How To: Lowercontrol Arm Rear Bushing (Whiteline KCA334)

 

OEM bushings are notorious for ripping easily, usually last around 40k miles. I don't know why Subaru decided to switch to horizontal bushings, the arm needs movement to avoid binding otherwise the bushing rips. 04 FXT/Impreza's have a vertical bushing, which allows the arm to move a little more freely without ripping the bushing.

 

http://legacygt.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=253935&stc=1&d=1502334150

 

I was torn between AVO bushing and the Whiteline one, I found the Whiteline one cheaper, plus on the fly adjustable caster is really cool actually.

Part number: Whiteline KCA334

http://legacygt.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=253934&stc=1&d=1502334150

 

Unbolt Front bushing

http://legacygt.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=253936&stc=1&d=1502334150

 

Unbolt the anti-swaybar end links

http://legacygt.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=253937&stc=1&d=1502334150

 

Unbolt rear

http://legacygt.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=253938&stc=1&d=1502334150

 

Used a prybar to pull it off

http://legacygt.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=253939&stc=1&d=1502334150

 

Getting the control arm off the lower ball joint is a pain. I had to resort to the ball joint puller, which pretty much always damages the ball joint boot. Which means a new ball joint is needed, or at least a boot.

http://legacygt.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=253940&stc=1&d=1502334150

http://legacygt.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=253941&stc=1&d=1502334150

 

Control arm finally off

http://legacygt.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=253942&stc=1&d=1502334150

 

Fun part was getting the stock bushing off

http://legacygt.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=253943&stc=1&d=1502334150

http://legacygt.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=253944&stc=1&d=1502334209

 

Then press the new one in

http://legacygt.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=253945&stc=1&d=1502334209

 

Put it all together and set the bushing to add caster by making the holes point to the inside of the car. I also marked where the caster setting should be so I can see where to adjust it while on the car.

http://legacygt.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=253946&stc=1&d=1502334209

 

Passenger side installed and adjusted for maximum caster. To gain caster, you want the back of the arm to stick out towards the outside of the car. For that to happen with this arm design, you have to increase the distance between the mount stud and the center point of the arm. Thus you need to rotate the cam, so that the thinner part of the cam faces towards the center of the car.

http://legacygt.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=253952&stc=1&d=1502334209

 

Rear stud goes directly into the body of the car, Subaru doesn't use a subframe like Nissan does, which means the road noise/vibrations go directly into the body. Will see how much NVH is transmitted with these solid bushings.

http://legacygt.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=253953&stc=1&d=1502334711

 

Ready to be bolted back up, which takes a few tries...

http://legacygt.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=253947&stc=1&d=1502334209

 

The rear bushing will deform a bit since the suspension is at full droop.

http://legacygt.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=253948&stc=1&d=1502334209

 

All suspension bushings, just like anti-swaybars, should be tightened with full weight on them, this avoids bushing preload. Drive on ramps to the rescue, snuck them under the wheels and lowered the jackstands on them.

http://legacygt.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=253949&stc=1&d=1502334209

 

Now the rearward bushing is looking better

http://legacygt.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=253950&stc=1&d=1502334209

 

Torque everything down and your done. Front nut should be torqued to 81.1ft-lbs, the rear two bolts should be torqued to 110.6ft-lbs. If your on a Legacy, make sure to install the washer (my kit didn't have it, but Whiteline provided it free of charge).

http://legacygt.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=253951&stc=1&d=1502334209

 

Driving Impressions

These bushings rock! The car handles great after the bushing install, even though I installed them to remove caster instead of add by accident! Front end has a ton more traction now, also feels like turning radius at speed has been greatly reduced too (not that this car needed it with an awesome 35 foot turning circle!).

 

NVH barely increased, not all that noticeable, but I am on 100k mile stock suspension so other creeks could be masking it.

Thanks so much! I just got the exact same part(s) from APZ and was about to do the same install.

 

Nice set of write-ups you put up. Much appreciated.

I just looked at this thread again and noticed you didnt use the washer that WhiteLine says to use with the Legacy models.

 

Link to install guide (bold section after #6) : http://www.whiteline.com.au/docs/install_guides/Z386A.pdf

I just looked at this thread again and noticed you didnt use the washer that WhiteLine says to use with the Legacy models.

 

Link to install guide (bold section after #6) : http://www.whiteline.com.au/docs/install_guides/Z386A.pdf

 

I don't think mine came with washers, I'll check though, I also don't think I really needed it, it fit pretty snugly as is .

On the ball joint, why didn't you just remove the bolt holding the top section in. It slides out a lot easier from the top without damaging the ball joint.

On the ball joint, why didn't you just remove the bolt holding the top section in. It slides out a lot easier from the top without damaging the ball joint.

 

Because when your car spends any time on salty roads it becomes impossible to do.

 

The bolt breaks, then you have to dig it out, drill it out, not fun

http://legacygt.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=258301&stc=1&d=1510886929

http://legacygt.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=258300&stc=1&d=1510886929

So true. Luckly I live in CA and we get very little to no rust on our cars. Makes life so much easier when taking parts off.

Looks like my kit is missing the washer, I'm contacting Whiteline to get them. They seemed to have did a rolling change as mentioned in this thread.

 

With washer it look like this:

http://i1265.photobucket.com/albums/jj512/TougeTuning/IMG_3880.jpg

I know this is old, but thanks for posting this. What size socket did you use to press out and press in the new ones?

I don't quite remember which size it was for pressing out, pressing in was much easier since they are flush with the arms, which means just using a big flat surface pushed it in no problem to a perfect level.

 

Bushings that bulge up are much harder to deal with usually.

No worries thanks for the reply though. Ended up changing the entire control arm to aluminums that had new bearings and ball joints in them brand new

Here's a dynamic Camber Graph and here is what +0.50* of caster does to negative camber gain as you turn the wheel. This is another reason why these bushings helped the car handle much better.

 

http://legacygt.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=258302&stc=1&d=1510887010