I've begun offering yet another service to the 3rd gen community, aside from my expertise in door lock timers, clocks, etc..

Control Arm Bushing Replacement!!

Those of you that don't have the tools to press the bushings out can now get new bushings without having to buy complete new control arms!

I've invested in a set of cores, and what I will do is:

You send me the money for new bushings ($58).. You also send me the payment for the service ($40 for my labor), and a core charge for the control arms ($100, since that's what this set cost me at the parts yard.) You also send me the money for freight (about $30, but will depend on your distance from Houston, TX.)

So you send me approx $230 up front.

I will then I send you a set of control arms with new bushings that you install on your time (preferably quickly, so that I don't have 15 people waiting in line)

When you get around to replacing the control arms on your car, you box your old arms up and ship your old ones back to me.

When I receive your old ones in useable condition (i.e. not bent or severely rusted), I return your $100 core charge. and send the next "customer" your arms with new bushings.


I know the price is steep with the core charge involved, but it's my way of protecting my investment. assume someone doesn't send the cores back and they didn't pay for another set... that puts me out about $50 straight out of my pocket since I had to pay for the cores, new bushings, AND shipping out of $130.

If anyone is interested, shoot me an email and we'll talk. Matt93SE@sbcglobal.net

 

Funny that everyone complains about worn bushings, yet when someone else provides a way to fix them for cheap, nobody seems to have a problem anymore...

 

that's like that with everything..what makes u special?
everyone complains that there's not enough mods for the car..then once it's out everyone hides.

 

Maybe you should do a small write up on how people can check if they are bad or not Matt. Might get more customers if they know what's wrong.

 

true, but I've been up for 36 hours straight working on a Sr. Design project for school... then it's finals week next weekend.. I'll do a writeup after I catch up on sleep.

BTW.. I've already done a few sets of these, and everyone has responded with positive results.

 

yes, much needed...cause i dont know what u r fixing....damn my newbie knowledge

 

I'll take a set....well sometime in January...to many holidays and birthdays in the next monthand a half ....

 

Now that I finally have a few minutes of time to punch this out... How do you know if your control arm bushings are bad?

here's a few signs:
1. the car "wanders" really bad on the highway, or over any uneven pavement, even when you're holding the steering wheel still.

2. the car likes to pull different directions and do weird stuff when you go over roads with ruts in them (worn asphalt type stuff).

3. when turning into a corner, the car first turns normal for a few seconds, then suddenly lurches farther toward the direction you're turning.

4. if you can grab the wheel and pull it away from the car and see the control arm moving. the bushings are stiff enough that this shouldn't be happenin.

5. Severe front tire wear, even though the alignment shop says everything is fine. I was going through a 40k mile set of tires in 8k miles. Admittedly, a lot of that is driving habit, but when you can drive 500 miles in a weekend and visibly see more tire wear, then you know you've got a problem.

6. Bump steer. not supposed to happen with out suspension, but it was when the bushings were completely gone- right before I replaced them. Especially evident on lowered cars.

7. The alignment shop just can't get things right. they'll tweak it one way, then drive it.. still pulls.. so they tweak it a bit the other way, even though all of the machines say the suspension is aligned. neato stuff.


Anyway, those are a few of the basic signs of worn bushings. some of it is due to lowered suspensions, wide tires, and other non-bushing related issues, but my car had horrible wandering problems on the highway, even with all of my suspension mods... finally I gave it up and replaced them, and the wandering is GONE! It's also rock solid over bumps. something else that didn't happen as much before.

 

Also for peopl living in the northern states that get snow, if you are unable to drive the car more than 50mph without seeing the risk of getting the car out of control and it wanders all over then ......

 

Now that you just wrote that "how do you know if they are bad" I now know what my problem is. I definelty will be doing this within the next two months. Thanks Matt



always wanted to do that

 

Also if you get a constant vibration in the steering wheel that wheel balancing or alignment doesn't cure, it's probably one of your control arm bushings.

 

Sometimes, but I've found it's usually a problem caused by replacing axles... I spent close to $1000 replacing front end parts trying to fix a vibration, then when I finally changed a CV boot, the vibration went away. I pull the axle out, flipped it a 1/2 turn, and the vibes came back. (so obvisouly I pulled it out and flipped it back over!)

 

*bump*

don't miss out.. the list is beginning to grow...

you think your car's handling sucks? replace the bushings and you'll see what kind of a difference it can make!

 

Matt,

If your still doing this in the new year, I'm very interested. How hard is it to replace the control arm. (how long)1hr 2hr day?
Would do it sooner but Christmas is kick my SHIFT_FUNDS.

Excellent Idea! I've just made you Knight!

Later,

C.J.

 

Matt,

Would you just Ship the bushings out by themselves?

 

Matt,

I'll have to check my bushings, I just bought the car Friday night and already have my plate full. But how much would it run me if I need them, I'm here in Tulsa and could probably meet up with you for the job. I might need some help down the line anyway.

 

maxipriest, I'll keep the extra set around for a while, so whenever you're ready, shoot me an email and we'll work out details.

MathMax... I buy the bushings from Nissan, and so can you.
the front bushings are from a 2nd Gen Max, and the rears are the regular 3rd gen ones. usually special order parts on both though. courtesy keeps a few in stock.


