Tire Wear and Lower Control Arms (bushings)

I am posting to inform everyone of my experiences with my car over time. I have an 05 Aveo SVM.


Mileage
35-40K Blew out right front shock....figured that was what the noises were. kept driving.
Tire wear was normal and looked good.

50-55K second set of tires, tires wearing good.

105K- third set of tires, second set looked horrible, blown shocks everywhere, bushings all needed replacement, swaybar endlinks needed to be replaced, shock mounts done, etc.

Replaced sway bar end links, lower control arms brand new (everything), new shocks, new shock mounts all around, new rear bushings, alignment.

The new front lower control arms I purchased had rubber bushings in them. I am a tire wear nazi and always look at tire wear. I noticed that at 120K the inside of my tires were getting worn, and were wearing quickly. I rotated tires and my passenger side tire was eating the very inside .5-1" of the tire pretty quickly. probably blow the tire in 5-8K miles. I jacked the car up and I could move the wheel a damn good amount and visually see the bushings in the lower control arm were shot.

I would say I got 10-15K miles out of the bushings. complete and udder garbage. I think my lower control arms were made by Dorman or Moog or something?

Anyway, since that is stupid, I want to warn everyone out there that the rubber bushings solution is not a solution. I suggest buying some poly bushings as they will last much longer than these, and you will only suffer once with the install of them if you are faced with a bushing problem.

Whiteline bushings are the ones I went with and you have to push out the old ones. I didn't see any new poly bushings solutions that come installed in the lower control arms. I just installed these and the wheel is solid, they also look like they will last a long time. There is no movement at all to which I am used to seeing, the new rubber bushings had some movement when new, enough to make me question if they are even good when new. I am hoping this fixes my tire wear issues.

Thanks for posting that info, lOOkatme. Will definitely come in handy.

I'm curious about the quality of roads in your area. I recently changed the (original) LCAs on my '05 at 140K, but none of the bushings or ball joints were actually shot. I basically did the job on mine just to make sure I could do the LCAs on my daughter's '06 in a limited amount of time and far from where I live. The roads (one in particular) in her region are much worse than in mine, and the rear LCA bushings on her '06 were badly worn. But it sounds like the factory bushings in your '05 wore out even faster than hers did, so I'm wondering just how bad your roads are (or if maybe you go off-roading).

I live in Colorado Springs and we had a lot of rain earlier this year. The rain and mountains have a lot of run off and erode the roads badly. so the roads in terms of potholes and bumps are very bad in certain spots. They aren't completely horrid as lots of them are getting fixed. The car orgionally came from MN and the roads there are better than here. The roads in CA are also better. Another thing CO has that MN does not are huge and steep inclines and declines going into and out of places. this could also stress the joints a bunch, as you want to angle going up and down them.

The replacement bushings only lasting 15K miles is bad, I didn't expect them to last only that length of time. I did find it weird just how much play the new bushings had......which made me doubt them from the get go. With the difficulty of removing the lower control arms and pushings all the bushings out, I figured to get some nice poly bushings. The bushings do transmit more road noise and bumps, they also make the turn in and handling better, but they are there mainly for longevity and keeping the toe in the right spec.

I hope this helps others as I know the aveo is known for poor tire wear, which I am attributing that to poor bushings. Obviously if you have other worn components that those also will effect tire wear as well (ball joints, tie rod ends, etc).

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Originally Posted by lOOkatme

.... Another thing CO has that MN does not are huge and steep inclines and declines going into and out of places. this could also stress the joints a bunch, as you want to angle going up and down them....

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Do you know if lots of other vehicles travelling in the big CO mountains get early bushing breakdown?

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..... I did find it weird just how much play the new bushings had......

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Does this mean you were able to move the bushing with hand pressure alone? If not, can you explain what you did to determine the bushings had play when newly installed?

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Originally Posted by avguy

Do you know if lots of other vehicles travelling in the big CO mountains get early bushing breakdown?



Does this mean you were able to move the bushing with hand pressure alone? If not, can you explain what you did to determine the bushings had play when newly installed?

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It's not that mountains that stresses the joints, its the very steep inclines out of driveways, going into and out of gas stations, basically they "funnel" rain water to places and they use steep curbs and driveways to do this. If you were to take these straight on in some cars they bottom the front or rear of the car on the ground because they are so steep and inclined so sharp from the terrain. In MN we don't ever have any of this, as snow plows would have a really tough time. It's silky smooth there from that aspect.

As you angle into and out of these steep inclines I imagine its not friendly on the bushings. lots of cars do a 3 wheel balancing act when going over them with stiffer suspensions.

so typically on any car I have ever owned, you place your hand at the 3pm and 9pm position on the tire and try to move the wheel back and fourth at that position. the wheel should have zero play in the system (should also have zero play at the 12 and 6 position as well but that is checking other things). I was able to move the wheel a good amount even with new bushings, which makes me think the rubber bushings aren't adequate (atleast for the control arms I purchased). This is where your toe in and out moves when you drive the car and also all the slop in the left to right transitions. I drive my car VERY conservatively and average 36-40MPG, still have the original brakes on the car at 125K miles and still have a lot of meat on them. I am on my third set of tires. The car is NOT being driven hard at all.

Now I am not exactly a weak person, 6'2" 230lbs and lift a lot, so when I apply pressure its with a frame that size and I often times overlook how much stronger I am than others. I didn't exactly strain myself to flex the rear vertical bushing a good 1/8"+.

I also set up a well modified mazda rx7, went to poly bushings from the old rubber ones and tightened up that car a lot, handles like a dream. Poly bushings will transmit more noise and feel harshier on the road, I don't promote them on a stock car, but when the bushings new have this much play, I didn't want to mess with it anymore, so I went poly and will deal with it.

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Originally Posted by lOOkatme

... still have the original brakes on the car at 125K miles and still have a lot of meat on them ....

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Wow - quite a few differences between your Aveo and the 2 I've worked on. Interesting, and thanks for sharing what you've seen and done.