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After I pulled my car into the garage on Friday night, I noticed a drip trail of black fluid on the driveway. It started where I had briefly paused, waiting for the garage door to open.
I first feared an oil leak as the fluid looked black, but it was quite watery and not too slippery. The drip trail looked very like a condensate trail from the A/C, only it was black, and there was a solitary drip on the garage floor when I pulled the car out, that had distinct watery splatter marks (I have been watching Abby on NCIS too much, I think).
Putting it on ramps and matching the location of that drop to the underside of the car identified that it was coming from the Front Lower Control Arm bushing (13).
A check from above didn’t show any tell tale dripping from above.
A search on the forum brought up one previous mention of this.
Somewhat relieved (that it wasn’t a cracked sump or something), I took it for a drive and couldn’t detect anything untoward in normal driving.
My indy quoted me $190 to replace the bushing, but I think it isn't an urgent repair.
(I was going to inert the pictures in the appropriate place above, but I see that the image uploader has changed and won't let me do it the way it used to be done, so here they are just in a line. Sorry)
I have often wondered if these bushings are actually oil filled, or if they just disintegrate in such a way that the rubber sort of melts. I haven't been able to get a straight answer. I do need to replace several front suspension parts on my CLK, so maybe I'll cut one open after I remove it.
Would you need to replace/upgrade bushings or motor mounts when upgrading the suspension of a car? I'm gonna get H&R sways, Eibach springs and Bilstein Sport shocks/struts.
I have often wondered if these bushings are actually oil filled, or if they just disintegrate in such a way that the rubber sort of melts. I haven't been able to get a straight answer. I do need to replace several front suspension parts on my CLK, so maybe I'll cut one open after I remove it.
The way that mine sort of spat out a quarter of a cup of liquid all in one go makes me think there is liquid in some sort of cavity. I was turning hard to the right and it may have squeezed/stretched the 9 year old rubber just so and created an opening.
Looking at the third picture, it looks like my sway bar bushing has leaked at some point in the past.
A couple of weeks before hand I had noticed that the car was pulling to the right and it seems to be a little worse now (but that could be just because I am looking for something)
I think I'll get this bushing replaced sooner, rather than later, and see if that fixes the alignment.
09-09-2014, 08:50 AM
