I took my TJ sedan with 200km+ into Pedders for a safety inspection. Surprisingly the only fault they came back with was the front control arm bushes are worn and moving. I took the front wheels off to have a look and when using the pry bar I can get a few mm of movement out of the rear bush on each side, also they seem to be the source of the squeaking noise when going over large speed bumps. The front bush only seemed to move a bit fore and aft, although they are showing signs of deterioration.

Looking for replacements all that is available aftermarket is poly/urethane. Mitsubishi still do the front bush in rubber for $65 so I've ordered 2 of them (only 6 left in the country), but ran out the rear bush a while back. Only way to get it is to order a complete arm that has both bushes and a ball joint for $240ea

A few questions:

Is the rear bush meant to move this much?
As the rear bush has no nut and is described as slip-on can it be changed without removing the arm?
Could the arm be worn where it goes into the rear bush?
Would I be best off looking for a good low km rear bush rather than going for new poly?

Didn't the Pedders branch that you went to give you a quote to fix them?

& $240 for a complete genuine control arm is quite reasonable(I realise plus fitting, of course) .

In my experience the genuine rubber control arm bush is less harsh than aftermarket poly bush of any brand.

I would jump at the genuine control arm.

you may find the squeaking may also be sway bar bushes

They quoted me $540 to replace all four bushes, including a four wheel alignment. Not too bad I thought but they only have urethane bushes and I'd prefer rubber.

I stopped by the wreckers today to have a look at how worn these bushes get and to see how hard it would be to change. The front bush never seems to get any play, even in high km cars. The rear bush in a lot of these cars were a lot worse than mine. There was a TJ wagon with 114k and one side was tight and the other a bit loose. AU Falcons have a similar setup and they were all worn as well.

I'm thinking this bush may be better off in urethane seeing as it rotates on the control arm anyway.

They quoted me $540 to replace all four bushes, including a four wheel alignment. Not too bad I thought but they only have urethane bushes and I'd prefer rubber.

But from what you are saying, that amount does not include the ball joint.

I still believe the complete, genuine Mitsubishi control arm would be the much better option @$240 each + fitting + wheel alignment.

And you won't have any ride harshness issues.

But from what you are saying, that amount does not include the ball joint.

I still believe the complete, genuine Mitsubishi control arm would be the much better option @$240 each + fitting + wheel alignment.

And you won't have any ride harshness issues.

If you check my build log i bought new control arms and i dont think i paid that much for a complete arm. However with that said with new control arms you have 2 new bushes and new ball joints already installed. If you need tp replace your ball joints down the track pressing in new ones is not recommended so you would need a new arm anyway. Also once the ball joints start to move a bit more you can certainly feel it. When i replace my arms the whole steering tightened up and i regret not doing it sooner. Honestly just replace the arms all as one then get an alignment done.

The reason I didn't go with new arms was I didn't really want the rear bush to be rubber as they seem to go soft within 100,000km, plus my ball joints seem to be fine. I ended up getting SuperPro bushings which seem to be really well designed. They are made from a softer grade of urethane (almost like normal rubber), they have a cross hatching to keep the super sticky silicone grease in and are designed with empty voids so that they can 'move' to dampen the shocks.

The genuine rubber bush at the front is almost impossible to install. I tried turning up a tapered sleave to put it in but it ended up tearing after a few goes so I went and got urethane for the front as well. For the rear bush I turned up 2 sleaves so that I could press the old bush out and a another one to press the new bush in. The front bush was a bit tight going into the subframe.

If I didn't have access to a press and lathe at work I would have gone with new arms. I think if I made one more modification to my tooling I would be able to get the front bush in, but then I would have to source another bush which would take a few days. If you took this job to a normal mechanic who'd never done it before I doubt they could do the pressing as the tooling required is very specific (unless they had a lathe).

Now that the new bushes are in the ride seems to be about the same, couldn't really say it was any more harsh. The car handles a lot better as the rear bush is holding the wheel where it should be instead of letting it flutter around. That horrible squeaking when going over large speed bumps is gone as it was the rear bush roating on the arm that caused this.