GJohnson, knock off the core charge and the shipping charges, but if you want me to to the job, I'll have to add a bit of labor back into it. email me at blehm@utulsa.edu and we can set up a time to do it. all you'll need are the new bushings, as we can just pull the arms off your car and change the bushings right then.. I'm going to be out of town every weekend until after the new year, but if you want to do it one morning (or late at night- I get off work about 11pm), then let me know and we can set something up.

 

AAAHHHHH Man I wish I would have read this post sooner, I just got my control arm replaced (driver side) It was $220 including labor. I really wanted the Polyurethane Bushings though. NNNNNNNNNoooooo one around here wanted to bother with them, without asking a arm and a legg. So I just replaced it. I was geting ALL the symptoms you talked about.

 

these aren't poly bushings though.. they're OE replacements, but they'll last another 100,000 miles.

the front suspension on our cars really won't benefit from urethane bushings, but the rear definitely will. I've got some friends working with Energy Suspension on the rear end stuff now.

 

Matt,

So what are the differences between the front 3rd and 2nd bushings?

 

Call a Nissan dealer and try to buy some 3-gen bushings only

 

Sorry I ment the differnce between the 3rd and 2nd gen maxima bushings?

 

What about rear control arm bushings? I need some bad. I can press and do everything I just need bushings. thanks

 

Call courtesy Nissan

www.courtesyparts.com

 

Hey Matt can you quickly describe the process of changing bushings without getting into too much detail. I would just like to know things like How long is the job for the average joe smo with little to medium car knowledge? When is the best time to change the bushings such as while changing struts and springs? Thanks in advance
Kevin

 

where can you get poly bushings. I know you can't buy oem bushings alone for the 3rd gen. are the poly for the 2nd gen?

 

I didn't think they had anything for poly before 4th gen...i could be wrong though. What is the susp set up for 2nd gen anyways? same as ours?

 

2nd gen is extremely similar to ours, but since the body style is different, the parts are slightly different. the bushings are the same, simply because we were lucky they didn't change the control arm that much.


there are not poly bushings for the 2nd or 3rd gen at all. if you look at the front bushing for our car, you'll see a poly bushing really won't do much good. there's more metal there than rubber. (the rubber is about 1/8" thick, between two metal bushings)


as for changing the arms, it's not really that difficult. when I first started sending out the kit, it required you to remove the front bushing from the gusset on the car. that's proven to be a pain for many people, as the bushings are frozen on. Now I'm sending the control arm assembled onto the gusset, so that the bolts you have to remove are the three 17mm ones under the ball joint (at the front of the control arm), the 2 large bolts holding the rear bushing on, and the 3 22mm bolts holding the gusset on.
for a first-timer, it will take a couple of hours. I can do it in under 30 min from start to finish with air tools.


You WILL NEED AN ALIGNMENT afterwards!! Many people don't know why their car doesn't drive straight afterwards, and it's because you changed the single most important part of the suspension! if that control arm is 1/16" different from your old one (which it will be much more if your bushings are worn), then there can be a couple of degrees of misalignment there.. That'll cause the car to have all kinds of funky wandering problems and severe tire wear.

Doing this mod isn't like installing new springs and struts where you have to drive on them for a few weeks before you get it aligned.. as soon as you bolt the new control arms on, you an drive to the alignment place and have the car aligned. this isn't absolutely necessary, but highly recommended if your old bushings were extremely worn.

Any other questions?

 

yes is there any remote way i can come over to where you're at so you could help me change them out as well as check out my remote start? I dont mind the drive, thing is i'd like to get the alignment done after the install. Of course it will not be for free (meaning you pay me for working on my car j/k )

let me know...i'm in ks btw, and i believe you're in ok.

 

sure.. won't be a problem. I'm in Tulsa.. pretty much any weekend you want to drive down here, I can work on the car. weekdays are out, as I go to school and work 2 jobs- I leave the house at 8am and get home at 10pm (on a good night)

I shoudl have some basic alignment equipment in the next couple days, so that I can line them up good enough to drive home on and get a good shop to align it. problem is that I work on my suspension so much trying new things that I'd spend a FORTUNE in alignment charges... so I'm just having some equipment built so that I can do it myself before auto X days and after I dink with the suspension.

 

sweet i'm going to see what day i can come down (definitely a weekend) that's also around my gf's schedule. Might have to be a sunday though but we'll see. Meantime, let's aim for the 26th of this month. Thanks for the help matt.

 

sounds good.. I've got you written in the calendar for the 26ths.. lemme know if that changes.

 

what's the difference between the bushings and the ball joints? when i brought my car in for an alignment, they showed me the bad ball joints.

 

Matt, wanted to mention that I'm interested. But first I have to bring the money in. I'm working on a catalog design right now that a company is going to purchase for around $600, so that money is going to go to fixing the suspension. I'd love to replace the bushing when I replace the axles. So I'll let you know when I'm ready.
-Les

 

Matt,
I got a price quote from the dealer for the lower contol arm bushings to be replaced for around $260 does this sound like a good price?? Thanks

 

that's a great price for the labor included... that's IF they'll actually replace them. there's not many dealers that will mess with this job.

 

What bushings are you swapping out in this(transverse link bushing, Radial Rod bushings, parallel Link bushings)? I'm probably going to take you up on your offer if you still are doing this. I just want to make sure that my parts are in good condition before taking you up on it...

 

A PM would have been morre appropriate than dredging up an old thread

 

FRONT LOWER CONTROL ARM BUSHINGS.

and yes...a PM would've been nice instead of digging up this old **** thread.

 

Sorry about this, I followed another thread to this thread and didn't realize how old it was. I'll PM him...