Well after regreasing the bushings in hopes that that would solve the suspension issue I drove to work today and it was down right scarey. I hardly had to give it gas and the rear end was all over the place.

I limped it home and pulled out the passenger side LCA and as I suspected, the bushing was split on the front end allowing the steel sleeve to move back and forth. They have been installed for 3 months and I don't drag race.

I will post pictures after I get all cleaned up, but all of you out there with BMR LCAs if your rear end seems off a bid you better pull them out. I sent an email to BMR today about the suspected issue but now after pulling them out I am sending them a picture to show the failure. I hope they will replace it!

 

holy crap im worried about my car now cause i got those too and i DO drag race.

 

this is why i am not screwing with my suspension! glad your OK!

 

I have a set of BMR LCA's waiting to be installed for many months now. This has me very concerned!

 

The stock LCAs can do the same thing

 

This is why I use Ingalls Engineering arms, FORGED ENDS!

 

In 3 months???!!! I don't think so.

 

The ends of the steel portion are fine, it is just the bushing that failed.

 

Got a reply from BMR. They are sending me a set of 4 bushings for my LCAs. Glad they are willing to stand behind their product

 

Just curious, what kind of grease did you use when you installed them? Normal petroleum based grease will break down polyurethane bushings. That is why they recommend a silicone based or synthetic grease. I am not sure if that has anything to do with your failure, but I just figured it would be good to know since there are a lot of us out there with those same parts.

 

I used a marine grease. It has very good resistance to wash out.

 

I bought a cartridge of silicone grease and a new grease gun from Summit for the reason 2005MineralGT states regarding material incompatibility. I have a BMR panhard rod with polyurethane bushings. Whats interesting is that BMR originally recommended marine grease to me. I then did some research using the Dow Corning material data sheets and a few other sources. But still, 3 months seems too quick.

 

well I hope that this dosnt happen to me. I just invested my money into LCA's, and Panhard rod from BMR. All with Poly bushings. I did buy it with the grease that they sell with the kits. So hopefully I dont have this problem.

 

I am going to talk to them again regarding what grease to use. As previously posted, if the marine grease that I was using is non-compatable with the poly bushing material, I better change it!

I am going to go ahead and change the grease nipples to stainless ones while I am at it. I found the little check ball in the end of the nipple let grease squirt back out after you remove the grease gun. I think there was only one that didn't "leak".

 

I want to see how this unfolds. and I just got my BMR stuff too. ****it.

 

BMR has a good reputation. Id just take it as a bad bushing and if they are sending you new ones then be happy. If you dont trust them ask them to take the old ones and give u a refund or maybe they be willing to completly replace them.

 

So far so good with mine. I have a feeling this was just a freak failure. I could have been the grease, but that would mean the grease broke down the rubber pretty quick.

I would like to see the new ones if you can take a pic. I've been wondering how they are constructed and how the grease flows through them.

 

I will post a picture of the new ones. BMR said that if it does it again from autocrossing they will take mine back and give me a really good deal on the solid hime (sp) joint style.

 

After reading this thread I decided to take my LCAs off and check the bushings. Sure enough, 3 out of the 4 bushings were completely destroyed. I guess I have to call BMR too.

 

Uh oh, lately I've thought the rear of my car sometimes feels loose. I just had the rear of the arms off, so I know they are fine, but what about the other ends? I'm getting worried. How many more people are going to find problems?