Control Arm Bushing Refresh

[gregwils]

I am getting a late start on my "winter" projects. This year it's the front suspension. New ERP rubber bushings, strut mounts and Bilstein HD's from our host.

I bought the car in '07 and have put about 7,000 miles on it. The PO said he replaced the front struts with Boge's right before I bought the car and the bushings looked "fine". There were a few other "fine" items that were discovered to be out of spec, so I figured 24 years is a long time and I didn't care for his standard of fine. Plus, I'm not a huge fan of Boge.

First, when I was removing everything, I snapped the wedge bolt on removal. Hmmm, don't like that. I did hit it with an impact wrench, but it shouldn't have broken under fairly light torque. I immediately double-checked the wrench to be sure I was backing the bolt off, I was. Both sides will get replaced.



At first I thought my bushing looked "fine" too. I measured the top gap vs the bottom gap. The measurements were 5.5mm on the top, 8.5 on the bottom or 40/60 ratio. Doesn't sound too bad at first. My torsion bar tells a slightly different story. You can see from the picture that there is a light rust forming in the area where the paint has worn away. There didn't appear to be any metal wear, but I have another set of front t-bars to install. The moral of the story is anything beyond 40/60 is metal wear and that the majority of t-bar 911's running around on original bushings probably have an issue. As always, ymmv.

[GH85Carrera]

That is pretty much like my t-bars. I suspect all t-bar 911s that have not had the bushings replaced have rubbing t-bars.

Doing the front is easy. The rear bushings were just as worn or cold flow deformed. The rear bushings are a pain to do.