GRAYPNY

I decided to take off my lower control arms and see if they might be binding like Sam Strano sugested. I thought the they might need grease because I have heard them creak when getting in and out of the car. Here's what I found, nice surprise!

SONICBOOST

Man, I have the same control arms but I haven't "heard" any problems.. Thats sucks but at least you found your problem.

2k7gtcs

Which end is that? I'm assuming at the axle. Do you have LCA relocation brackets or some other mod?

GRAYPNY

That's the axle end and you can see a small nick in the metal sleeve as well. No relocation brackets ~

BTW, my iphone takes pretty good pictures. I was suprised.

sam strano

Thank you for actually checking. Clearly they were bound, that's what tore the bushing up in that way. FWIW, I also can see where the top of the boxed part isn't welded to the eye, which isn't great either.

Still might want to change springs... But I'm sure fixing that issue will help (and fwiw a good advertisement to run properly built LCA's, with the offset to help, and/or a rod-end to prevent, that sort of bind). But in the end, poly/poly LCA's are just prone to that sort of wear because they are forced to twist and flex when the axle moves. They don't want to, and that tears them up. Which is why, if you can live with the possibility of some noise, I prefer at poly/rod setup so the rod-end will let the axle articulate freely, the way is need to.

Arms need to be offset so as not to twist and bind the bushings up. If you look closely you'll see both UMI and Steeda arms are offset a bit more than what it seems like those are
UMI:
Steeda:

SONICBOOST

Must be a 3 megapixel camera phone