I am redoing all the bushings in the front lower control arms. The one has a metal lip with rubber in top. How does one press this in without damaging the rubber?

 

Anybody?

 

Push?



JK, I usually find a socket that is about the same size as the metal part and smaller than the plastic part. Line it up in a table vice and crank it in there. Probably not the right way, but I dont own a press and it gets the job done.

 

There is no plastic part. For anyone doing this in the future, it was a pain getting the old one out. I had to cut the flange off in two places so I could press it all the way out.
I then used the same size socket that I pressed it out with to press the new one in. It deformed the rubber and may have marked it up a little but there is no other way I could think of.
I finally have all new bushings. It took 2hrs to get all the bushings out and in minus the compliance bushings. I had someone else do them. Now to put everything back in...this was for a 07 tl types MT with 123k miles.

 

Man great job on doing it yourself and saving money. I just did mine yesterday paid the mechanic $150 for one side.
he got them in and out pretty quick.

 

Yeah I gave them to a mechanic and he quoted me $80 for all the bushings. He called me and said he only did the compliance bushings and he didn't have time to tackle the other 4 and that they were not needed to be replaced. That was crap cause they were egged and cracking. So I did it myself. He charged me $50 to do the compliance bushings cause our agreement on how many bushings changed...

 

I did this myself not too long ago. I initially tried doing the socket method but it started to cut into the rubber. I switched over to a large washer that basically covered the entire rubber portion and that did the trick. The rubber definitely deforms a lot but there was no damage afterwards.