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Excessive play in new CA bushings?

3K views 10 replies 6 participants last post by  bdubya 
#1 · (Edited)
Installed new control arms, bushings and ball joints last week. Took the car in for an alignment, and the mechanic says he finds excessive play in the forward bushings and the inner tie rod ends. Haven't taken the wheels off for a closer look at the ends, but with the wheels off the ground, when I give one wheel a 6-and-9 twist, it moves just a skosh (play in the rack) and the other one moves in absolute lockstep, which to me seems to indicate the rod ends are OK. As for the bushings, here's how they deflect with the wheels on the ground and the steering spinning lock-to-lock:



Mechanic also was bothered that the bushings would deflect a little bit when torqued by hand...with the wheels up, I can pull hard on the wheel and get less than a millimeter of movement. I don't know how much play is normal, so I can't judge. Either I got two bad bushings from a reputable supplier and don't understand inner rod ends as well as I think, or my mechanic is wrong. Probably going to go get a second opinion this evening, but would like to know what the experts here think.
 
#2 · (Edited)
I had a similar experience. I installed MehleHD on the front and Delphi on the rear of the front lower control arms. After installation, the steering pulled slightly to the left when braking. I mounted a GoPro under the car and went for a drive. I was surprised how much the fronts deflected during a slow trip around the block when turning and braking. I returned those after replacing them with Lemforders, and the braking issue didn't change, so I went straight to Polyflex. Turns out that the braking issue was caused by the rear bushings.The Delphis were actually quite dissimilar. Went to Polyflex rears, and I'm quite happy now. The original design of the front lower control arm bushings allows for a softer ride, I guess, but I'm sure directional stability and tire wear are byproducts.
I do think that your left bushing looks a lot more "elastic" than the right, and maybe even starting to tear, but that can be camera angle.
There should be NO slop in steering rod inners or ball joints. My inner rod ends had a tiny bit of slop pointed out to me by the alignment tech, I replaced those and had no movement That quietened things down a surprising amount. I was sure glad that I had bought the one year alignment contract.
 
#3 ·
Thanks, capndirk. In my case, the only drivability issue is a little on-center instability at high speeds, like the car isn't sure it wants to go straight. Not really pulling one way or the other, more sort of tending slightly left, then slightly right - it's pretty subtle, just enough to keep me from relaxing behind the wheel. Braking is dead straight. The new bushings and arms are the IPD kit - two other posters on the IPD control arm thread haven't reported any out-of-the-box issues, so I'd be surprised if these aren't up to snuff (granted, it's conceivable). Can you tell if my deflection is similar to what you saw on your GoPro?
 
#6 ·
So, I caught this same "wandering" sensation from another XC90 due to soft control arm bushings. The way I knew it was specifically those forward bushings was I cut some old coolant hose rubber into wide strips and slid them into the cut-outs. Then went for a drive and the wandering reduced, but still there. That was easy and cheap verification of the problem with cheapo control arm bushings being too soft. I just installed a set of control arms with poly bushings on that XC90.

The braking would feel straight because I am assuming the alignment is correct and then the arms will toe-in upon braking, giving some stability.

BTW, soft bushings get worse with time and that wandering may get scary. Then uneven pavement like in construction zones and wind could give you white knuckles from trying to keep the XC90 going straight. A few others who have changed to iPd may not have posted the same results yet because it could be they have a lighter (3.2 or 2.5t) engine and/or their XC90 is 2009+ model where the alignment spec is toe'd-in rather than toe'd out. It doesn't mean their bushings are not soft too. Toe-in can help with straight-line stability, but it doesn't fix bad bushings.

Please update this thread because it could be very useful to give other XC90 owners feedback: https://forums.swedespeed.com/showt...ontrol-arms-who-will-be-the-first-to-try-them
 
#7 ·
Sorry for the double post, but looking back at the original iPd thread, Chris from iPd did say this:

"I appreciate anyone willing to give these a go. If these prematurely fail, my staff and I are always here to work with you and make sure you're taken care of. We also want to gather as much feedback as possible. If an improvement can be made, we will explore what it will take to make them even better."

Perhaps you should send him the video and remind him of what he stated.
 
#9 · (Edited)
The front bushing will have some lateral play by design. The bushing is attached only at the top and bottom. The second one looks fine, the first the image is a bit not clear. Of course, you may want to keep an eye after 6-12 months see how these go - but usually it's the rear one that may fail prematurely, depending on the brand - the rear one is easy to check, just lift and turn the wheel and look at the rubber for stretching or tear

If you want to test the tie rods, lift and turn one wheel then grab the tie rod end by hand between the dust boot and the wheel hub and pull-push with force - if there's play you will feel it - it will be either play on the inner tie rod (inside the dust boot), either on the outer one at the wheel hub.
 
#11 ·
Picked the car up this AM and drove it home. On the drive home my kids managed to break the detachable center console (again). Off to the junkyard AGAIN GODDAMIT next week, fingers crossed for finding a good one.

On the bright side, the car tracked straight and true with none of the indecision or wandering or whatnot. I'll admit the nose did react to the bow wave of a semi I passed....at 90MPH, which I would expect of any vehicle in this class. Aside from that, at speeds over 80 the drive was nice and relaxing. And she seemed more comfortable being tossed into the roundabouts, too. Mechanic #2 said he didn't see any problem with the bushings or the tie rods at all.

So as far as I'm concerned, the problem is solved and the alleged excessive play in the bushings (and rods) were figments of mechanic #1's imagination, and shouldn't reflect badly on the IPD control arm package in any way.
 
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