Lower eye shock bushes gone after 20,000km

[tom321]

Anyone know what might have happened here? I had new Koni 88-1713 SP3 shocks put on my 150 series Landcruiser 6 months ago, and now the lower eye bushes look completely shot after 20,000km (probably about 15,000 road use, with corrugated dirt trails etc. making up the rest of the km).

I have ordered new Superpro polyurethane bushes (I was told the Koni OEM rubber bushes are available from Koni Holland only, and would take 3 months to arrive). However, I'm now wondering if they over-tightened the bolt when installing the shocks and have damaged the control arms as a result. The left and right side lower eye bushes look exactly the same.

I can't imagine they tightened the bolts when the car was off the ground, given it was a specialist suspension garage that did the work.

[tom321]

[tom321]

[stevieturbo]

It should be impossible to overtighten, as there would be a steel sleeve dictating how much anything can be compressed.

Generally bush bolts should be left loose, and tightened only when the suspension is loaded. This is so the bush is not strained more than it needs to be, and is fairly neutral when the vehicle is at rest.

If it was tightened with the wheels/body in the air, it could be strained when the vehicle is on the ground, and strained even more when the suspension is fully compressed.

[tom321]

Thanks, didn't think about the metal sleeve. Hopefully that means the control arm bracket should be fine and it's just the bushes which need replacing.

So it sounds like the most likely cause of the premature bushing failure was the mechanic tightening the bolts when the car was on the ramp.

[E-bmw]

tom321 said:

So it sounds like the most likely cause of the premature bushing failure was the mechanic tightening the bolts when the car was on the ramp.

That & maybe poor/old rubber as it shouldn't have cracked so much in that period of time.

[tom321]

I think the SP3 model replaced the SP2 model of the shocks within the last year or two, so I'm thinking the rubber shouldn't have been too old.

Going to end up costing me AUD $450 (about £260) for parts + labour + alignment to fix it.

Superpro control arms are $1000 fitted if they need replacing as well.

[stevieturbo]

tom321 said:

Thanks, didn't think about the metal sleeve. Hopefully that means the control arm bracket should be fine and it's just the bushes which need replacing.

So it sounds like the most likely cause of the premature bushing failure was the mechanic tightening the bolts when the car was on the ramp.

it is one possibility, no doubt there are others.