Replaced failed strutrod poly-bushing today - Took video of working suspension
These bushings have been on the car for about 6 years.
Daily driven.
I didn't mount them myself, they where on the car when I bought it.
But the car had not been driven since they where installed. All suspension bushings where new at the time.
LCA's have polybushings too. They appear in good shape what I can see, no play in LCA either.
Didn't measure compression distance but I did look at that to decide if maybe the sleeve was too short perhaps, putting too much force on the bushings.
I made the new pair of front strut bushings because I needed the car on the road again that day.
If you look at the left bushing in the pic, you can just make out it's starting to tear near the center.
I tend to think the strut rod was pulling the center out from these bushings, tearing off the rest of it.
Perhaps the edge of the strut-hole on the K-member was too sharp (?) causing it to cut into the bushing?
But I would think more of these failures would show up.
The K-member has been powder coated also 6 years ago.
The 'new' bushings have the same contact patch as the previous bushings had.
Only thing I did different now is I mounted the large washers as a 'cup' to the bushing (like the factory ones), and not as a 'dish'.
Had I known upfront the strutrod still managed to compress the bushing that much during hard braking, I would turned larger discs on the lathe from a piece of round polyurethane I've got.
These bushings have been on the car for about 6 years.
Daily driven.
I didn't mount them myself, they where on the car when I bought it.
But the car had not been driven since they where installed. All suspension bushings where new at the time.
LCA's have polybushings too. They appear in good shape what I can see, no play in LCA either.
Didn't measure compression distance but I did look at that to decide if maybe the sleeve was too short perhaps, putting too much force on the bushings.
I made the new pair of front strut bushings because I needed the car on the road again that day.
If you look at the left bushing in the pic, you can just make out it's starting to tear near the center.
I tend to think the strut rod was pulling the center out from these bushings, tearing off the rest of it.
Perhaps the edge of the strut-hole on the K-member was too sharp (?) causing it to cut into the bushing?
But I would think more of these failures would show up.
The K-member has been powder coated also 6 years ago.
The 'new' bushings have the same contact patch as the previous bushings had.
Only thing I did different now is I mounted the large washers as a 'cup' to the bushing (like the factory ones), and not as a 'dish'.
Had I known upfront the strutrod still managed to compress the bushing that much during hard braking, I would turned larger discs on the lathe from a piece of round polyurethane I've got.
