Front LCA bushings

[swilli41]

An FYI to keep your eye on. It seems the front lower control arm bushings are prone to go bad just like the window motors. Both fronts were gone on my wifes cars before 60K. The mechanic who fixed them told me he had just fixed a Grand Am with less than 25K. He was able to get just the bushing kit instead of a new LCA to help save us some cash. He found this problem while replacing the slave cylinder, which is inside the tranny. The dealer wanted $1100.00 to replace that, $1500.00 if I wanted a new clutch. I found two places that would do the R & R for $400.00 plus the cost of the slave cylinder ($160.00).

[DumpsterDamon]

hey man don't mean to be off topic but i see you're in belleville, mi. a whole bunch of us GA folk are crusing downtown plymouth tomorrow. we're meeting up at the k-mart at ann arbor and haggerty at 9pm and you're welcome to join us.

[swilli41]

We'll see. Still putting the GA back together. Thanks for the invite.

[jeffescortlx]

I had to replace the driver side at 70k, now at 120k the passengers side is seperated. It's so bad there's enough room to fit a pencil in there. I had Tires Plus do the drivers side, it was only a couple hunderd bucks and that side still looks new.

I'd like to save some money and do it my self, do I need any special press tools or any thing?

[AaronGTR]

Originally posted by jeffescortlx
I had to replace the driver side at 70k, now at 120k the passengers side is seperated. It's so bad there's enough room to fit a pencil in there. I had Tires Plus do the drivers side, it was only a couple hundred bucks and that side still looks new.

I'd like to save some money and do it my self, do I need any special press tools or any thing?

You can't do this operation at home. If you don't replace the entire suspension arm, you'll need a hydraulic press to press out the bushings. You also need a ball fork to seperate the control arm from the steering knuckle. Better just let a shop do it.

This really isn't that common a problem on Grand Am's. There are many cars with that many miles that the bushings are fine on, however the bushings are like any other moving part on the car. They can wear out, and will eventually. How fast depends on what kind of roads you usually drive on.

If you want bushings that won't wear out, RSM racing makes a polyurethane bushing kit for the entire car. They are much stiffer however, so you will feel more road bumps, and they do squeek occasionally. They're more expensive too. Most people don't want that, so you'd be better off just getting new OEM rubber bushings. They should last until you're ready to get another car.

[jeffescortlx]

Originally posted by AaronGTR
You can't do this operation at home. If you don't replace the entire suspension arm, you'll need a hydraulic press to press out the bushings. You also need a ball fork to seperate the control arm from the steering knuckle. Better just let a shop do it.

Thanks for the info.

It look's like the old bushing is so shot it will fall out on it's own, if not I'm sure I could find a way to cut or grind it out of the arm. I was looking though my Chiltons and it looks as if I can just unbolt the lower ball joint section from the arm and leave every thing else mounted on the car, is that ture?

So than I would just need a way to press the new bushing in correct?

I have a spare car, so if somthing goes wrong I can get by. I'm thinking if I can at least remove the arm and than take that with the new bushing to a shop I can save my self just that much more money for the labor.??

Do you think a person could pull that off?

Thanks again

[NorKoastal]

Originally posted by swilli41
An FYI to keep your eye on. It seems the front lower control arm bushings are prone to go bad just like the window motors. Both fronts were gone on my wifes cars before 60K. The mechanic who fixed them told me he had just fixed a Grand Am with less than 25K. He was able to get just the bushing kit instead of a new LCA to help save us some cash. He found this problem while replacing the slave cylinder, which is inside the tranny. The dealer wanted $1100.00 to replace that, $1500.00 if I wanted a new clutch. I found two places that would do the R & R for $400.00 plus the cost of the slave cylinder ($160.00).

If I were to get a swy bar on the front and rear I would want to replace these anyways right?????? With the Poly's......

[AaronGTR]

Originally posted by NorKoastal
If I were to get a swy bar on the front and rear I would want to replace these anyways right?????? With the Poly's......

Not really. They aren't related. The sway bar has it's own polyurethane bushings for the sway bar brackets. You don't have to touch the control arm bushings to change the sway bars. If you're looking for performance you can go with the polyurethane control arm bushings. Their purpose is to reduce movement of the control arms at their pivot points, thereby taking flex out of the suspension so that the sway bars/springs/struts/etc. can do their job better and keep your alignment settings true.



jeffescortlx, to answer your question, yes you could remove the suspension arms yourself and take it in to get the new bushings installed. You still need the right tools to do it though, which most people don't, and the know how. Even once they're off you might not be able to get the old bushings out yourself. They are practically bonded to the control arm. The shop that replaced mine had to melt the rubber with a propane torch in the end to get all of it out.:rolleyes: Basically this is major suspension work we're talking about here. Better of saving yourself a headache and just letting someone else do it.

[jeffescortlx]

Originally posted by AaronGTR

jeffescortlx, to answer your question, yes you could remove the suspension arms yourself and take it in to get the new bushings installed. You still need the right tools to do it though, which most people don't, and the know how. Even once they're off you might not be able to get the old bushings out yourself. They are practically bonded to the control arm. The shop that replaced mine had to melt the rubber with a propane torch in the end to get all of it out.:rolleyes: Basically this is major suspension work we're talking about here. Better of saving yourself a headache and just letting someone else do it.
Well I went ahead and did it my self, and I'm glad I did because it was'nt really that hard.
I just had to drill out the 3 ball joint to control arm rivit's. Unbolt the control arm. The old bushing (rubber insert) was soo shot it fell out soon as I removed the arm. Than to remove the pressed in ring that was once part of the bushing, I just took my jig saw and made two slit's in it, cut just deep enough to cut the ring but not the arm. Than once it was slit there was no more pressed in pressure holding it in place, just some rust. I just tapped out the bushing ring with a couple hit's from a hammer. Than to install the new bushing I just used a large bench top vice. I used a coupler/spacer to fit the new bushing into to than used the vice to push it in. Than bolted the control arm back in with bolts to replace the rivit's and it's back on the road. No more clunking! yeah!
Total cost was about $17.00:thumbs:

[AaronGTR]

Mine would have been nearly impossible to do since my bushings weren't falling out on their own.;) Please tell me you didn't cut thru that ring that goes around the bushing though? That would be bad.

[jeffescortlx]

Originally posted by AaronGTR
Mine would have been nearly impossible to do since my bushings weren't falling out on their own.;) Please tell me you didn't cut thru that ring that goes around the bushing though? That would be bad.
Yes I did cut the ring, the old ring that was once part of the old bushing. The control arm it's self was not cut in any way.