It looks like my BMR lower control arm bushings are letting go again. I have noticed the rear of the car moving around under moderate acceleration and deceleration (not from snow, on dry roads). This is the second set of bushings and they lasted about the same as the first set, 4-6 months. I will be contacting BMR, I know they are great to deal with. When they sent the last set out to me, they said if they fail on you they will give me a really good deal on a set of adjustable LCAs with the hyme joints on the ends.

I will post what happens.

PS if you do a search, you will find pictures and a write up of what happened last time.

 

Keep us informed

 

Weird how it's happening to some and not others. I do remember your other thread, but can't remember the application of your car. Are you at the track a lot? Roadcourse? Or just daily driving?

I did about 30-40 strip passes last summer on mine and haven't had any problems. This summer the bushings will be getting more of a work out due to additional power and using M/T ET Streets vs street tires. Interesting to see how the bushings will hold up.

On that note, and tyring not to stear too far off topic. My track is 1.5 hours away, all highway driving. If a LCA bushing was to blow out at the track, what are my chances of making it back home driving moderately?

 

I had the same problem with my first set of bushings from Steeda.
I installed and lubricated them as per their directions.
I found that my problem was that I greased them with a grease gun.
The pressure exerted by the gun is enough to put a crack in the bushing which grows over time.

I now disassemble the bushings and coat all the parts with Energy Suspension Formula 5 Prelube.
I put roughly 250 1/4 mile passes on the car this year along with around 12,000 miles without the hint of any problems.

 

i just had BMR replace not only my bushings but the entire LCA. i had the old tubular design. lee sent me the updated boxed design as a repalcement for the bushing issue. talk to Lee and he will take care of you!

+1 on thump_rrr's suggestion grease the bushings wit ha brush, not with the grease fittings.

 

I emailed BMR yesterday, so I'll see what happens next. When I installed these, I greased them with the nipple prior to installing to "charge" the bushings with grease. I didn't grease them once installed. I ran about 10 autocross events last year.

Scramblr, if yours do fail, you can drive home alright. It is just a little unerving to feel the rear of the car move around.

 

Cool, thanks...

 

I got a reply back from BMR. I have asked for permission to post what their reply was, until then I will keep it to myself. Let's just say I am pretty happy!

 

BMR customer service is like black coffee on Sunday morning.

 

Be interested to hear the outcome - I've got a set of BMR adjustable LCA's boxed and ready to fit to my '07 GT/CS!

 

I have the Steeda LCA's, and I feel the same has happened now to me. They creek now too. Erik

 

Put the original arms back in. Problem solved. Polyurethane bushings are not reliable items. What you are experiencing is normal for poly bushings if you have more than a weekend cruiser.

 

4 to 6 months and then they go bad? Maybe so, but have you spun your wheels a little bit on a wet road...still have your fillings in your teeth?
The factory ones are not an option for me. I run autocross events and the factory ones are just crap, well not really, I use them when my aftermarket ones go bad.

As stated, I will reply with what BMR had to say once I get the okay from them.

 

For poly on a daily driver, on a part like a control arm, I have never seen great results. 4-5000 miles is about the lifespan sometimes. Depends on the bushing material, etc.

BMR should take care of you. But the GT500 lower arms look promising too from ford racing.

I am running stock arms. I don't autocross so I cannot comment there and don't have the same needs. But I do drive hard on the street. To be honest, if no one ever mentioned to me that I should consider changing the arms, I would never have guessed performance wise that there is a problem. But ford addressed the problem in the GT500, so there must be some weakness there. And looks wise, they are not very convincing.

The ONLY time I have had wheel hop though is when on the throttle, if I hit a very rippled section of pavement, it will hop.

 

BMR would like to keep the particulars of my deal with them private. They only want me to say that we have come to an agreement and that I am very pleased.

That is all on this topic.