How do you check if your control arm bushings are bad?

Sam Solo

TJ Enthusiast
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Hey all,
Something is rattling around when I go over bumps and I suspect its my stock control arms on my 110,000 mile wrangler. Everything else has been replaced except for control arms and springs. I would think that there would be plenty of videos on how the do this for 4x4's but I'm not having any luck. So how do you guys check to make sure that it is indeed the control arm bushings?
 
Visually inspect it. Or grab the control arms and attempt to shake it side to side for play.

With that much mileage it is best to replace them. MOOG has factory clevite replacements.
 
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Get someone in it , Roll it backward or forward and hit the brake ..you'll see the arms move in the mounts if the bushings are shot .
 
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In my limited experience control arms don't rattle. They also can't be visually inspected or twisted to see if they are bad. After over 10 years they are just plain shot. My old bushings didn't really look or test bad but they were really loose. I know it's not much help but I haven't found that you can inspect control arm bushings and determine if they are 1 year or 15 years old.
 
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Find a good 4x4 shop, they can provide a front end inspection (~45.00). With that age I bet other stuff has tapped out too.

But the Moog bushing arms are pretty cheap.
 
I’m not too positive that the noise you are experiencing is coming from control arm bushings. I’d be looking for issues with the exhaust system, heat shielding and hangers. Also check sway bar end links. Maybe debris on top of the skid plate. Just some possible options.
 
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I failed to mention that I too don’t believe it’s the control arms rattling. Last I had any underbody rattle it was exhaust related. Control arms, stabilizer links and sometimes shocks tend to clunk.

If you’ve got rock sliders or some type of step, I’d hop up and down on them (unless you’re over 300lbs) and see if maybe someone can lay low and see if they hear anything underneath. Thats actually how I found that I had a couple of dangling exhaust hangers that were untethered.


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Holy cow gentlemen!! Thanks for the advice!! First, let me say that I’m a dork. It was the sway bar end links, both of them. Embarrassing.. I think they loosened up when I disconnected for the first about a month ago. Totally loose. I laid underneath and pushed up on the bumper and they were just rattling away. I retorqued them and it’s a lot quieter.
As far as grabbing them to see if there loose; they don’t move at all. That’s why I thought I must be doing something wrong. But there seems to be a consensus for replacing them due to age. Kind of like airplane parts that time out?
For whatever it’s worth, here’s what the frame to control arm on the right side looks like. I’ve own the vehicle sense 36,000 miles so I assume there original.

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My last jeep was a 2002 and I did 230000 miles on the factory control arms. The 2005 I have now I saw some cracks in the rubber. I thought they where dry rotted but when I pulled them out to replace them, they actually didn’t look that bad. I did that a month ago at around 90,000 miles. The main reason people replace control arms here is for some extra droop and articulation. Also having adjustable uppers helps to adjust pinion angles. That’s the main reason why aftermarket control arms would be needed.
 
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