so on my way home Friday i had to slam on my brakes to avoid a crazy driver, and i heard a big SNAP!!

i was going down a steep hill, and buried my foot into the brake petal and i came to an instant halt from 30mph, with the unmistakable sound of something breaking. the rest of the way home i kept hearing a loud clunk up front, every time i hit the brakes, turned the wheel, or hit a bump. got home, jacked the car up and found this:



i was looking for a busted ball joint, but found the bushing up top came out of its seat. the only thing holding the arm in there was the bolt. has anyone seen these fail like this? normally the ball joint is what fails on these. i replaced both upper control arms about 2 or 3k miles ago, with auto parts store replacement. i am really surprised these failed so fast. i removed the other arm and the bushing are very stiff, and the failed arm had seized bushings. cheap parts or what! looks like the bushings seized up, and didnt allow movement, something had to give and it popped out.

looks like i will be ordering Ingalls adjustable upper control arms. i am only dropped to 2 fingers so getting the -2 to +1 1/4 not the +1 to +4, right?

thanks for any input guys, much appreciated.

 

east coast winters!!!

that sounds right on parts,,spec is 0, you are probably neg 1.5 in front now?


confirm with excelerate or mrheel toe if using them for purchase

were all those bolts tightened to spec torque `after` the car has a load on the suspension?
Its possible to damage a part by cranking it down tight when at an angle while hanging, then it gets extra stress once on the ground

 

where did you get those parts?

 

i got the parts from a place called Autopart International.

also, i did not tq down the bolts after the car had suspension load, just tq'ed them as i was putting everything back together. not sure how thats possible since id have to take out the strut tower to get a tq wrench on those bushings. could you explain to me the proper procedure to tq'ing those bolts down. thanks.

 

also, after i had installed those upper control arms, camber was right on spec, so i guess getting an adjustable control arm that has a range that includes zero is what i want. i think the +1 to +4 range is too much since i am not dropped enough to get that much camber up front.

 

I have seen 3 or 4 separate failures just like that. All have been aftermarket replacements. The only failure on the oem arms is the loose ball joints. I think some aftermarket arms don't get that bushing totally seated causing it to continue loosing up each time it moves until you get that Snap like you described.

 

thanks for chiming in, makes scene. i could see scoring on the bearing surface of the seat, were the bushing was rotating inside the seat. finally it popped out the other day.

i just ordered Ingalls upper control arm with adjustable ball joint to replace both of my upper control arms. hopefully Ingalls has done their homework and have produced a better product. I dont hear many complains about Ingalls products, i have their stiffy ETD and its been holding up great.

does anyone have some feed back on Ingalls upper control arms?