Was under the car today, and noticed something odd....on the lower control arm, the bushing on both sides had worked its way out partly, and was actually farther back, around the front of the bush pin link...WTF?? I'm not sure why this happened (on both left and right sides)...the control arm bolt is tight (holding on the Lower tie bar also).

keep in mind the metal tube in the middle hasn't moved, just the bushing itself, as you can see here.

1. The only way I can think of to hold it in there is using a thin washer - but that might mess up the caster of the wheel a bit.

2. to get the bushings into the LCA, IIRC I used a bit of lithium grease. COuld this somehow cause the problem? As you can see, there is no more grease on the bushing since it's come out most of the way.

3. The front bushing (far left of pic) is still in place, so there's no metal-to-metal rubbing or anything.

Has any of you had this problem, or have any thoughts as to its cause/solution?

in this pic, the red thing is the control arm (painted because it was rusty, red was handy). The lighter red thing on the far left is the lower tie bar. The bolts are the bush pin bolts..



it should look like THIS (I pushed this one back in and used a ghetto shim to secure it temporarily until I can find the right size washers

 

crap...looks like there IS supposed to be some sort of washer there. WhyTF didn't my bushings come with one grrr...

courtesy of Honda Etr...

 

i was playing with a washer earlier about that size...its on your coffee table

 

yeah, that was one of the ones I had just dremeled out Happy you didn't pocket it or anything, I woudl have been looking all over for it.

 

jason, btw send me your home email again (seem to have lost it) and I'll send you that sig pic you wanted.

 

And Josh since you've already started whoring your own thread....

I'm gonna hit you up this week for my caliper bolt, some of your 50 gallons of brake fluid, and some of your black caliper paint.

Kthxbye.

 

i did my laundry last nite, and it was dry this morning.

 

its in my profile - jttaylor155@yahoo.com

 

my girl did my laundry last night, it was clean, dry, AND folded this morning

 

Josh, repair that immediately. I lost a front washer a while back and had all sorts of trouble. Yes there's supposed to be washers on both front and back to keep it from shifting.

Thank goodness you caught it during inspection. I wasn't so lucky.
http://forums.maxima.org/showthread.php?t=351814

 

yep, I already have a some steel washers installed now, and will replace them with grade8 this weekend. If anything, these are the REAR of the control arms - the front bushing can't go anywhere, as it is held in there by the lower tie bar and bush pin bolt...so I can't have the problem you had at very least.... Worst that could happen without the rear washer is misalignment of the control arm a bit. Either way, I'd rather have it right than "ok"..

thanks for the link, never heard of that happening before, some craziness. The 5th gens have a bolt with a wide bottom lip incorporated (no washer at all) so it's VERY strong up front, even without the LTB...

 

Josh, that will teach you to buy used bushings!

 

I didn't buy them used....they came DIRECTLY from Energy Suspension....I might have just left the washers in the box and not noticed them.

New grade8 hardware is now installed, so I'm all good now.

 

i should get off my *** and actually put them on my car, right?

edit: difficult enough for you to pinpoint what noticable, if any, difference you felt with just these put on over OEM?

 

if you mean the ES bushings vs. stock, it's hard to pinpoint since I put in new LCA's (with new lower balljoints) and new tie rod ends on at the same time. All in all, the front is certainly tighter with less slop....

 

Josh

When Tilley was doing my bushings he damaged one of the components on the suspension. He told me that they always break whenever he takes off the LCA. We managed to do a quick fix with a weld. I forget what the part was... Maybe you know the part I am refering to... ?

 

nope, I didn't break or damage anything that I'm aware of....what/where was this component??

 

Dang Josh that thing could have costed you ALOT in damages if the control arm slid all the way off the transverse link.

On another note, I've done a few Maxima control arms and I've never damaged one while removing it.... must be installer error.

 

well, it really couldn't slide all the way off...the tie bar holds it on. At worst, it could have shifted toward the back of the car an inch or two and then it would have gotten stuck on the wider flange of the bush pin.....

in any case, it's all fixed now and good to go, so no worries - live and learn...it's a good thing I'm under my damn car so much to notice things like this!!!

 

Sway bar endlink IIRC...I could be wrong.

 

Nah you are correct
It was the sway bar end link. I have to order a couple of those. You remember how to put them on Nilesh?

 

Surely. We could do em.

Check out the racingline endlinks...the Altima guys are starting to use them. Wonder if they're cross-compatible

 

they look IDENTICAL and i'm VERY VERY intersted in this. i took off my endlinks a few weeks ago as i was trying to locate a noise in my suspension and so removing the endlinks would kill that idea. that nite i drove around w/out them and it was the most SLOPPY driving imaginable. it was disgusting. i can only imagine what stiffer endlinks would do.

http://forums.maxima.org/showthread.php?t=473375