I got some new tires today and found that the front lower control arm bushings are shot, one is completely missing and the other is hanging half out. How urgent is this to replace? :eek:

I am surprised that I did not notice anything in the feel of the steering and handling.

 

I am surprised that your car was not darting all over the road. Personally, I would change them immediatly. I would also think that the car would be out of alignment and would cause irregular wear on your new tires very quickly.

 

That is kind of what I was thinking. What surprises me is that the previous tires had 45000 miles on them with perfect wear all the way around.

 

Also is poly better for this application or rubber?

 

Define "better" :jester My personal opinion is that rubber is preferred unless you plan to autocross or race your car. Then again, I have resigned myself to this being the minority opinion here :D

 

I'm putting poly in just because it's better and I plan on having fun with it. I might start autocrossing too (if they every start it around here), but then people wouldn't be too happy when their Civics getting spanked by a 26 year old car.

 

I also like rubber. They don't last as long, but they don't squeak as much either.

 

My car started to dart on me about 1000 miles ago and that is when I found my bushings to be bad, so it seems to me that when the bushing rubber came loose that is when the car started to dart which is when the car came badly out of alignment. You caould of had a similiar situation and that ius why your tires wore so well.

I just installed poly and I was worried about the squeaking and so far I have not heard, but I also only have 30 miles on the new bushings. I went with poly for performance reasons and the fact that I did not want to change them again for along time.

A couple of things though make sure you use the silicone grease that comes with poly components and realize that they are more difficult to press in than the rubbers. Also, if you have your A arms powder coated make sure that you clean the coating out of the bushing holes or you will never get them installed. I learned this the hard way. I went to three different shops and nobody could install the bushings. Then I went home, used a high speed with a small sanding drum and cleaned up the holes. Went to the fourth shop and he put them in. He also charged me double what the other guys were going to charge me because I was stupid and told him what problems I was having. In all my frustration I did not ask him up front what it was going to cost me. So unfortunately I was stuck paying him $60 to install the 4 upper a arm bushiings. I installed new tubular a arms on the lowers that came with bushings installed. I amn starting to ramble do the fact that I am getting aggrivated at that shop all over again. Them bass turds.

 

I like poly. And they were much easier to install than rubber. I never had to use a press or torch on anything. I hogged out the old rubber from the outer shells using a $10 hole saw & pocketknife. Then cast the new outer shells aside from the new energy suspension poly assemblies. Used only the new poly bushing & new inner shell ... the assemblies push apart/together with finger-pressure. SOP ... use plenty of lube on assemblies ... and loctite on end-bolt threads. Works great ... no press, no stress, no risk of tweeking the control arms via press. BTW, if your old rubber is in really bad shape ... you may be able to get most/all of it out of old shells with only a pocketknife.

 

My upper control arm bushings had NO rubber left in them. Made terrible noises when I hit a bump. Also something up front was sqeaking like an old school bus. I live 120 miles from Van Steel and I had them install their Poly Kit. I also had the trailing arms done too,they were in bad shape as well.

Needless to say the car handles and tracks like it should and no more squeaks or terrible noises. It even coasts a lot farther and seems to roll easier. I'm looking into Autocrossing now too. :yesnod: