lend me your car for 6-8 months and i'll fix and test them out

 

I'm going to take that as a compliment to my car, thanks.

 

inductive heat is your friend when it comes to the pivot rod bushings. the heat has them melting & coming out like "the snake" fireworks from my childhood. comes apart in "five", thats "5 minutes" of applied heat! snap-on tool or check on-line...works great on rusted/corroded bolts, exhaust ...many uses.

 

you might aswell replace the LCA for that exact reason, people will tell you that you can replace just the bushings and ball joints, which is true, but the cost for the new bushings, ball joint and the actual pressing them in and out will cost you more than just buying a whole new LCA.... I hear OEM LCAs go for like $250-$350 each from the dealer....I got mine from FCP here on the group dealers and no problems so far, but its up to you....

 

oh BTW, that creeking sound, if its not your axle, might be your sway bar end-links. I had the same problem on turns and speed bumps. I replaced those before I replaced my LCAs (just cause I received them a week before the LCAs) and the sound went away. Easy replacement too....

 

I was going to buy LCA's off of rockauto before I talked to a few of my friends. I have a slow PS leak and RMS oil leak, that's what ate the bushings. I don't plan on fixing either leak anytime soon because it is really slow. The leak will eat my new bushings pretty quick. So, I thought to myself. Ok, I will buy new LCA's and get ES urethane bushings pressed in as urethane holds up signicantly better against oil and has an added performance benefit. Then, I thought my ball joints on a lowered car go out faster than the average maxima owner. If I buy ball joints locally with a Lifetime warranty, I can swap them out whenever need be.


At this point, I'm strongly leaning towards rebuilding my current LCA with ES bushings, local part stores ball joints/sway bar bushings. Going to a shop of course to get them pressed in.

Or, buy 2 cheap OEM used LCA's (aackshun going to hook it up). Get the ES bushings pressed in whenever I can. And just swap LCA's and be done with it. My car is my DD so I cannot have it down for more than a day.

I might replace them Sunday for the hell of it. They are cheap , so why not.

 

had mine replaced today because i changed the struts and it needed to be aligned, but now i hear a thump when i move the steering left or right