The reason I didn't go with new arms was I didn't really want the rear bush to be rubber as they seem to go soft within 100,000km, plus my ball joints seem to be fine. I ended up getting SuperPro bushings which seem to be really well designed. They are made from a softer grade of urethane (almost like normal rubber), they have a cross hatching to keep the super sticky silicone grease in and are designed with empty voids so that they can 'move' to dampen the shocks.

The genuine rubber bush at the front is almost impossible to install. I tried turning up a tapered sleave to put it in but it ended up tearing after a few goes so I went and got urethane for the front as well. For the rear bush I turned up 2 sleaves so that I could press the old bush out and a another one to press the new bush in. The front bush was a bit tight going into the subframe.

If I didn't have access to a press and lathe at work I would have gone with new arms. I think if I made one more modification to my tooling I would be able to get the front bush in, but then I would have to source another bush which would take a few days. If you took this job to a normal mechanic who'd never done it before I doubt they could do the pressing as the tooling required is very specific (unless they had a lathe).

Now that the new bushes are in the ride seems to be about the same, couldn't really say it was any more harsh. The car handles a lot better as the rear bush is holding the wheel where it should be instead of letting it flutter around. That horrible squeaking when going over large speed bumps is gone as it was the rear bush roating on the arm that caused this.

Are these the bushes you bought buddy? http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Magna-Verada-TE-TF-TH-TJ-TL-KE-KF-KH-KJ-KL-SUPER-PRO-Front-Suspension-Bush-Kit-/331647249220?hash=item4d37b76b44

Are these the bushes you bought buddy? http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Magna-Verada-TE-TF-TH-TJ-TL-KE-KF-KH-KJ-KL-SUPER-PRO-Front-Suspension-Bush-Kit-/331647249220?hash=item4d37b76b44

I had these fitted, no issues, really did not notice any extra harshness from them.

Er, for the non technical, what does 'front' and 'rear' mean here? Is it the control arms on the front hubs and rear hubs or is it the bushings at each end of the control arms on the front hubs?
Also, if control arms are rubber mounted how do they then stop forward/backward movement? Wouldn't they be flexible?

Are these the bushes you bought buddy? http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Magna-Verada-TE-TF-TH-TJ-TL-KE-KF-KH-KJ-KL-SUPER-PRO-Front-Suspension-Bush-Kit-/331647249220?hash=item4d37b76b44

Similar to them. Those ones are for the arms with the rear locknut. They also look like old stock as the warranty is only 5 years instead of lifetime.

These are mine. http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Superpro-SPF1366K-SuperPro-Bushing-Kit-/251961297638?fits=Model%3AMagna&hash=item3aaa104ae6
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/SuperPro-MITSUBISHI-VERADA-MAGNA-HYUNDAI-FRONT-LOWER-CONTROL-ARM-BUSH-SPF1126K-/221750536249?hash=item33a15ca839

I got them from Bursons as they had them in stock and I got trade price. Plus I'm weary of buying this sort of thing from ebay as you can never be sure you are not getting a cheap knockoff.

I had these fitted, no issues, really did not notice any extra harshness from them.

Did you find they made any difference to the handling? cheers

Brand new arms with both bushes, ball joint etc I do for $185 each

DONT use poly bushes, they are rubbish. Rubber is the only way to go

Saying that the rubber goes soft after 100k is also false, plus there is meant to be a small amount of movement there as well.

I refuse point blank here to fit any poly bushes into any Magna. When I have had cars I have purchased with poly in them the first thing that comes out is that trash. If it was so damn good, and given that it is much cheaper to make than rubber, why then do you think car makers dont touch it?? Add to this, your car is now 15 odd years old, not a bad run for rubber in my opinion.

Most time the squeak you hear is actually the sway bar bushes, not the control arm bushes, the TL in my avatar is one classic example, had same issue, 2 sway bar bushes replaced, no squeaks