Energy Suspension Upper Control Arm bushings shot after 50k miles

[JohnOfTheJungle]

Howdy all - been a while since I posted here but wanted to update on my Energy Suspension upper control arm bushings.

I’ve had a shimmy at all speeds for as long as I can remember.

When I first got the truck with 160k miles I did all front bushings. Used Whiteline for LCA and Energy Suspension for UCA.

Chasing down the shimmy I thought it was just my mud terrains being out of balance, did balancing beads and that did nothing.

More recently I noticed the shimmy became a bit of a wandering feel.

I did an inspection and noticed on the driver side with the wheel off I could grab the spindle and yank it with probably 1/8-1/4” of deflection.

Surprising to me, because I thought the poly bushings would last a lot longer. Yea I’ve done a bit of wheeling, but not much recently.

Anyway, yea they basically fell apart.

I replaced them with whitelines, which I think is superior, my LCA bushings still look great.

Also hot tip to get the old metal sleeve out - after I cut a few slots in it I was able to hammer it out with a 27mm harbor freight impact socket+ 12” extension.

Something like this - which was my attempt to use a ball joint press, which failed. So I took the press off and just hammered the extension instead and it popped right out

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[Blitz]

I've been waiting to do mine until I got motivation. I may go with Whiteline now. Plus my Energy Suspension bushing need to use the old sleeve that you have to grind out which I was not pleased with. Why couldn't the provide a new sleeve I don't know.

 

[JohnOfTheJungle]

I've been waiting to do mine until I got motivation. I may go with Whiteline now. Plus my Energy Suspension bushing need to use the old sleeve that you have to grind out which I was not pleased with. Why couldn't the provide a new sleeve I don't know.

That’s exactly why I went whiteline for the LCA the first time around and I would do it again. You do not want to be reusing sleeves.


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[Devbot]

Yikes! Good thing I have whitelines, those are toast
FWIW I went with UCAs from JBA which use their own special bushing and they're still doing great

 

[Zhehan]

I used to think that ES made a good product. And, maybe they did, a long time ago. All of my recent experiences with their stuff has not been good. I would avoid them in the future. Whiteline makes reliable product as far as I can tell.

 

[shadow247]

I used to think that ES made a good product. And, maybe they did, a long time ago. All of my recent experiences with their stuff has not been good. I would avoid them in the future. Whiteline makes reliable product as far as I can tell.

I agree. I used ES for my Sway Bar bushings, and they were shot in 2 years....

My Whiteline LCA bushings are still rocking. My SPC X-Axis UCA bushings have a bad one within the first year. I'm about to swap to the older style bushings, will post a separate thread about that.

 

[JohnOfTheJungle]

Well I drove it today - the new bushings did absolutely nothing for the shimmy, oh well, the search continues


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[Devbot]

Could very well be worn out ball joints or tie rods too.

 

[TheExplorer]

I did my rear control arm bushings and after about 65,000 KM half of them were worn out. I asked Energy Suspension about why they would wear out this quick as most of my driving is on the highway and the only answer I got was to make sure they are greased well.

 

[3bears]

interesting, this late summer/ fall I am planning on replacing lots of bushings. Maybe I will stick with stock

 

[JohnOfTheJungle]

Could very well be worn out ball joints or tie rods too.

Could be. I replaced uppers and lowers when I did the front suspension at 170k miles (I’m at 225k now) - all OEM for the ball joints.

The uppers felt great when I had the UCA off so it wouldn’t be them.

I’m considering just changing the LBJ’s out again - although I should get way more than 55k miles out of them (plus about 10 Offroad trips)

When I had new tires put on at 190k (30k miles on new OEM LBJ’s) the shop said they felt a little bit of play, I didn’t believe them enough to change them, but I did buy a new set with plans to do it again just for peace of mind.

I guess I might as well give it a shot.


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[shadow247]

Well I drove it today - the new bushings did absolutely nothing for the shimmy, oh well, the search continues


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Check your rear LCA. I had a bad bushing on the Rear Lower Control arm, and I was all over the road. Started a shimmy last year, and got worse and worse until I was practically changing lanes when I hit a decent bump!

 

[Zhehan]

Regarding the rear control arms and the related bushings, if you lift your 4Runner and install larger tires, you should upgrade your rear control arms and/or bushings. Same goes for the front. Get the upgraded arms, CV axles, rack and pinion bushings, etc.

The stock parts are for the stock suspension and tires.

 

[JohnOfTheJungle]

Check your rear LCA. I had a bad bushing on the Rear Lower Control arm, and I was all over the road. Started a shimmy last year, and got worse and worse until I was practically changing lanes when I hit a decent bump!

Did it have your steering wheel shaking all over the place? That’s where I feel it the most


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[shadow247]

Did it have your steering wheel shaking all over the place? That’s where I feel it the most


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Yeah it kind of did. I thought something was wrong in the front end, i replaced the tie rods and had the alignment done with no change. I started to look at the rear, and one of them had some slight movement, so I swapped it real quick with a good used arm. Instantly fixed it. Every little bump was causing the rear end to shift, which caused the front end to veer, which caused the steering wheel to move....

 

[JohnOfTheJungle]

I checked the LBJ with a crowbar and they were tight.

My tires were 255/85 r16 Maxxis Bighorn MT - they never did get balanced well. Was at 35k on them so decided to just go for new tires to see if that would fix it.

Switched over to 285/75 r16 Mickey Thompson Baja Boss AT and they balanced super easy. It’s an immediate night and day difference. I used to get the most intense steering wheel shake, felt like something was going to fly off the front suspension.

Now it’s smooth as silk. The tires of course are quieter and smoother too. I love it.


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