LVGBENZ1356

Got my car on a lift yesterday to get a good look at my suspension. My car is fine but has some bad suspension (noises) problems. The mechanic said my sway bar bushings are intact but dried. He showed me the bushings which are I think to be part of the lower control arm were shot like all the rubber is wasted.
Do you need special tool to change this bushings, how hard is it to do? I think that's whats causing my suspension to sound likes somethings breaking (metal on metal) Thanks ahead for any repsonses

renault12ts

No special tools. Just remove the bar, slide off the old bushes...slide on the new.

LVGBENZ1356

That's it , sounds easy. I ask because when I look up control arm bushings, a special tool that cost like 150 comes shows up. Its almost the same price for the entire lower control arm that has the 2 bushings. Would it be easier to just replace the whole thing. Thanks

renault12ts

This might help:

http://www.benzworld.org/forums/w210...ng-link-r.html

nelbur

Sway bar bushings are very different from control arm bushings. If you have a metal to metal sound it could be one of your lower ball joints. The upper ball joints can also squeak but they sound more like rubber on metal for some reason. A mechanics stethoscope can help figure out what is squeaking, and they are very cheap at Harbor Freight, assuming you are in the US.

I doubt that your control arm bushings are squeaking. The exposed rubber often is dry rotted and cracked while the functioning rubber is still fine. If the control arm is still held firmly by the bushings, they are fine.

LVGBENZ1356

With my car on the lift the mechanic grabbed the control arm and moved it, it would move like side to side. The exposed rubber is all gone cant really see the inside rubber. So am planning on replacing both sides. Don't know if I should buy just the bushings or the whole control arm from a salvage yard.

nelbur

It sounds like the control arm bushings are gone. Salvage yard is not likely to be helpful as the bushings will be of unknown age. Any good mechanic can press in new bushings. There are other things that can squeak. Did you confirm that the control arm bushings are what was squeaking?

LVGBENZ1356

No Im pretty sure the metal on metal noise is coming from the control arms, as for the squeak I don't know. Was told by a different mechanic that that the sway bushings were causing the squeak. He showed me them, there intact but look really dried out.
I plan on replacing the control arm bushings to see what happens. Do you know how much its costs to replace the bushings? Or where to get a good deal on quality ones?

Sisco89

when i did mine it was 80 for the bushings for both sides and 120 to push out the old ones and push in the new ones.

i took out the control arms myself to save a few bux. but its not a walk in the park. plus the shop that installed the new bushings made it seem like a big deal but if only i had the bushing press tool i could have done it myself. while youre down there you might as well change out the lower ball joints also