Hey guys, my front end bushings are shot in my 07 LS. I know right this is UNHEARD OF!!! OMG.

Anyways, its more of a job than Id like to do especially this time of year, i dont have tools/time.

My mechanic said it might cost less with labor to just buy new control arms that already have the bushings loaded because the old ones could be a pain in the ass and just take twice the time to install.

So prothane bushings are about $60, and control arms are about $300 for the pair, my question.... With labor included which will cost less? My mechanic cant be sure because he doesnt know how hard they will be to get out unless he tries. I obviously want the cheapest and I dont see any need to really replace the control arms because its only the bushings that are bad the ball joints are good.

 

I'd say no more than 30 minutes to r&r bushings in one front control arm. Sometimes they can be difficult to remove, and you have to use a torch to melt them out, but I have not heard of that on a cobalt. Installation of the new bushings is cake once you have the old ones out. If just replacing the bushings in the arms costs more than an hour labor, I would take it someplace else because they are indeed retarded. I've heard that the rear lower bushings many aftermarket vendors are producing end up failing very easily. I would use stock bushings for those. you could use spherical bushings, but they are like 300 a pair.

 

I just typed in prothane Cobalt bushings on ebay and found a set of red ones that have a "limited warrenty" for $50, i sent the seller a question regarding the entent of the warrenty and am waiting to hear back now.

EDIT: Check this out:

Dear bob_svt,

Prothane will replace the bushings if they fail for as long as you own the vehicle.


Thanks

Brad Vlastuin, Owner/Customer Support
Kyle Olsen, Sales/Customer Support
Jodi Clark, Returns/Customer Support
Rafael Jaramillo, Spanish Sales/Customer Support
Milt Burns, Sales Manager/Customer Support

Never Enough Auto Accessories
www.neverenoughauto.com
Phone: 616-636-8856 (9am-6pmEST)
Toll Free: 877-609-6727
Spanish: 231-674-4474

 

I actually just delt with this problem. I don't have a press to put the new bushings in so I would have had to take them to the shop and they wanted to charge too much. So I just went to rockauto.com and ordered new control arms that come with the bushings put in and new ball joints and it was like $150 shipped so not too bad. If you have access to a press then jsut do them yourself

 

prothane wont work the joint has to go in and out as it goes up and down, and the prothane horror stories are well known.
spherical cabs are 199 shipped today not 300. LS has steel arms iirc so FE5 replacement spherical cabs wont fit.
rockauto arms at 150 shipped is a heck of a good deal
ls has steel arms and the malibu replacement control arm bushing is cheap.

if it was me, I would go with the rock auto deal and replace the arms... or buy FE5 from CED. good luck

 

Yea it was a crazy deal, I couldn't pass it up! Also if you wanted to try you could go on Amazon and find them. They usually go for about $65 an arm and you can usually find them being shipped from the same place. Good luck man!

 

RockAuto Parts Catalog

There you go man $68 a piece

 

now that says sport suspension, I currently have factory FE1 Suspension and I SHOULD be doing FE5 struts with megan springs, but im not sure if im going to go through with it, i want to but then my girl and my parents give me crap about it saying that I shouldnt be spending money on a "crappy" car and I should buy more stuff for the kids.

Anyways, would those work with my factory FE1 suspension for now? im also keeping in mind I need endlinks so that will determine whether i need FE1/FE5 links, and please dont hate on me, ive tried searching and coulndt find the exact answers sorry im a noob.

 

I just replaced mine last weekend with the prothane ones. It took me some time to remove the old ones. I drilled the rubber out, and cut the metal sleeve. Pressing the prothane bushings in was the hardest part for me. I used a piece of wood and 4 C-clamps to press the new one in.

 

If you want the FE1 control arms, they are right nder it at $86 a piece. Still a pretty damn good deal. Better to have new then just replacing the old bushings which will still cost you about the same price

 

Whats the difference between the Sport lca and the FE3 lca on rockauto.com? They look very much the same