Hi Guys,

One more post about issues with my wife's 05 MCS with 70k miles, this time regarding the front suspension. Symptoms: occasional clunk heard and felt when steering tightly in a parking lot situation; steering pulls left or right depending on whether on or off the gas, mainly at hiway speeds. We've not had the car too long, but I have a receipt from the PO showing new CAB's at 40k miles.

Under the car working with big pliers and a prybar, I can't produce any play in the balljoints at the front of the a-arms, but I can get considerable play in the bushings (CAB) at the back of the arms. The rubber in the bushings is not totally gone but looks old and cracked. What gives? Why do these need to be replaced every 30 to 40k? Are the polyurethane ones better? Do they make the ride harsher (which is already kinda harsh)? Do they squeak like some urethane bushings? Is there a better replacement rubber bushing out there?

What about the clunk - since the bushings aren't totally gone, I'm having a hard time imagining that they are clunking. This seems more like it would be the ball joints, or the wheel ball joints or tie rod ends, or something, but I can't find any play in any of them. Can bad CAB's make a clunk like I describe?

Again, I'm looking in the archives, but if anybody has any input they are itching to share, or links to great threads on this, I'd love to hear it.

thanks, Jeremy

 

After driving around with lubed urethane bushings for 5K miles, I can tell you that they squeak & transfer more NVH which causes your dash to rattle/squeak more. This has always been my experience with urethane bushings but after hearing everyone on the Web say how great they are, I wasted hours of my time to make my car worse than stock.

I've been thinking about trying these solid rubber HD versions but may go with OEM oil-filled versions because they isolate road noise so much better...

http://www.carpartsdiscount.com/cont...html?3594=2512

 

Thanks BA. Did you install the Powerflex?

That's what I was afraid of. I replaced a bunch of worn bushings in my 95 Camry (exciting!) with urethane. That car is soft and compliant enough that I like the extra firmness, although they tend to start squeaking a bit after a while which I don't like. But the MCS with 17" wheels, as you know, is darn stiff to begin with and I'm not really looking to make it stiffer!

Anybody else?

 

Bump

Recommendations for longer-lasting control arm bushings other than polyurethane?

Can worn, but not totally shot, CAB's produce an occasional clunk?

 

After bouncing back and forth on this, and evaluating what a bummer of a job it is to replace the CAB's, I decided to to with Powerflex urethane bushings. They are such a pain to get out, and I don't like how quickly the stock bushings cause problems. Mine were replaced by the PO at 40k, and I just did them again at 70k. They weren't leaking oil, but were loose enough to cause the car to pull back and forth when getting on and off the gas.

So far, they're Grrrreat (to quote Tony the Tiger). Neither my wife (it's her car) nor I notice the increased bushing stiffness in terms of harshness or any other negative way. We DO notice that the steering is more precise, the torque-steer is gone, and the car feels more stable in turns - WIN! The jury is out on whether they will start squeaking and/or binding.

As for the replacement process, what a PAIN! First, I tried to shortcut the process like these people:
They make it look so easy. I have a big torch. I have an air hammer. I have a lot of garage experience. But this didn't work for me like it did for them. Heating up the housing did, however cause the oil-filled bushing to explode, thankfully away from my position, but making a big mess. And the air hammer just mangled up the bushing rather than moving it.

So I went with plan B: This worked...a little messy with metal cuttings and oil, but not bad.

Neither of these videos showed how to disengage the inner balljoint (outer balljoint is easy to unbolt the flange). So I went to this video, look at about 9:30:
That didn't work for me to release the ball joint taper. Beat the crap out of it, no joy. My balljoints were good, so I didn't want to use the pickle fork, and I also didn't want to drop the sub frame. Looking back, it would have been faster to drop the subframe since the shortcuts were fairly unsuccessful. At any rate, I had the motor raised to install a pulley (and raising the motor is very easy), and dropped the back end of the subframe a few inches. This allowed me to access the top-mounted flange bolts for the ball joints and remove them. Not easily. I have a dumb question: WHO DECIDED THAT THOSE BOLTS SHOULD GO IN FROM THE TOP??? If they simply went up from the bottom, the job would have been EASY! Arrrggghhh.

So that's my story. I'm pleased with the results.