Another "not an endorsement because I don't have experience with them" but Elephant Racing may have what you want.

https://www.elephantracing.com/porsc...-inner-bushing

 

That would make sense. I looked briefly, but didnt see any verbiage on the site about a core charge or exchange. I'll look again.

 

That's what I'm talking 'bout.

Not as cheap as I expected, but certainly a comprehensive list. Thanks!

 

As a new owner I feel that way about just about all Porsche parts.

 

Even after you think you’re used to it, they still manage to surprise you every once in a while.

 

After a lot of guessing (loose top nut on my coilovers, ball joints or sway bar end links) I finally got the car back up in air and I'm now pretty sure the clattering noice i'm hearing is my center lower control arm bushing.
Here's some video that shows the play in the joint (shows driver side bottom and top, then passenger bottom) :
As always there's some great info in the above posts. Here's some of it put to numbers and few questions.

OEM
Genuine Porsche - $940 (pair, free shipping)
Meyle - $276 (pair, cheapest I could find was at CarID.com, free shipping)

Pros - Both seem to be trusted brands in the forums
Cons - Non-serviceable ball joint, Will likely last the same amount of time as OEM (55k miles in my case)

Vertex or EPS - Reconditioned arms with serviceable ball joints
$403 (pair, shipping included)
$150 core charge (refunded when you send you old parts back in)

Pros - Serviceable ball joint
Cons - Unknown polyurethane bushing firmness (Vertec), unknown bushing (EPS)

Elephant Racing - Bushings Only
$180 for (2) Center Bushings and $130 (4) Inner Bushings, "Stock hardness" = $310 + shipping costs TBD
+$75 for center bushing removal tool (one time cost)

Pros - You can only replace what you need
Cons - Unknown polyurethane bushing hardness, still stuck with non-serviceable ball joint unless you buy the Vertex

Option 1
Buy only the center bushings from Elephant ($180 + 75 = $255). Cheapest option but then I'm left with an unknown life span on my current non-serviceable ball joint and inner bushings.

Option 2
Buy Vertex arms ($403). If I don't like the firmness of the polyurethane bushings I can eventually replace with Elephant. At least I'll have an arm with a serviceable ball joint (if that has any real value)

Option 3
Just buy the Meyle ($276) and call it a day. At that price they are disposable items and don't worry about servicing individual bushing/ ball joints.

I'm leaning toward Option 3 given that I don't need to add any more NVH with the crap roads we have here in LA. But, I'm not sure if my BR racing coilovers with accelerate wear. Maybe I'd want to go with a firmer bushing to handle the increased shock from the stiffer springs and shocks...

Question 1: Will I need to do an alignment ($250) after replacing the front control arms? If I go with OEM parts they theoretically shouldn't have any effect camber, caster or toe, right? (I suppose slop with the through-bolts could lead to some very small differences)

Question 2: If I need to do alignment, then maybe I should replace the forward control arm at the same time? Or is it possible to replace that later and not have to do an re-alignment?

 

I’ve never owned a car that needed suspension work. I wish there was a DIY thread for guys like me who don’t know anything about shocks and control arms, cv joints, etc. What should I kook for when I take off my wheel? My car has 65k miles so it’s possible it needs some love

 

YouTube is your friend:

 

2009 C2S 146K miles

Determining which is the evil offender is always tough. I just broke down and purchased a set of chassis ears for $100. Read about it here: https://rennlist.com/forums/997-foru...ed-advice.html

Peace
Bruce in Philly

 

And I've found the actual work is tough too. Suspension pieces have large fasteners that take lots of torque, not to mention keeping things aligned properly. Planning out the work is what I try to do rather than diving in.

 

You will need a Ptiman arm puller (not a separator fork) to push out that ball joint. https://www.autozone.com/loan-a-tool...ler/555623_0_0

Get the large one. The first time I used one, I was concerned.... the darn thing took so much torque! I kept screwing it down.... then BANG! The tool is cheap, but you can rent it and whatever else you need from Autozone for free. Yep, free.

There is general agreement here that you will need an alignment when done. I don't really agree with that as the tolerances on these parts is like perfect, but an alignment is always a good thing anyway.

Peace
Bruce in Philly

 

You need to replace a part when you hear clunks. The clunks appear when going slowly over humps ... when your chassis is torqued. If you don't hear a clunk, you don't need to swap anything out. I saw that I had a tear in the lower control arm center bushing but I am not sure I really needed to replace it. I saw this when I replaced my shocks - they were leaking.

On my Boxster S, I was getting a clunk in the rear but ignored it for a while... then I noticed at high speeds, on a straight, I could get the clunk by pressing the gas and then letting it off... I noticed the car would change direction! Very very slight, but it happened. This was due to the forward bushing on the lateral control arm failing. The Lateral one is parallel to the ground and goes from the carrier forward and therefore bears the load from braking and acceleration.

In the "old days" with sedans and such, the bushings are soft so when they broke down, you could jam a crowbar in there and just start pushing the arms around.... if a bush was bad (beside seeing bugs in there), you would see play... you could see the bush crush. But in our cars, these bushings are so hard... your not going to witness this unless the thing is really broken down and you would be having pretty loud clunks anyway. Our chassis need to be loaded with the weight of the car to cause the bushings to crush. So...... either you use chassis ears to find the offender, or you take a chance and replace the most common offender. Folks here usually find that lower control arm is the first to wear out..... so I've read here.

Peace
Bruce in Philly

 

The concept of chassis ears is pretty cool. For $100 did you get the wired version? Seems like the wireless version could be overkill

For those interested here's a video of the wireless version in action (I couldn't find a good one showing the wired version):

 

I got the wired ones... the wireless were just too expensive and just not necessary. I used painters tape.... and the velcro bands they provide in the kit. The wired system is old school and does not have a speaker, but they do provide you with headphones ... they are cheap crap but they work. You can plug in your own headphones if you want to... I didn't. You are only listening for clunks and clinks, not the nuances of David Gilmore's bends.

Peace
Bruce in Philly

 

Well, I went ahead and bought Meyle/ OEM style parts. I suppose I could have pressed only the bushings out, but the ball joints already have 60,000+ miles on them, and I’m sure they will likely fail in the next 20 to 30k miles. It doesn’t make much sense to install new bushings on old ball joints.

I also assume that if the front LCA bushings are going out, then the rear ones are probably on their way out as well

I also got the Front-forward lower control arm as well as the Rear-forward lower control arm, and Rear-rear lower as well.

I elected not to replace the 4 rear wishbones at this time I think I can replace those without having to deal with alignment issues later. Maybe. All in, it was about $1000 going through CarID.com, not too bad.

I have the ball joint separator shown below, but I’m wondering if I need any crowfoot wrenches, and what specific size wrenches/ sockets I’ll be needing. 18mm?

The LCA ball joint looks like it might be a bit tough to get a torque wrench on it?