Been working on replacing suspension components on my 04 C2; shocks, struts, mounts, bearings, sway bar links, motor mounts, trans mount etc and came across an older thread about lower control arms being deteriorated over time. I had a look with my USB camera and it did look like the only one I looked at was torn (passenger front). The car does have 88k, no track and is always garaged. Do people replace just the bushings for all these components (control arms and links front/rear) or is it not worth the trouble and just buy the whole piece(s) say from Pelican Parts? Thanks so much for any help advice you can give... Ralph

 

Bushings can be a pain in the butt to swap out, unless you have a nice hydraulic press to get them in and out. I think a lot of people just swap the whole arms out.

 

I think a lot of people just swap out all of the components as units rather than the bushings themselves, but it is absolutely possible to replace/upgrade bushings. Depends upon how much time, mechanical skill and what kind of shop you have (do you have a hydraulic press?). It also depends upon whether you are looking to upgrade. You can go spherical bushings, polyurethane (Powerflex) or even upgraded rubber (Elephant Racing has them). You can even get bushings with different mounting offsets to compensate for alignment issues from lowering.

 

Ok good advice, I want to stay stock; sport suspension option, and just asked my mechanic that same question and his answer was the same as yours (replace the whole component). So, I'll need 4 lower control arms and 4 control arm links to do both the front and rear, correct? I'm looking @ the Meyle's on PP unless someone advises different...

 

If your control arms in good shape - the car handle so much better with the right arrangement of powerflex and spherical bushings - rubber sucks unless you like that floaty vague feeling

if you can't operate a hydraulic press to DIY this, it would be very costly to sub this out to a mechanic in terms of time. But if you can DIY it, you can save a ton of money over buying replacement control arms

 

No, hydraulic press has been ruled out. I do want to stay as close to stock components as I can so even though the powerflex may increase the handling capabilities I don't want to take a chance and introduce any more noise or vibration to what I currently have and really like... So Gptoyz, do you think it's still a good idea to just bite the bullet and buy the whole component(s) instead of attempting to repress new bushings everywhere?

 

I replaced mine with the $64 Üro control arms on RockAuto.
With the extra 5% discount, I went ahead and bought an extra for either a spare, or a customer car.
I've put about 9000 miles on them and they're fine so far.
$256 to replace all four sure beats $424each from Porsche!

 

wow Tex, I'll say. Did you replace the control arm links as well? Thanks so much for the tip... Ralph

 

If you are having someone else do the work; the cost of labor is probably more expensive than replacing the whole part, so I would go with replacing the whole structure. As far as uro vs lem, meyle or OEM. I would go with an OEM supplier over uro - your factory parts lasted nearly 2 decades and 88k miles - that speaks for quality!

Also yes rock auto rocks hahha but use pelican as your measuring stick to see what factory and OEM suppliers cost.

Another company to consider is fcpeuro - they offer lifetime warranty on all parts they sell!

 

No, but I'll be replacing them soon when I do the coilovers and the adjustable drop links and rear toe links.
Then I'm moving on to adding a center radiator and a 2qt deep sump.

 

I agree, but I was able to fix them all at once for little $ right after buying the car.
I needed to get rid of some creaking that was driving me crazy!
Had I been buying just one or two, I would have gone with an OEM supplier.
At least I didn't go with the $38 Ultra-power ones.
The Üro ones are made in Germany at least.

Surely I'll eventually replace the front ones with adjustable ones.
Then I'll have even more good spares.

 

Keep an eye on those URO's I put one on my car & about 3,000 miles later I saw the bushing had dropped an inch lower with only the track arm keeping it from coming out. Pelican refused to warranty it too.

 

OK, I'll be in there in the next few weeks.
I finally feel like I have the strength to tackle the suspension job...but now I'm kinda tied up.
Teaching a basic automotive maintenance class this Saturday and doing six free oil changes.
I'll report back if the Üros are not holding up.

 

My experience is any part that involves plastic and rubber (e.g., rubber mounts, gaskets, window regulators, etc.), the brand makes a difference. Usually the OE and OEM belong to one class (similar performance) followed by second tier, which are much cheaper but don't last as long.

 

Amcpilot and I just replaced the rear coffin arms this morning. The symptoms were, a "creaking" sound from the rear when driving slow over bumps". The old ones were the originals and were in bad shape, the right rear I think would have failed catastrophically soon.

83K on an 03, replace yours!