Front Lower Control Arm OE Bush Problems or Not

[L99CAMA2011]

" no matter what I say, she takes it the absolutely worst way." Woooo, I thought my X girlfriend was the only one who did that. Guess all ladies are like this then. I literally have to pick what I say with a fine tooth comb.

[L99CAMA2011]

Originally Posted by plumber84

I have the pfadt phase 5 race suspension on my car from 2 years ago. Only 9 track days on my car.I only drive it to the track and on the track (not my daily driver) 6900 miles on it. On Aug. 2nd 2013 I was scheduled for a 3 day track event at Watkins Glen and on the first day, second session, my drivers side lower control arm bushing broke (the polyurethane ripped out) causing my front end to feel like the front wheel was going to fall off. I had to extend my stay and have my car fixed (stock control arm replacement) so I could drive it home.

I'm a little dissatisfied with Pfadt as this is the second part to fail with hardly any milage on it. (Upper sway bar end link heim joint was the other failure) They sent me a new heim joint for "cost" $20 which I thought was unfair.

When everything was working the car drove like it was on rails, stable and predictable. I just think these parts should last longer than 9 track days.


I called them today (Got voicemail) and i'm waiting for a reply on the lower control arm bushing.

Is this the front , rear lower control arm bushing behind the radius rod bushing. If so I highly recommend you not use those because I realized they bind and reduce articulation in a bad way in the front. I use the solid spherical bush pictured on the first page and they work great.

[JusticePete]

Originally Posted by L99CAMA2011

Is this the front , rear lower control arm bushing behind the radius rod bushing. If so I highly recommend you not use those because I realized they bind and reduce articulation in a bad way in the front. I use the solid spherical bush pictured on the first page and they work great.

[Blue70SS]

Good call Pete....

No disrespect for Pfadt at all - they're customer service has always been outstanding, and still is. They even rushed an order after being past the shipping window for me before a holiday.... kudos for great customer service - can't say enough. Super respectable company. Good thing Pedders didn't make a bushing for it too. After just reading about a similar failure last summer close to mine and finding this (see pics) after returning from the Sturgis Camaro Rally 2013 after drag racing and autocrossing, I must agree the OEM bushing is the way to go. (Ordering OEM today) My failed bushing was 3 years old though. OEM is much safer when it does go bad IMO. Looking at the OEM design, when the OE bush fails it can only move so far. Be it a Pfadt or a BMR bushing (or any other brand) at this location, either one when it blows could be catastrophic depending on when it happens. I was lucky - the car drove great back to Colorado..... the bushing started falling out when I jacked up the front end to check something else. Upon jacking it up 1/2 of the bushing fell out and it was amazing how far the wheel would move, (while the steering was locked). I think this should be more of a lesson learned for all the bushing manufacturers for this particular part that affects steering so drastically. Just think if it fell out on a great launch doing the 1/4 mile!

Before anyone is quick to pit vendors against each other.... I had a HD rearmost Pedders diff bushing blow out too on my LPE 9.5" - sh@t happens. I upgraded to a Pedders delrin bush and all is good, and in retrospect - the rear bushing takes all the load that the front 2 get to share! Obviously I wasn't the 1st, otherwise the Delrin wouldn't have just appeared on one of their packages - just like BMR started doing Delrin too.