[shadowvox6]

Group,
As many of you know, September of 2011 at Art's, both Louie and I replaced our LCA's, and our Strut Rod bushings. We torqued everything to spec's, and thought all was good. Ever since I had my front struts done in July of 2012, I have had some noise in my front end. In reality, I have had noise ever since the LCA's and Strut Rod Bushings were replaced.

Fast Forward to 2-3 weeks ago, my car has felt (for lack of better term) "loose". I have thought that I lost a motor mount or something perhaps with the drivers side strut (since they are aftermarket and the problem felt like it was originating from the drivers side). Friday on my way home from work, I was getting pissed off at this condition...so I was trying to make something "break". Nothing did...so I got under the car and used my phone's "flashlight" to look around a little. Strut and bearings looked good, CV joints on the drivers side looked good. Then, something caught my eye...the inner strut rod bushing was crooked...I grabbed for it and it was loose...zero tension on it at all...then I checked the front strut rod nut, and it was hand tight, and about 2 threads away from falling off. I tightened it down as best I could by hand, drove it up to the alignment shop the next morning (where I have a 1 year warranty alignment) explained the situation and the got it up on the rack, and hit it with the impact.

It tightened up my entire front end....all the little noises and pops are gone. The car drives so much better.....I can't believe that the nut backed off on its own, and that tightening it up made that much of a difference.

So, if you have done your LCA's and Strut Rod Bushings, please check them and hit them with the impact. If you plan on doing it...use an air impact to reassemble it, IMO it makes the most sense.

[Daytrepper]

Did you use new lock-nuts when they were replaced?

[Adpros]

They tell you to torque these and refrain from using an impact in the instructions...

However, I rarely see anyone using anything besides an impact. Note taken.

[Scooter-Man]

I too did my LCA and strut rod bushings this past summer, no ill effects yet. I'll check them out tomorrow to see if they backed off. BTW, did not use an impact on the strut rod bushing.

Glad to hear you caught it before something broke.

[Daytrepper]

To expand on this, IF the nuts were torqued, but no one held the other end of the torque arm, they never would have torqued properly. The movement in the arm and the bushings would have absorbed some of the torque if the arm was not held in place.

Its always best to use new locknuts too, especially up north, removing them once or twice can destroy the "lock" feature...and they can back off.

[shadowvox6]

I used all new fasteners when I did the job.
I followed the FSM procedures to the letter....

[paintballdude05]

Doesn't the FSM specify having the vehicles weight on the suspension(ie at ride hight) before torquing the bushing down?

[peva]

Stephan - That's only for the control arm-to-cradle bolt (so that the control arm bushing doesn't get over-twisted).