I want to make a urethane bushing for the whole LCA but I dunno how big the demand would be for it. I would send out my bushings to prothane and let them develop something for it but I am pretty sure they need a car but I will see. I can measure up some dimensions and send it to them. We need aftermarket bushings for the front end on this car stat!

 

LOL! Apparently you missed the earlier part of this thread. A Poly bushing would NEVER survive the twist this type of bushing must endure. This is why they come out looking like this after one suspension stroke (Poly bushings arenly meant to roll around the sleeve):

 

^I think Trippinbeats point there was going with full poly.

His most recent project was to reinforce what is already there... He reinforced the oem rubber and filled in the gaps with a 2 part urethane mixture. The combination of both of them in this case is much better than one without the other. He even had it tested with a machine capable of 1000lbs of pressure, and claimed it turned out successful.

Were still waiting on an update by him for some real world results...

 

That works. Thats all I need to see...Im just gonna machine a solid piece of billet or something and see if that works.

 

Spherical bearing is about the only other option besides an OEM style rubber.

 

yup poly holds i havent had any time to get back around fulltime here lol but what i did was sandblast the rubber part of the bushing down to the rough rubber. I got 60A thats pretty hard.... poly doesnt stick to certain things unless u have a primer for it....so i got the rubber primer, i made a jig for the bushings poured the goop in the jig over the bushings. gave it a day to let it get totally hard, peeled my cast off and they were done.....poly seems to do the trick to a degree i had to do a few things to make it stick to the rubber (like a drill a few holes through the rubber in a few spots so the poly gets in there really nice and holds)

 

94 id like to say the sphere bearing would work but the impact and weight this car has (not to mention the structural fuck ups) on the front everytime it goes up n down i really think it would mess up.... because lets say we do fix that bad spot....and we get great performance with no issues..... now wheres the next weakest link?? the subframe??? the ball joint??? u know....u have to take these things into account and they have to be tested.... i wouldnt mind trying anything that someones made..... but i wouldnt want the rest of the car to break because of it. if theres proof....on the acura tl that the sphere bearing works im game. but so far so good....id have to say i have put my poly filled bushing through hell and they have held up pretty damn well... before when they were broken.... they were squeaking like rubber on rubber when id go over street bumps or speed bumps. now its nothing but total silence....lol except for the bushing on my rsb thats making noise now from age....and abuse.

 

Trip,

We need a way to get sets of these off of you!

 

So I went to the dealer today as I to have two tears in my bushing boot on the driver side and one on the pass side along with the annoying shimmy that comes with. I have an 04 5AT with 49,000 miles on it and the service manager has said no to the repair. I am going to call Acura customer service directly and wanted some advice on what to say to them?? Thanks

 

fireman....best bet is to call them.....they will handle it for u with no probs..... that prick shouldnt have questioned or even given u answer he shouldve had a tech look at it and make sure it was replaced.... thats a safety issue not even a comfortable feeling noise issue. if that rubber eats away and the suspension on the bushing is gone..... whats gonna hold the arms on the car 2 tiny lil bolts and a kryptonite ball joint? lol i dont think so.....ive heard of horror stories on other cars because of this kind of issues.

Gerz.... like i said in my earlier posts i dont mind doing them.....as long as you guys dont mind buying the parts n sending them my way....i can get harder poly which was actually my next move...60 is great but the 75 would feel 10000000000times better imho, it wouldnt give the car the deep lean that it has when cornering n bouncing i think it would stick to its guns a lil more.....plus i have a friend who has a shop filled with more tools n machines in it than anyone would ever want, to test these things and make sure the durability is up there. i have jigs made for a bunch of these things..... the poly i can order which takes about a week to get. one can of poly mixes to fill 6-8 bushing. the reason I wanna change the bushings to harder poly is for 2 reasons one which i stated above and the other because i want to actually take the poly off the ones i made to see if theres any stress where the bond was made to the rubber. that should be in a week or so, ill keep u guys updated (money is tight so i cant go spending like i use to on things that arent making money for me) on parts n progress.

 

Set up a PayPal account and interested parties can send seed money to get you started.

 

Thanks trip!! I am going to call them in the morning!!

 

I have a Tein suspension camber kits front and rear with close to a 3 inch drop 18x9 with 255 35 front and 19 x 10 with 285 30 rear, exhaust, intakes you name it, Acura is who needs to make the call not the dealer perhaps you should take pictures and submit direct to Acura, as it is a safety issue. I looked at the new Arms and they are a slight different design. Time will tell if they will stand up any better.

 

Ok Guys..... I need your help on this. I spoke with the Acura rep today and he is researching this for me. I need case numbers from some of you who were out of warrenty and had this goodwilled from acura!! That way I can go back at them with.... you covered it for this guy or this guy but not me?? How come??. Thanks for the help!! This is a great thread by the way!!! I have been wondering for months why I can't get rid of this annoying shimmy and now I know why!!

 

i'm entirely sure it will get rid of the shimmy. one of the sales rep's I worked with on this had an 07 Type-S with 15K miles. His bushings were cracked and his car drove like brand new.

