Is this a bad control arm bushing? w/Pics

[Jimmy9190]

This is about my 2001 Dodge Dakota, it has 158,130 miles on it, 3.9 liter V6 and a 5 speed manual. It is just a basic 2 wheel drive truck. I do no towing or heavy hauling, never go off road, commute 40 miles round trip to work 5 days a week and take the occasional road trip to Orlando or Tampa.

Lately I have noticed the ride quality is more bumpy and more rough than it used to be. It seems some roads are better than others, some are worse than others depending on the road surface and condition. I feel the shocks and bumps in the steering wheel and seat. It's not vibrations, just a bumpy ride quality. The steering wheel also has a very slight shake side to side at 70 mph. I feel that with only one hand on the wheel, if I grab it with both hands it is pretty much gone.

I changed my oil and rotated my tires today and checked the front wheels for problems, there is no movement at all in any direction on either wheel. Both wheels are tight and solid on the hub. Inner and outer tie rod ends, all 4 ball joints, stabilizer bar bushings and end links, wheel bearing/hub assemblies are all fairly new and all good quality parts still in good condition. I greased my ball joints today too.

I saw some cracks and splits in the lower control arm bushings. I am no expert so here are some pics of what I found today. What do you guys here think? Are these bushings really bad and if so could they be the cause of the rough ride problem?

Thanks for any help with this.

 

[JohnathanDm]

id change it! MOOG FTW. Honestly it looks OK If you feel the need to replace it for piece of mind do it! nice PYB box!

 

[NHGUY]

Nice clean underside.If it was New England,that frame and chassis would be wiped out.

 

[stevejones]

Not really good to pass judgement based on visual inspection. Get a prybar in between the bracket & control arm & see what kind of movement you get.

BTW: Very clean!

 

[JohnathanDm]

nothing like seeing another mans undercarriage.

 

[Jimmy9190]

I pried on it the best I could, I saw no movement in either LCA or the bushing but I am no expert. Could not really get a prybar on the uppers, but the upper bushings look 10 times better than the lowers, no cracks or splits that I could see. The front bushing on the left LCA looks to be split badly, it was hard to get the camera in there to get a good pic of it.

Thanks for the help and compliments. My truck was originally shipped to a Dodge dealer in Sarasota/Bradenton and it has been here in Florida all its life. No snow, no road salt or other worries like they have up north. It has been a real good truck and I do my best to take good care of it.

 

[SS1970chrysler]

usually when those go bad, you'll get a clunk from that wheel when you hit the brake pedal. Another symptom is a a clunking when rolling down a hill. That one pictured, still looks good from here.
I just replaced the ones on my '63 Chrysler and that one looks far better than the 4 on my car did.

 

[crazyoildude]

i have seen a lot worse but get a big pry bar to check the play in the joint that is the only way to tell for sure

 

[Jimmy9190]

Thanks again. I drove the truck tonight and the bumping rough ride problem did not seem to be as bad as before I rotated my tires. I wonder if I have tire problems instead. Last time I had them balanced the tire guy had to re-index one tire on its wheel. I don't have any balance/vibration problems but I just wonder if older tires get hard as they age and cause bad ride quality? As it is I feel all of the bumps and ruts in the road pretty hard, no matter whether they are large or small. I have no clunking or chassis type noise, the truck actually is in very good physical shape for its age and mileage, I just need to smooth out the ride. My tires are BFG Long Trail TA Tour, they are about 2 1/2 years old but only have maybe 25K on them. I used to work from home so I did not drive my truck as much, did that for over 2 years and I wonder if sitting for long periods of time like that caused tire problems..

 

[Merkava_4]

Usually they'll squeak when they're worn out. They'll sound like worn
out bed springs when you go over speed bumps or parking lot dips.

 

[Jimmy9190]

I think it is a tire and/or wheel problem. The drive in to work today was not as bad after I rotated the tires. It was still somewhat rough but not as bad as it was. It might be best to have a tire shop look at it next.

 

[Jimmy9190]

Here's an update..after I rotated my tires the steering wheel shake at 70 mph went away so I knew there had to be a problem with the 2 tires that were now on the rear. It was not a vibration like a tire out of balance, it was just a side-to side shake of the steering wheel once I hit 70. I drove 70-72 mph on the interstate today and the shake was completely gone.

A new set of Firestone Destination LE2 tires and a good alignment solved the problem. Truck is back to its old self again, no more harsh ride or kidney-jarring bumps in the road. It is hard to say with the tires having only about 10 miles on them now but the ride is once again very smooth and the LE2's are running very quiet with great grip. I had a set of first generation LE's and they did OK but I replaced them with only 42K, mostly because they were noisy and the ride quality became kind of bumpy. The LE2 is said to be made from a better rubber compound and have other improvements so we will see. They cost me $450.00 after a $50.00 MIR. I watched the guy running the balancing machine and the tires all balanced very well, no crazy amount of weights needed to zero them out. The LE2 is a good looking tire:



Nice tread on them too:



My alignment was a bit out of spec, maybe that caused the BFG's to run so badly, I don't know. I got the lifetime alignment policy so I can go back if there are any other problems. I hope this problem is solved once and for all.