioration with a rip in the rubber, but no apparent displacement. I only have 19K miles on the car and drive it pretty easy. What do you all think -- is it shot?

[ElectricBlueGT]

Do NOT mistake the slot built into the bushing as a rip. Make sure! The slot is normal. The slot is used to position the bushing so that it is installed properly. Check the service manual for all the details.

Scott

[JohnM]

Yep - had the Cruiser in to the dealer today - they approved the replacement of the front control arm bushings under warranty. That life span of less than 20K miles is pretty lame in my opinion. I drive the car pretty easy and my normal routes are very smooth roads. It's not like I'm rally crossing the darn thing. At least the dealer was good about it - although I haven't got it back yet to verify quality of work.

Don't let your warranty run out without checking those bushings.

[JohnM]

More to the story-

When I picked up my car a quick check in the wheelwell showed that the control arms had been replaced. I inquired with the service rep and mentioned that it looked like they had replaced the complete control arm assembly. He said that the bushings were not a service item, that they replace the entire control arm as normal procedure. I had expected this and was not surprised. The rep then went on to tell me that it had turned out that the old bushings really were not bad - as in they did not need to be replaced. He said that what had appeared as a rip was a normal air gap at the top of the bushing. Well I don't know for sure because I didn't get to see the old part for closer inspection, but it sure appeared ripped. They had obviously believed so upon their initial inpection, or they wouldn't have approved the repair under waranty.

So maybe what appeared as a rip was rubber flashing from the molding process - I'll never know. In any case maybe these bushings aren't as lame as I thought if it really hadn't failed. When you check yours, I would recommend cleaning them off and inspecting very closely with good lighting. And maybe these bushings are not such a worry for maintenance after all.

[CREWZIN]

I'm on a lot of forums and the only problem I see with the bushings seem to be with the European and some Canadian PT's. Not that they can't go bad on a Mexico built PT, but they are replacing them all the time especially in the United Kingdom. I would guess that those PT's are built with parts supplied from a completely different source than ours and aren't holding up to wear & tear. Inspected mine with 72K the other day and they look good as new.