gutmoburb
27-02-05, 12:49 PM
Unbelievable what a difference this upgrade made in my 2000 9-3 SE. With the help of my friend, I replaced all 6 control arm bushings in the front suspension this weekend. To my surprise, two of the bushings were in seriously bad repair, and one was completely destroyed (despite many saying that at 60000 miles, the bushes should be fine). In fact, it no longer had any hydraulic fluid... I must have basically been driving around for the past year with nothing more than a couple mm of rubber connecting the two control arms.
Driving is much more presice now. My major complaint of excessive play and road feeback are now gone (I had already done the steering rack brace). At highway speeds, the car is much more steady... a high speed lane change is much more confident. It also seems to have produced a smoother ride in my case... perhaps transferring shock from the road to the struts more directly than before.
It took me and my friend 9 hours, which granted is a lot of time, but I must say it really wasn't that hard. There were a few challenges here and there, but nothing that couldn't be done for sure. We did construct an ad hoc bushing press out of some threaded rod, nuts, washers, and some 3/4" tube steel which worked just fine. Pounding out the metal sleeves that were left after the rubber bushes were removed was perhaps the most difficult... but nothing a few rounds with a hacksaw and a cold chisel couldn't take care of. Fitting the new bushes was absurdly easy. Oh, and we found a handy trick for removing the ball joint. We didn't want to mangle the boot by using a pickle fork, so we actually managed to pop it out by wedging that same cold chisel to one side and hammering it through. Piece of cake! In the end, I am sure I would have screwed this up however had I not had help. There were so many times that having two people made life so much easier.
I must give props to Brad at KCSaab for his help in getting me the bushings and for spending the time to walk me through the install before I bought them. I also wanted to thank Chris at MP performance for successfully diagnosing my problem and pointing me in the right direction for finding the bushings. Both couldn't have been nicer. And of course I must give props to my friend for blowing a whole day during his weekend to help!
Cheers!
Driving is much more presice now. My major complaint of excessive play and road feeback are now gone (I had already done the steering rack brace). At highway speeds, the car is much more steady... a high speed lane change is much more confident. It also seems to have produced a smoother ride in my case... perhaps transferring shock from the road to the struts more directly than before.
It took me and my friend 9 hours, which granted is a lot of time, but I must say it really wasn't that hard. There were a few challenges here and there, but nothing that couldn't be done for sure. We did construct an ad hoc bushing press out of some threaded rod, nuts, washers, and some 3/4" tube steel which worked just fine. Pounding out the metal sleeves that were left after the rubber bushes were removed was perhaps the most difficult... but nothing a few rounds with a hacksaw and a cold chisel couldn't take care of. Fitting the new bushes was absurdly easy. Oh, and we found a handy trick for removing the ball joint. We didn't want to mangle the boot by using a pickle fork, so we actually managed to pop it out by wedging that same cold chisel to one side and hammering it through. Piece of cake! In the end, I am sure I would have screwed this up however had I not had help. There were so many times that having two people made life so much easier.
I must give props to Brad at KCSaab for his help in getting me the bushings and for spending the time to walk me through the install before I bought them. I also wanted to thank Chris at MP performance for successfully diagnosing my problem and pointing me in the right direction for finding the bushings. Both couldn't have been nicer. And of course I must give props to my friend for blowing a whole day during his weekend to help!
Cheers!