need info on replacing lower control arm bushings and ball joints

[knvs]

Well I brought my car in to have my poly bushings, and speedy camber arms installed today. The shop wasn't sure about teh bushings and told me that I need to replace the ball joints. I got the poly bushings off ebay, one bushing per side, adn the shop told me that I should have 2 per side. is that right? I mean the guy i got the bushings from said i only needed one per side. Do I need more then one or is one ok? also at teh same time I told them that I was getting some cluncking noise after I lowered my car. The shop said I needed to replace the ball joints on teh right side, bus said since I'm gonna have everything off when I do the bushings I should do the ball joints for both sides. The told me that labor would be around $400. Tehy didn't really say what parts I needed but said I should replace all ball joints, and tie rods. Does this sound right? The car has 80k on it right now, is it tome to replace all those parts? Man lowering my car is startign to add up. First the shocks and springs, install, teh camber arms, poly bushings, now ball joints, tires and alignment. Once everything is done I'll probably ahve spent close to $1500

[714guy]

where are you located?? i can help you out. Anyways i just did what your want to do yesterday, its not to bad if you're handy with a wrench.

Step 1: remove wheels and place the front on jacks.

Step 2: remove the break sensors and spped sensors so you dont hyperextend them.

Step 2.5: place jack under control arm and jack it up slightly so that the next few steps will be easier.

Step 3:Remove shock botls connected to the lower control arm, 17mm both sides.

Step 4: remove the 2 nuts holding the sway arm bracket, 13mm.

Step 5: lossen the Nut (22mm) holding the ball joint connected to the spindle. Now get a pretty big hammer and start pounding, it will break losse, small jabs & heavy hammers = lots of torque which is what you will need.

Step 6: YOU MUST HAVE THE JACK UNDER THE CONTROL ARM WHILE DOING THIS AND MAKE SURE ITS IN A SECURE PLACE. remove the control arm nust (22mm), once lossen remove the most rear bolt first then the one in the front. Slowly lower the jack the spring will fall down.

Step 7: Remove the ball joint nut and remove the control arm. This is kindy hard, just have to cleaverly try everyway possible, IT WILL COME OUT.

Step 8: Remover 22 mm Nut that holds the ball join to the control arm and hammer it out like you did previously.

Step 9: Get bushing pressed in.

Step 10: reinstall in reverse order.

Good luck

holla if you have any more questions

[knvs]

im in the bay area (SF) I don't have any tools to do it myself so I'm just probably just gonna have the shop do it. I just want to know if sounds legit or are they making me repair more then i need to. ALso I need to know what parts I need to replace (part #s and prices, and where to buy them.)

[714guy]

Originally posted by knvs
im in the bay area (SF) I don't have any tools to do it myself so I'm just probably just gonna have the shop do it. I just want to know if sounds legit or are they making me repair more then i need to. ALso I need to know what parts I need to replace (part #s and prices, and where to buy them.)

Contact Pnsji, he might be able to help. He showed me the ropes.

you can easily check eveything that they want you to replace, if the grease sack on the ball join is cracked then just replace it, they about about 50 a pop. The LCA bushings you can also see if they are cracked/broken just have to climb under your car.

[MrSpace]

don't forget step 2

I had to change both of my speed sensors because they were over stretched when I had my first drop done.

Now I do my drops myself

Etienne

[ryhi]

just got my bushings replaced.. its one per side... the other thing theyre talking about is 2 rubber end thingies.. haha i duno.. hard to explain but mine didnt need replacing but i had new ones so they did it anyways. i got my bushings replaced last week with alignment for $300 even

[estrellajon]

to be honest all the parts needed according to the mechanic sounds legit. Its the labor youre really paying for and costs more than the parts.

I recently lowered my car as well and found out, all of the above was needed and replaced it myself. Eibach Springs, Bilstein sport shocks, bushings, ball joint, tie rod ends cost me around $700.

