I purchased Ireland engineering control arms with poly instead of hiem joints for typical road use. Hiem joints according to IE, and, my own experience wear much faster on public roads. However, after trying to chase down some high speed stability problems, I found all four inner bushings to be worn to a point where I can push on the outside butt end of each link toward the the inner bushing and three out of four move 1/8" in or out from the center of the car. One is not so bad, but not perfect.

Anyone with lots of miles experience this too? 35-45K miles...

Thanks. I'll replace to lower two, but the stock arms are going back on top.

EDIT: all 8 bushings will be replaced. I don't see this as a defect, but the inner lower control arm bushings take a pounding.

 

Can you replace the bushings? Maybe some company makes various sizes of poly bushings that could work. I have 4 of these arms too, but I only have 1k miles on them. What are your alignment settings? Maybe that led to their early demise. I have an agressive alignment, I hope mine will last. They should, I average only 6000 miles a year.

 

Stock rear alignment settings...on occasion a hair more neg camber, but that's it.

Perhaps I can replace just the bushings.

What's funny, is the bushings have a hollow steel dowel the running thru them and the bolt runs thru this dowel. The hollow steel dowel is very loose around the bolt. This should be a tight fit. All torque settings are correct, meaning that the movement occurs despite proper torque settings.

I understand that things wear, but I've never experienced this before. It's almost as if the hollw dowel has deformed or stretched within the poly.

 

Just purchased four new rod ends to replace the poly. Jeff Ireland was surprised that these wore out, but also stated that I have more miles on these than anyone he knows

New rod ends are about $25-30 each or about $240 for a new set of eight. Actually not bad since the arms are re-usable.

 

Nice.....!

Ireland Eng. is great to deal with.

 

I think I scare Jeff...I talk quite fast and I'm always on espresso


Thru email, an engineer whom I occasionaly contact confirmed that lower control arms typical peform the grunt work. Based upon my experience, a beefier lower inner bushing is in order. We've also seen a couple of collapsed lower control arms...

 

Well, I have three control arms with Aurora rod ends and one stocker - driver's side upper. That bushings froze in the control arm rendering it the status of paper weight I just love doing a job twice.

 

You mean you have evidence of the control arm deflecting destructively? OUCH !

How do the new ends compare to the stock (IE) ones?

 

I went for a short but spirited drive thru very windy country roads with lots of dips and off camber blind turns. The rod ends feel a hair more controled than the poly. Surprisingly, no extra noise - and these are not teflon lined.

I don't understand your first question? The inner poly bushing on both lower control arms have worn to create a 1/8-3/16" lateral loosness - lateral meaning in and out along the axis of the control arm. All the other are very strong. There must be a hell of a lot of force on those two bushings.

 

Are you talking about an arm failure or just the bushings?

Wich model of Aurora ends did you get for the IE arms?

 

Just a bushing failure and it is isolated to the inner lower control arm bushings. In particular, what I wrote above is not correct; the steel dowel or carrier for the bolt is fine. The poly has expanded around the dowel. The failure is in the poly material. Everything else from Ireland Engineering is fine...well except the old bushing that is frozen in one control arm, That kind of stuff happens.

Aurora rod ends - no teflon - other than that, I don't know about any tother type or model. The two bushes on each side of the spherical bearing float in the bearing. In other words, they will readily fall out...and this make the installation a hair trickier.

 

Ahhh......ok

Thanks meb.

Was hoping you had a size or part number for the rod ends you got.

What did the replacements cost you?

 

$190.00 with shipping.

Also, there is quite a big difference in feel. I made my morning commute and after 52 miles of driving on highways and back roads, the difference is very noticable. The poly bushings basically feel no different than stock - my opinion and I felt this from day one. The rod ends do not add harshness, but make every movement in the suspension very very precise - especially the springs and dampers. Basically, the spring rate and damping rate can be reduced. Over-all, a must have! I just don't know how long these will last as I put a tremendous amount of hard miles on this car every year. These will be removed before winter!!! But, Im sure these will make a lot more noise when they do wear out