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2008 Outback Front Control Arm Bushing

11K views 16 replies 6 participants last post by  rsrocket1 
#1 ·
I'm taking my Outback in for warranty work on the front drive shaft boot. I looked at the control arm bushings. They have small cracks. Lots of small cracks in the rubber. There is not a single crack around the perimeter, just lots of small cracks. Should I ask they should be replaced under the warranty also or from the picture, do they still look in spec?
 

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#14 ·
Shouldn't the cracked bushings be replaced soon? Someone posted them saying they weren't worn "at all" but clearly they are. Mine are like this and I'm wondering if it's causing a clunk upon hitting bumps, or if it is something else like a strut mount that is ripped. The control arm bushings looked cracked in many places but not ripped.
 
#15 ·
No you don't need to replace bushings that are radially cracked. They are still holding the center fixture just fine and are able to keep twisting and return to their original position.

If you take your car to a dealer, they will tell you the bushings are cracked and will offer to replace them for $$$. They are telling you the truth, they are cracked, but they aren't telling you these are no longer doing their job.

You can get replacement bushings for about $15 or as low as $5 and press out/press in the replacements. At that point you might as well swap out the ball joints for another $17. The horizontal bushing is another $15, but it takes almost no stress so you can really get away with never replacing it.

If you live in the rust belt, you should closely examine the control arm for rust. If the paint gets chipped off, it is a starting point for rust. I've seen some LCA's on Youtube videos where they literally broke apart from rust. The "cheap aluminum" arms are not prone to rust and they are not cheap (depending on your definition of "cheap"). The Mevotechs are about $30-$40 more expensive than the Doorman steel arms.



Did I need to replace my bushings? Eventually, yes. These had 138,000 miles on them. They may have held up for another year but I wanted to get an alignment on the 4 wheels anyway so this would be a good time to change the entire arm and not bother with pressing out bushings.



You can see that most of the LCA was in very good shape but there were some exposed spots. If they were continuously doused in road salts, they would have been badly rusted.
 
#17 ·
protivakid,
IMO, they look like they're still doing their job, the circumferential cracks are just age and are showing because you have the car lifted up and the control arm hanging down. The stress shows that most of the rubber is still intact and holding the bolt and control arm together.
 
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