714 steps is right on. In addition to re-install, make sure you torque the lower control arms essentric bolts when the car is on the ground. If the wheels are hanging, then torqued, the bushings will twist and not set properly and will damage the bushings. Let the car down, with its weight and let the bushings adjust itself then torque to 112 lbs.

Its really not that hard as long as you have the proper tools.

If you need factory lower control arm bushing kit, I have a brand new set, never opened for $30 for both sides.

[james webster`]

"just got my bushings replaced.. its one per side... the other thing theyre talking about is 2 rubber end thingies.. haha i duno.. hard to explain but mine didnt need replacing but i had new ones so they did it anyways. i got my bushings replaced last week with alignment "

Did it make any difference in your car's handling?

[benzonline]

Would also like to k now if and what difference does it make to the handling when changing the LCA bushings.

Mines going in on Friday!

[strictlyspeakin]

It's going to depend on how bad they were. @138k miles I did my front end and wow what a difference. But you have to keep in mind that this car wasn't really loved till I got it @135k.

So between the ball joints and the lower control arms, new shocks and drag link things were much tighter. The sloppiness in the steering and turns was quite noticable. I did the uppers also but they weren't in bad shape after I got them out.

If they were in such poor shape, it wouldn't have made as much of a difference.

[benzonline]

Got them done...yes more "sturdy" over bumps and such.

I have to call the shop back though because going over certain bumps, the right side makes a knock sound now!! What could this be?

[strictlyspeakin]

the shock reaching the top of its range or the spring not seated in its mount quite all the way.
obviously just guessing here...

[benzonline]

The bumps I was going on wouldnt max out the shock. Would the seating of the spring be changed or moved when doing a LCA bushing job?

[Proven Guilty]

i would just take it back, unless its a possibility that your shock is shot/leaking/leaked dry, and you're now noticing it with the new suspension parts

[benzonline]

if the shock is finished would it be bouncing like an old cadillac on that one side?

[strictlyspeakin]

Yes. To take the lower control arm off, you'd have to have the spring off its mount. I was thinking that if it wasn't quite sitting in the dedent (in the rubber mount) all the way it might make some noise.

Or another offhand thought...Do you get the popping noise if you turn the steering wheel all the way one direction?

[benzonline]

No popping noise that I know of just the occasional knock on a bump such as going over a pothole.

I will call the shop now at lunchtime.

[pmathews]

I've read several posts on this board and others, but wanted to provide some additional info. I just swapped these out over the weekend so here's some tips that will make the task MUCH easier:

1.) First off, BUY THE POLY BUSHINGS, they're a little more expensive ($45 a piece vs. $25) but they are totally worth the money. For one thing, the poly bushings are easy to push into place (no press required). The labor savings alone make this a 'no brainer'.

2.) You only need to replace the rear-most front LCA bushing on each side (there are 2 bushings at the bottom of each front LCA, one in the front and one that is 12" behind it (the rear one). Just to clarify, I'm not talking about the bushings in the rear suspension near the rear wheels, that's a completely different repair). My front-most bushings were fine, and I had 180k miles on them, but the rear ones were completely trashed.

3.) You don't have to remove the lower control arm, instead, use a spring compressor to relieve the tension on the arm, leave the ball joint, anti-roll bar, and shock connected, and just remove the front and rear LCA bushing bolts. This will allow you to drop the arm low enough to reach the bushings with plenty of clearance (about 6").

4.) I used an internal spring compressor, it worked great. You have holes at the top and bottom of your spring mount, so you can tighten from either side, but I would recommend the bottom. Also, you need a long socket extender (8"-10") since the compressor is located deep in the spring. This allows you to use a ratchet below the bottom spring hole. I've learned this the hard way, in the past, I've used a wrench between the tiny spaces in spring coils, and that's pure torture, don't do it.

5.) You will need a 22mm deep socket. The nut is kinda soft and will round easily. Unfortunately, the 22mm socket cost me $7, but luckily that was the only expensive part of the job.

