Hoo Boy…

Feb 10

I mentioned in my last Blog post that my car in undergoing a major overhaul. The part we’re just finishing up is the suspension, during which I’ve also been filming, taking pictures, and jotting down notes. I’ve got the DIY Guides written up (a bit of editing and final touches still to do), and the video will be coming along soon.

Given how difficult the control arm bushings were to install, I thought it’d be worth doing a Blog post to highlight them as an example of a job that I don’t recommend as a DIY (“do it yourself”) for most people.

The control arm bushings require some special tools that many weekend warriors likely won’t have, and even with those tools it can be easy to cause serious damage to the control arms.

Just getting the control arms removed from the front can be a huge pain on its own because of the ball joints. Once the control arms are removed from the car, the condition of the bushings can also make the job vastly more difficult - if corrosion is bad enough between the bushing and control arm sleeve where the bushing is fitted, it can turn a 20 minute removal into an hour or more. I was pleasantly surprised (and rather lucky) that my bushings were all in good condition and I didn’t have any issues.

I guess I thought it’d be worth highlighting the difficulty of this job because I sometimes get asked for advice on how to do jobs that may be outside the scope of a person’s capacity. I’m a huge proponent of DIY… obviously… but the last thing I want to do is set someone up for failure. I think of all the things I’ve posted on Redpants, this might be the most challenging to do given what’s required.