 

Im thinking of replacing mine, anyone know the parts that will be needed? will I need the whole arm or could the bushings just be replaced?

 

I had some strange handling problems,04 90,000 miles bought a few weeks ago.Got good deal didnt check up alot being a honda.My mistake.My passenger bushing is almost ripped completely.I work at Toyota TMMK in Georgetown,Ky.I just happen to work where we weld the lower arm(control arm)I together and insert the bushings.I talked to our P.E. people and they have never had a bushing come back from the field on anything we build.They said this is a design problem.Using the customer as a test pig for the first few years of a new model had in the past only been a big three phenomenon.Now they all do it.When I started at Toyota this was somthing they took pride in not doing,now half our managment are X GM.Go figure.

 

Now wonder the '07/8/9 V6 Camry was a disaster. The first time in Consumer Reports history they ever gave a 'NOT RECOMMENDED' to a Toyota.
.
.

 

dolfan.... we re all guinea pigs especially those of us with the 04-06 models....they were junk and then they upgraded almost all the parts.....now when u go to the dealer....u cant get the parts from 04 up....I mean u can but theyve been superceded by the 07-08 parts (not all parts but a good portion of them)

 

u cant have honda admit to it.....like they did to the odometer fraud because of supreme court because theyd have to extend the warranties out of their asses and basically reconstruct the car again in certain areas with the flaws they have and lose crazy stupid money.....plus...thats why we now have the 2010 TL

 

So after a week going back and forth with acura they are taking a second look at my bushings in the morning. The rep said if they are bad they will good will them!! wish me luck!!

 

My bushings are looking really f*d up.. Who installed them for you and how much? I think I might take you up on this offer instead of having the same weak crap installed again..

 

I pressed in the bushings a few days ago and it does make a difference lol. It is nice to have friends with a 20 ton press laying around lol.

 

He should be receiving mine today or tomorrow. I'll let you know how it goes. Only challenge is going to be getting them pressed in under a tight time frame once I get them back.

 

Pressing was the easy part...getting them out was another story.

 

getting them out of the lower control arm, or getting the lower control arm out of the car?

I have a trick for popping the lower ball joint. No hammers, no special tools. Just your foot and a wrench :P

 

Yes that trick is great when you've got your typical steel LCA. But on the TL, we've got Aluminum LCAs with a steel insert where the ball-joint stud connects. The OEM shop manual calls for special tool that is supposed to grab onto that insert from the top to push the ball-joint out from below. This keeps the insert from getting pressed out of the arm. The manual also requires you to inspect the insert after removal. If there is any signs of separation, the entire LCA is to be replaced.

 

Pulling out the LCA is easy...I have tools for that. I am talking about the big bushing in the front of the control arm assembly that keeps on failing. I pulled it out and all my other ones are fine. I cut the cage and hammered it out then I cleaned it out went to a buddies and pushed in the bushing with his press.

 

Gerz.... i just got them..... by the end of next week ull have em, im going to mark them for u to position them correctly in the arm...... ill take pics before n after.....and show u where the positions markers are.

 

still needs to be a TSB/recall.

 

I am ordering a bushing now so I can mock up and quote a spherical bearing solution. Poly will be a complete loss. There needs to be something that will allow radial movement while resisting deflection.

 

^ really looking forward to that, and hopefully it isn't overpriced

 

Perhaps you can engineer it with dustboots like the HardRace ones (Civic/Integra RTA bearing shown). They even had a rubber isolating ring between the outer sleeve and bearing to reduce NVH. Pretty trick:

 

was just looking at this website:

http://www.orijinmotorsports.com/prodspben.html

 

so if you replace those bushings with another oem set, would they make any difference in the car? can you tell by driving?

 

Hey guys, I am new to the TL and to the forum... Just bought an 04 5AT with 68K a few weeks ago and LOVE IT! I did notice that there are some clunking noises when I hit bumps on the passenger side only and assume it is being caused by the control arm bushings as discussed in the thread. I haven't had a chance to take the wheel off and look at it yet, but I did want to clarify what the heck I was looking for. For some reason the pics posted on the forum are not showing up on my work computer (it is a military one so they block everything....), so I found this to see if you all might be able to give me a hand. http://www.acuraautomotiveparts.org/...s=&view=normal

I am assuming that it is part #9 in the schematic....?? Going on leave tomorrow but will bring it to the dealer to get checked out when I get home. Will keep you all posted with the results!
Thanks for the help! -Keith

 

Close man, but its #10. You'll need 2 of them.

Oh, also.... get part # 51394-SEP-A11 instead.

They are from the 07-08 type-s and appear to be an improved material...and the same price .

 

Thanks for the help gerzand! Have you done these yet? I will probably take it to Acura to see if I can get them to goodwill them, or at least that way one more case of it can get reported to them to try and get it recalled... We have a press at work, so even if I need to do it myself I should be able to get it knocked out.

 

I currently have Tripnbeats making a set of Urethane ones for me. I'll report back when they are on the car

 

I have done this in my garage on other cars with just a big vice. The hard part is getting the old one out, but just cut it, or burn it out, cut the ring so you can get it out, then use a vice to compress the new one in.