6.) Once you have lowered the arm, inspect the rear-most bushing, you should see a big gap on either side between the rubber and the metal bushing casing. You should be able to slide a hacksaw blade into the gap and gently cut the metal casing from the inside out. Disconnect from your saw handle and invert the blade from the saw handle and reconnect to the handle after threading it thru.

7.) Carefully cut the metal casing from the inside diameter of the bushing casing to the outside diameter of the bushing casing that touches the arm hole, don't cut the metal in the arm hole. This will take a lot of patience, but it will work. Some minor cutting of the arm hole should be okay, but if you cut too much, you can ruin the integrity of the arm.

8.) Once you have cut most of the way thru the metal, use a screw driver to pry the edge of the cut. This will raise the cutting surface away from the arm and allow you to cut more agressively. At some point, you will cut thru and you can pry the metal casing completely inward on one side of the cut (into to the air gap between the bolt sleeve and the casing. Once this is accomplished, it will reduce the diameter of the casing and allow you to gently hammer this out of the arm hole. No press required. It was super easy.

9.) This is the simple part, grease the poly bushing and slide it in. Took 2 minutes. If you selected the non-poly bushings, good luck (haha).

10.) One complication, the metal sleeves in the center of my poly bushings were a little too long, so I had to use a grinder to shorten them and bevel the inside diameter. FYI, the LCA bolt has a beveled neck that fits into this metal sleeve. If you don't do this, you will notice that the LCA bolt will not seat properly on the Torx side (the head of the bolt). Took about 15 minutes of grinding.

10.) Tighten the bolts, nuts, etc... finger tight. Tighten with a wrench after you've dropped the car to the ground and bounced it on the hood a couple of times.

Total time spent - Right side: 6 hours, Left side: 1 hour (after discovering the hack saw trick).

Total cost: $97 -> Poly bushings ($90), special 22mm socket ($7)

FYI, this will only work if your old bushings have a gap inside the casing. If you have newer bushings, then you may find too much rubber in these air gaps, mine were so deteriorated, that I had plenty of room. Either way, it's worth dropping the arm to take a look. Could save you a lot of time and money.

Hope this helps.... Paul

[strictlyspeakin]

Very nice write up. I'm sure this will help others as a valuable reference tool.

[kowalski]

Originally posted by knvs
Well I brought my car in to have my poly bushings, and speedy camber arms installed today. The shop wasn't sure about teh bushings and told me that I need to replace the ball joints. I got the poly bushings off ebay, one bushing per side, adn the shop told me that I should have 2 per side. is that right? I mean the guy i got the bushings from said i only needed one per side. Do I need more then one or is one ok? also at teh same time I told them that I was getting some cluncking noise after I lowered my car. The shop said I needed to replace the ball joints on teh right side, bus said since I'm gonna have everything off when I do the bushings I should do the ball joints for both sides. The told me that labor would be around $400. Tehy didn't really say what parts I needed but said I should replace all ball joints, and tie rods. Does this sound right? The car has 80k on it right now, is it tome to replace all those parts? Man lowering my car is startign to add up. First the shocks and springs, install, teh camber arms, poly bushings, now ball joints, tires and alignment. Once everything is done I'll probably ahve spent close to $1500

Hey Mr. did you only source the Rear Poly LCA bushing for the front axle or did you get a complete set up of ploly bushings, if so is the case where did you buy the rest?
The rear LCA poly bushing I bought it from LPD Autoparts, where can I buy the rest of bushings=?
Thanks for sharing info.
cheers

[pmathews]

Mine were the front bushings, but maybe you can get more from the same vendor -> FCP Groton.

http://myworld.ebay.com/foreigncarpartsonline

[kowalski]

Originally posted by pmathews
Mine were the front bushings, but maybe you can get more from the same vendor -> FCP Groton.

http://myworld.ebay.com/foreigncarpartsonline

they are difficult to find, where should I look for them?
I wrote poly bushings for c43 amg= nothing (NADA)
on search on ebay.
please help me where to look for them.
thanks