Front Control Arm Bushings Flawed - Rear Bushing
 

Intro:
I'm making this post to get feedback from the community. I cannot be the only person out there who has noticed this or had this problem.

I recently started working with a well known coilover company to test and provide feedback for their upcoming product line. Information on that will be released when the company deems fit.

The Problem:
The front control arm rear inner bushing is compromised. The control arm sits as far back towards the rear of the car as possible. This means that the bolt going through the front bushing is pointed toward the rear of the car and outward, instead of straight down like it should be. I unfortunately did not take pictures of this the last time the car was on the lift, but I will Friday.

How can you tell?
The front wheels sit further back in the wheel well instead of being right in the center of the well. It's visibly noticeable on my car, especially since the car was lowered and I'm still on stock wheels. After the alignment, the car measured 4.5/4.6* caster. Stock is 5.5/5.6. If you are able to get up under the car, the bushing looks like you roasted a marshmallow on a stick, and then pulled it off the stick. The same "gooey" looking center is what the center of the bushing looks like.

Misc
My car has 17k miles on it and one track day. There is absolutely zero reason for the bushing to be compromised like it is. I will have a picture as soon as I can and post it up in this thread.

Bumping this up...

So did the bushing melt? How low did you drop the car?

The bushing is compromised, not melted. The car is only 1" lower than stock. The bushings failed before the coilovers were out on. It was simply more noticeable once the car was lower.

any noise related to the bushing being failed? i have a clunking noise coming from the suspension (not sure where) whenever i hit even a small bump, it's either a blown strut or a bushing....

innnnnnteradasting... post updates plz

No noise that I have noticed related to the bushing. But again I have coilovers and track pads on the car.

Curious on the pics?

Going to be working on some maintenance next month, would check mine. Stock but have 20k miles.

Show me a picture to be sure, but....if the bolt going through the front bushing is pointed back, it is bent. The bolt does not flex or move, it is threaded into the unibody. It is definitely not a bushing problem. If the mounting bolt is pointed back, something happened that bent it, it is not a flimsy part.

If it's the front bushings your talking about (your post mentions both, a bit confusing) then you can easily take a picture off lift with the wheels turned
I checked my bushing following this and they look like new. The rear are harder to inspect but I got no symptoms of shot bushings.