bushings?

[burekv]

Could someone please tell me what the bushings are and what there purpose is and where they are located. I see posts concerning the bushings and am curious of when you should replace and why you need to replace. And can they be replaced by a novice. Any help on this would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance for any information and thanks to all on this board who take the time to help out novices like myself.

Victor

[Randy_W]

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[Scotty]

Rubber bushings are used at all pivot points, such as the lower control arms, strut rod where it contacts the frame at the front, stabilizer bar where it connects to the frame. The bushings eventually wear out and allow looseness or metal to metal contact. The most common bushing to go is the stabilizer bar bushing and the strut rod bushing, rarely do the control arm bushings wear out, but if you do strut or ball joint replacement it might be a good idea to replace the lower control arm bushings. In the old days the lower control arm bushings were steel jacketed and were pressed in, but were replacable by DIYers as I did it many times. The old caddies had upper control arm bushings also when they had front coil springs it was common for the upper bushings to wear out and I had often seen the control arm pop out of the bushings on turns as they were worn out so badly. Today's lower control arm bushings are not really installable by the DIYer and require a good machine shop with the proper equipment as they are no longer steel jacketed. Unless you are getting bump induced noise you probably dont need the bushings replaced. Other sources of noise are the stabilizer links that connect the stabilizer bar to the lower control arm, lower ball joints, tie rods, etc., these are ball and socket joints and wear creates loosness, this is one of the reasons to keep the lower ball joints greased to stop the wear. Hope that helps, Mike

[Barry94]

Regarding the lower control arm bushings, does anyone know if there is a Poly set available for the Cadillacs. ?

I replaced the rubber ones in my Corvette with Poly and it made huge difference in the stability of the front end.

I was thinking with the Caddys more along the line of reducing the sensitivity to balance. However it could introduce more road noise into the cabin.

I looked at a couple sites on the internet and they don't list Cadillac.

Barry

[Scotty]

Regarding the lower control arm bushings, does anyone know if there is a Poly set available for the Cadillacs. ?

I replaced the rubber ones in my Corvette with Poly and it made huge difference in the stability of the front end.

I was thinking with the Caddys more along the line of reducing the sensitivity to balance. However it could introduce more road noise into the cabin.

I looked at a couple sites on the internet and they don't list Cadillac.

Barry

I have seen this question asked before and don't believe that anyone has reported finding poly lower control arm bushings. I would think that you would transfer the road shock and vibration more acutely into the body of the car. The OEM bushings are rubber on the outsideand pressed in I dont know if a poly bushing would work with the current style of bushing that is used, but I may be wrong. By the way, I tightened my front end up in my 91 by using poly strut rod bushings and poly stabilizer bar bushings, and standard lower control arm bushings. Mike