hey all, ive been told my upper control arm bushers are starting to get prety bad and ive been having problems latley with tailshaft vibrations. could the worn bushes be causing this? i had my centre bearing replaced aswell as that was faulty. wats the best method of replacing bushes?? getting a place to press them in or get replacment arms and trade my in?? another problem is my car pulls to the left prety hard and a wheel aligment showed that my camber\caster was out a fair bit cause its lowered, im running king ultras in the rear and the standard panhard rod? should i invest in an ajustable one and will this help? cheers guys, Chris
You have a Commodore right? There are no upper control arm bushes. There are lower control arm bushes and radius rod bushes. These will only cause steering wander when driving and under brakes. The tailshaft vibration could be due to the tailshaft being put back together out of balance. As it is balanced in one piece if it is put back together with the two halves in a different position it will vibrate. Get that checked out. Also check the uni joints. An adjustable panhard rod will not make it drive straight, just centralise the diff due to it being lowered.
i'm assuming that your talking about the rear suspension when you refer to the upper control arms (for the diff) these are a common problem and fitting nolathane type bushes is the best answer. if oyu have access to a press you could do it yourself or you could pay someone to do it. some places also do exchange arms etc so it's a straight swap etc. you would fit an adjustable panhard rod if you have problems with tyres rubbing on the inside ofthe guard etc(this won't help with the wheel alignment problems however). lowering your car can cause excesive caster/camber problems if you go superlow etc. the best solution to this would be to fit adjustable strut tops (avail from nolathane/k-mac etc) to correct your wheel alignment issues
My theory is, if anything rubber breaks, it's time to nolothane it. While you're spending the money, why not get something better? Just my two cents. I know nolothane aren't the be all and end all, but they can't be any worse than your regular black rubbish edit: since I nolothaned my sway bar link pins (front) I can feel an incredible ease in steering. The z-bar shape really makes a difference For $40 a pair, I'd say it's worth the money for anyone who throws a link pin bush. (and who doesn't, right?)
nolathane (urethane) bushes are better then rubber, nolathane is just a brand name. the great thing with urethane bushes is that it's easy to produce the same bushes but with different hardness levels to suit different applications although not a lot of manufacturers of urethane bushes offer this. the best upgrade for VN/VP sway bar link arms is to fit them to the lower control arm like the earlier VB-VL commodore setup, that way there is no load on the strut itself and it doesn't effect the steering loading etc
Sometimes a urethane bush can be worse as it stiffens up the connection. Where the control arms meet the body of the car I would go standard rubber because they will have a bit of give when hitting bumps. I've been in lowered cars with nolathane in everything and they ride like a brick. With standard springs it won't be as bad because they are smoother but lowered ones tend to be a harsh. If the bushes are bad enough they will cause the diff to chatter under acceleration causing a bit of vibration.
if you are talking about the rear end,does the car make a loud thudding/clunking noise when turning or gearchanging?good indication bushes are on their way out
which is wy i say it's best to find a supplier that provides different hardness bushes. normally they are colour coded to show the different hardness of the bush. urethane bushes tend to hold there shape a lot better then rubber ones. the lower the car gets the harder the ride becomes. i'd say it's more related to the spring/shock combo then the bushes them selves etc my VH with superlow king springs all round with bilstein racing shock is like a brick on the roads at 50km/h but at 200km's it's nice and firm and rides real well etc and it's not nolathane everything.....yet
