well i am officially taking of my poly control arm bushings off, well im jsut gonna get some new control arms with stock bushings. about a month after putting these on i busted the front bolt on my control arm bolt the one thats closest to the front bumper, ruined my tires after about a day with all the alignment and toe that was all messed up. first time this bolt busted the car would pull every which way wen i accelerated. today i heard a loud pop and now my car is pulling to the sides wen i accelerate or let off, im not sure if the bolt is broken until tomorow wen i check but im pretty sure its the bushings that is causing this as nothing like this ever happened till i installed the stiffer bushings on there. any one else break a bolt like this? or have problems with the stiffer control arm bushings?>

Only problem i had, was wishing i did this mod A LOT sooner....

i have this exact problem. ive been to lazy to fix it thought but i know for sure its not a brokin bolt. ive narrowed my problem down to 2 things. one is a bolt could be loose and two i know for sure is the bigger bushing on mine is ripped/cracked. oo and one thing you should check is the lower engine mount mine was loose even thought i tighten it down as hard as i could.

Bolt is loose, get under there with a torque wrench and crank it up. I believe those are supposed to be around 120ft/lbs but don't quote me on it.

Fix it before your hurt yourself, this is not an issue with a bushings. If your lucky this is on the side with the lower engine mount and thats the only thing holding it in.


-Chris

its the drivers side and the first time the only thing holding it in was the bolt holding in ahh i dunno wat it is that curved piece of metal lol

i had this issue. if the bolt is not tight enough and/or there is not any form of lubrication inside the sleeve it causes the bolt to loosen when there is a sharp impact from the suspension (ideally the sleeve doesn't rest on the bolt, but in this situation it has moved). make sure there is no debris built up in the sleeve, lubricate it with something thick and particle resistant, tighten the bolt with the suspension compressed (it is very important, as with all joints of this type, to tighten them loaded). It is possible to get a nut with some locktite on the backside of this bolt, but it can be a nerve tester.

yeah well the only reason i think its broken is the first time i could pull out half the bolt with my fingers and the other half that screws in to the nut in the back stayed screwed in. i had to drill it out and let me tell u itwas a pain in the ass went through alot of drill bits lol

Poly bushings are not the cause of the problem. Those bolts need to be tightened very well, so the force is put on the sleeve. A properly installed control arm will not have sheering force on the bolt. Also, it's a very good idea to replace those whenever you have them out. A bolt is cheap, and it's a good practice to have a new one to torque to specs rather than a used one. Also, make sure that your car is properly aligned at all times. Not saying you didn't have an alignment, but you did mention tire problems due to alignment. Alignment issues will have adverse affects on the suspension as well, because you have forces acting in a different way than they are designed to handle. All-in-all, do what you want, but the bushings are not the problem. You could have easily had the same thing happen after putting in new factory bushings.

Agreed, the poly bushings aren't the problem... try the nut behind the wheel