New control arm bushing failure after less than a year

[M104]

Take a look at this. Installed new Febi lower control arms on my Mercedes 11 months ago because the front hydraulic bushings were in really bad shape causing a steering wheel vibration at around 80-90 kmh. I had a long trip ahead and Febi was the only thing available quickly at the time. I drove around 15,000 km since replacement.

Installation was done correctly, everything tightened to factory spec at ride height. One day, a few weeks after overhauling the front end i hear a big clunking sound on the driver side over a speed bump. This might be related to the bushing failure.

I suspect one of the bushings (the worse one) was not installed tight enough inside the control arm at the factory and turned when i heard the noise and has been working under too much tension ever since.

This is just a theory but to me it makes sense. On one of the picture you can see that both bushings are misaligned. I guess this is one more rant about brand parts and that the lesson is always the same: to keep old original semi worn out parts going as long as possible before replacement because the new part will probably be junk unless it is OE.

If anyone around here is still driving a W210, please do not buy Febi lower control arms!

 

[Trav]

How about don't buy Febi anything, they make nothing only resell junk.

 

[M104]

Yes, i've crossed Febi off my list of OK parts. Last time it was a driveshaft bearing that was bad out of the box. Never again.

 

[Egg_Head]

When I re-worked the entire suspension on my 2002 E430 (W210) about 20k miles ago, I used TRW front upper and LCA, a combination of MB and Lemforder rear components and black Bilstein shocks. The subframe bushings may have been Febi or Meyle. All working great.

 

[M104]

I've had bad luck with TRW struts, they were doing nothing at all after 15,000 km. At this point i don't feel like dropping too much money on yet another set of control arms but try polyurethane bushings on the lower control arms.

A company called Strongflex makes them for the lower control arms for my car. They make two types, the yellow ones which are harder and best suited for track use and the red ones which are supposed to be softer almost like standard rubber bushings with the advantage of being way more durable.

I'm going for a road trip in germany in a few days and will probably have to keep driving the car with the bad bushing for the next 3000 km and fix it when i come back. I must say that it still drives as it should, i don't think it is internally broken.

 

[D60]

Save the old bushing for the hardened inner sleeve and any machine shop can cut you polys from the material of your choice

That said, I'm not convinced the pics reflect a "failed" bushing? That surface cracking is common here but doesn't spell failure any more than wrinkles with age mean your skin has failed.

 

[martinq]

Save the old bushing for the hardened inner sleeve and any machine shop can cut you polys from the material of your choice

That said, I'm not convinced the pics reflect a "failed" bushing? That surface cracking is common here but doesn't spell failure any more than wrinkles with age mean your skin has failed.

Those look like deep cracks to me indicating the material has failed. I would not expect to see those types of cracks until 15-20 years of exposure.