Had alignment done at dealer after switching out the tie rods. They told me my control arm bushings on both sides were completely shot and needed replacement. They quoted me about 800 and said they would throw in another alignment for free after replacing the bushings. (Do you even need to adjust the alignment after replacing control arm bushings??) I declined.

I jacked up the car at home and inspected the bushings. I honestly don't know how they are supposed to look, but the rubber looks ok to me. You can even see the "Mini" insignia still present on the rubber. These are pics from the front and back of the driver bushing. Am I missing something? Do these bushings look shot?

 

Your dealer had a good thought.
Best to heed his comments.
Price wise, you may try shopping around, but I wouldn't put an expensive set of tires on it right now..!

Mike

 

Thanks for the reply. What's wrong with them?

Here's a pic of the new OEM Mini bushings. They don't look that different to me, but again, I don't know how it is supposed to look on the car.

 

If you look closely at the bushings, you can see that they are not centered in the housing like the new ones are. Rubber does get “tired” as it ages, and can no longer perform its duties of keeping the control arm located in the right spot.

I don’t think I would pay $800 for replacing them, but it does look like your car would benefit from replacement. Take some time at home, get more familiar with your car, and change them out yourself. Get some poly replacement, too.

 

Best way to tell is to look at the odometer.
If it says more than 40K, they're probably shot.
Actually, I usually kick the front of the tire and see how much it moves
back and forth (should be minimal, there are some videos that demonstrate
this if you search), or try to rock the tire/wheel fore and aft while feeling
the play at the back rod of the control arm where it comes out of the bushing.
Can also jack it up and use a pry bar to see how much it moves around.
Never ever replace with OEM bushings unless you want to do it again in
another few years.
The Powerflex control arm bushings last virtually forever and locate the wheel better,
and do not cause a noticeable increase in NVH (noise/vibration/harshness)
compared to stock.

 

Agree with everything Cristo said above. At this point, if you own a gen 1 car and they are the original bushings, it is a very high probability that they are shot. As he said, kick each tire from the front edge.....if the wheel “wobbles” or moves any amount, the bushings are toast.....as demonstrated here....


I’ve replaced bushings with power flex on two different cars now using two different methods....first car I pulled the control arms, cut the bushings out, and pressed the new in myself. On my current car, I dropped the subframe and installed pre-pressed bushings in new brackets. The job is doable but kinda sucks no matter which way you do it......unless you just love to wrench, pay someone to do the work. $800 sounds a bit steep.....shop around. An independent shop would probably be more in the neighborhood of $500 (not sure if they would charge for alignment on top of that). If you enjoy working on your own cars, do them yourself for around $100 total.....not necessarily difficult, just a bit time consuming with a bit of prying involved.

 

My stealer wanted to charge me $1100 to replace the bushings, so I did it myself. I would recommend that when you change them, replace them with POLY bushings and also change the inner ball joints.

 

It may look centered but the inner rubber diaphragm can deteriorate completely. Here was mine - looked fine and centered until I jacked it up and flexed the arm. Yikes.

Absolutely agree, do poly replacements and ball joints if you can while you're down there.

 

Thanks for the replies. What's the verdict on an alignment post bushing replacement?

 

How many miles on the car and what year? Gen1s are all pushing at least 10 years and in that time rubber does deteriorate. At 50,000 miles the struts are toast and the bushings are right there with them.

 

 

Nope, that was fully assembled on jack stands. I'm sitting under the car just shaking the wheel back and forth. The rubber connecting the inner/outer races of the bushing were complete mush.

 

the best fix for the bushing are power flex bushingshttps://www.waymotorworks.com/powerflex-front-control-arm-polyurethane-bushing-kit.html
you might try and find a good specialty shop.
or if you feel up to it mod mini has a video on how to do it
​​​​​​

 

Yes with the rubber not centered they are worn out. Pretty much any MINI with 40k+ miles and stock bushings is worn out. the videos shows the bushings move or kicking the tires are good ways to show them worn out.
But when you do replace make sure you do replace them with the powerflex bushings as they will never wear out again. Plus will feel like the car is brand new.
https://www.waymotorworks.com/powerf...shing-kit.html

 

 

 

 

We offer the Powerflex in New brackets already pressed so you can just install and go
https://www.waymotorworks.com/powerf...ckets-new.html

We also offer a core service that we press new powerflex bushings into used brackets ship them to you and let you send your used brackets back for core return.
https://www.waymotorworks.com/powerf...shing-kit.html

We do sell the stock bushings in brackets, but they cost more and won't last so we never recommend them. The powerflex never wear out again.