Idler Arm Failure
Do you have close ups of the metal to metal wearing surfaces?
The wear on the plastic I don't think it going to be improved by moly grease and the extreme pressure additive. The scar test is a metal on metal test.
Is there a wave washer or spring that applies pressure against the pin to keep the pin to idler arm housing bearing surface tight?
Or is it the crimp on the plate with the zerk that applies the pressure?
I've recently had a pair of Mopar UCA ball joint that wear not crimped completely/correctly from the factory. The joint got loose with very little miles on the car.
Hi Autox, No wave washer or spring was inside this part, as far as I can tell the black, fragged piece of material was most likely designed to keep the part tite by being slightly oversized when new.
While I do not have close ups of parts, I most certainly can take more pictures and post them later.
An extreme pressure additive is not going to keep plastic parts from disentigrating but a high quality carrier such as lithium complex and a group three oil in the lithium may help preserve the plastic. Just guessing. Also, if the oil was running out of the grease and leaving the parts dry on the bottom as mine was maybe that caused the black material to get pulled apart during use. Black part may have been slotted too but it is too mangled to know.
Further, the new moog parts are adverstised as having a powdered metal gusher bearing, which means my new TRW(moog and trw owned by federal mogul) part simply has the old problem solver plastic bearing like the one I just tore apart. Also, the gusher bearing as I understand is simply the slotted washer under the top plate. Most likely the black material supporting the tapered shaft was some type of polymer or hard rubber material which probably is the same part in the new moog. That was the part that failed and caused the slack in the part. The gusher bearing or white part looked to be in perfect shape, no gauling, crushing or melting. Not sure what good a metal top plate bearing will do if the rubbery part on the bottom remains.
One last thing, advance auto has a drive works brand idler arm, their house brand name and it says it has a spring loaded bearing. No mention of poly. I guess if you are going to use Chinese parts you may as well use the good ones. I am not sure any of the moog components discussed are made overseas either. TRW, Federal moguls other brand, the one I just installed now says poly gusher bearing, not sure where it is made. Will study the box and report back.
Oh yeah, scar test is irrelevant on steering joints, used more for high speed bearings, weld test is what seems to be looked at for chassis items.
Edited in:
Box says USA as shown
Close ups of stud shaft top, no gauling present, second pic shows plastic bearing, no scuffs or smears. None of the metal wear surfaces had visible wear other than slight polishing.
