Question for those that have upgraded their LCAs: Have your ever seen worn out subframe LCA support brackets? I was installing new monoball LCAs and I noticed the subframe was pretty worn. The bolt holes were elongated and the sides of the brackets were of reduced thickness due to obvious relative motion between bolt and subframe. I was surprised to see that the bolt threads bear directly on the subframe. I am assuming someone put the wrong bolt in as that is a poor design that Porsche would never do (I'd hope). See photo below

Question: Other than buying a new subframe is there a good fix for this? Does anyone weld, machine, and ream new bores? Has anyone repaired by installing pressed in bushings? Car has 102K miles but I have seen other subframes for sale with higher milage and much better looking brackets - looks like mine suffered from running with a loose bolt for some time. I suspect this is the cause of a noticeable "clunk" I hear on a bumpy road.

Also there are "slots" cast into the bracket ears on the forward face (seen in the photo at the top of the bracket) - does anyone know the purpose of these slots? They look like they could be recesses to hold shims. There were no shims in my installation.

Thanks in advance for your advice.

 

Might help if u include a little more info about your car beyond its a porsche and where the problem is...front or rear?

 

Good idea - 2009 Cayman base - I am replacing the front lower control arms. After doing a bit more investigation it appears that the subframe is not worn and those areas that look like they were ground down with sandpaper are as cast. What puzzles me is why is it cast in this shape, how is it OK to have the bolt threads bear on the relatively thin aluminum "ears", and how does the attachment of the monoball LCA achieve no motion between the bolt, subframe and inner race of the monoball?

There are slots in the "ears" that suggest one might add shims to take up the play . The below video shows how much play there is with the new monoball LCA - surely I am missing something.

Thanks for the help.

 

If it was my car, I would have new inserts weld with bushing ends to the monorail hemi joint so there is no movement of the hemi joint along the bolt axis. Looks like an undersized diameter bolt was used causing the egg shape

 

I believe my problem was with the LCA bushings they were not machined to be wide enough to fill the gap between ears with out play. They are over 1mm short - I ended up installing shims to take the play out. Still a bit surprised that Porsche has bolt threads bearing on the cast ears. Talked to Tarret and they say they have had no issues reusing the OEM bolts with their LCAs.