Hey Guys,

So I posted a few months back about doing a complete control arm overhaul. I had purchased my 2006 LR3 V8 about a year and a half ago. Previous owner had mentioned two of the bushings were going and needed replacing (front upper and rear lower). Since the car is getting on in years and I'm sure no one previously had done a suspension overhaul, I decided instead of replacing one or two bushings, I'd just do them all. I bought new arms from Atlantic British. I bought the ones with the green "upgraded" poly bushings without doing much research on oem vs poly. AB didn't have the front lower arms with green poly bushings, so those are actually rubber, the front upper and both rear upper and lower are all green poly.

I've been running the new control arms for about 5 months now. On most clean roads, the new suspension is great, responsive, firm. But I live in an area with a ton of crappy roads, tarmac with a ton of repair patches, cobblestones, mixed paving surfaces, and dirt and rock and anything else. Prior to the overhaul, the ride quality was pretty freaking good on all road conditions including cobblestone, very little dash rattle and quiet. Post-overhaul, any time I'm riding over repaired road, cobblestones or generally uneven paving, the suspension has no give at all. I feel every uneven bump and the dash rattle is insane, everything in the truck rattles and it's loud. It feels as though the truck is being rattled apart, and then I hit the smooth road, and everything is fine again. Highways, the ride feel is smooth and responsive. On cobblestones, the truck feels like it's going to explode apart and come to a halt. It definitely did not feel this way before the control arms were replaced. I'm assuming it's the green poly bushings.

So my dilemma is what do I do now?

The idea behind a complete overhaul was to save labor time. It's a bit begrudging to now go and buy all new oem bushings to replace the ones I just bought, I'll do it, but I'm not sure if I should just buy the bushings and spend the labor time on having my mechanic change them out, or go and buy a whole new round of control arms, this time with rubber bushings (with oem where available). Obviously I want to limit the amount of money I'm spending to do this, since the first time I did it, it cost me about $2000 USD in parts alone. I'm waiting to hear back from the mechanic on what he'd charge to replace the 12 bushings.

Anyone have any advice?

 

Okay. This is just me but… I’d get rid of the poly bushes myself. Not an ideal situation, I know.
On the lower carrier arms one of the bushes is a “hydro bush” (filled with oil) and it does break eventually. Meyle in Europe makes bushes (and front LCA sets) where that particular bush is rubbery and does not have any fluid inside… I think these belong to the Meyle HD line. Anyway, it sounds like for the front LCA you’ve got rubber so those are probably not the ones that need replacing.
Depending on where you are I imagine your arms haven’t yet had the chance to rust so it’ll probably be possible to remove them without insane amounts of violence?
If you’re going to replace the existing bushes remember that you’ll (or your mechanic) will need a press or two with enough force.

 

Hey thanks for the response, I appreciate it. Yes, I think I'm going to replace all the poly bushings. what a bummer. mechanic says he can do it, has the tools, but it just irks me that I have to do this again.

 

Yes, poly bushings give a much firmer ride. You can go back to OEM or replace. If you held onto the original control arms you can have new bushes pressed in, that may save you some money if you can find a shop that will do it. It took me a while to find a shop to press in new bushes, most are so busy doing oil changes and alignments they do not want to fuss with such jobs. The place I found to do it was a machine shop and they would only press in new bushes, I had to index the new/old ones and remove the old bushes myself (PITA).

One other problem with the poly bushes is that they have a habit of destroying the control arms, I’ve seen multiple threads on this. It is always the rear lower arms, and I think the orange poly bushes.

Something else you can do to get a little bit of the softness back in your ride is swap to 18” wheels. I know a LR Indy in the UK that won’t even consider putting poly’s on a Disco3 if it has 19” wheels because the ride is so jarring.

 

I advise you shop around. OEM "unbranded" upper arms, for example, are about $75 plus shipping from the UK. Because of some wariness, I had to replace an OEM arm at 40k miles. Like the one it replaced, it came with the LR logos ground off the bushings. Point it there are incredibly inexpensive sources for OEM spec parts if you know where to shop, even if the shipping may be insane you will probably come out ahead. And it may actually be cheaper than buying separate bushings and paying labor to have them pressed in. With that said, with bushing the worst part is removing the old ones. But those polys usually pop right out.

 

Hello,

I have the same issue. What did you end up doing with your control arms and bushings? Did you solve the problem?

Thank you,
PC

 

Hi,

Any chance you can share what did you end up doing to solve the problem? I have the same bad experience with my LR4.

Thanks!

 

I bought all new bushings and had my suspension guys replace them. Basically the exact issue I was trying to avoid. It was hard buying them from Atlantic British after having bought the control arms with green poly. But I did it.

 

Thank you for your prompt reply.
Which ones did you get, just the kit with the bushings and ball joint? Do you have a LR4 2016? I dont see them having the kits for lr4 2016, only for the V8 engines.
Could you let me know if the driving improved significantly after making this effort/?

thanks a lot!

 

I have a 2006 LR3. I bought the genuine suspension bushings that Atlantic British sells. Yes! the driving improved dramatically. With the green poly bushings, it felt like they were rattling my brain and my car is so old that I was afraid pieces were just going to start rattling right off of the old lady, all the interior trim was rattling, the ride quality was total **** even with air suspension. It was a brutal ride with Green Poly. Atlantic British calls them an upgrade, they are most certainly not that. They are lower quality than the genuine bushings. When I showed up with the new control arms and the green polys, my suspension guys warned me that they weren't good quality and the that the ride would be too hard. And I rode around for 4 months on really crappy quality roads where I live, until I had enough and swallowed my pride and bough the replacement genuine suspension bushings.

You might have to find them on eBay or another site if Atlantic British doesnt sell them.